Social SEO is Officially a Thing.
This is not a drill… but social SEO is officially a thing people! 📢
Sure, we’ve all heard about search engine optimisation (SEO), but what about social SEO? You know, SEO for social media? 🤷♀️ Yip, that’s right; you can now optimise your social media with the help of social SEO. It’s all quite new, it's quite exciting and it’s a huge win in our eyes! Let’s explore the topic of social SEO! 👇🏼
What is social media SEO?
Simply put, social media SEO combines practising social media and SEO strategies to improve your position in search, and beyond. (Beable, 2022). The ultimate goal with social search engine optimisation is to increase visitors to your website and your sales and conversions; much like the traditional SEO we all know and love.
TikTok & Instagram have increased the length of alt text & descriptions to enhance social SEO.
Recently, TikTok announced that they’ve increased the maximum length of video descriptions from 300 characters to 2,200! (source) Lengthening these character counts means businesses can now capitalise on keyword volumes. This enhancement is huge and means that brands are now much more discoverable within social search. 🔍
This shows us that TikTok is aiming to establish itself as an official search engine in the coming years. Crazy right? Sure, TikTok isn’t as traditional of a search engine as Google...but it certainly has the power to answer users' questions, and influence people and their purchasing decisions, right? We see you TikTok 👀
It's not only TikTok, Instagram has also increased its character count for lengthier descriptions too.
Data shows that users are researching products across social platforms
Google isn’t the only go-to anymore! People are turning to social platforms to research brands, products, and places and even to gain worldly advice. “When looking for a place for lunch, people don’t go to Google Maps or Search - they go to TikTok or Instagram.” Says Google's very own Prabhakar Raghavan. (source)
We’re immersed in TikTok videos, and Instagram stories & reels to make decisions about brands, products and services, based on others' real-life experiences. This is because social users trust recommendations made by influencers. People aren’t turning to celebrities anymore, and are far more likely to turn to an influencer or micro-influencer who is more like them, someone who leads a semi-normal life, someone that they feel like they can trust.
If you’re struggling to rank on Google, you definitely can rely on Socials as backup!
Ranking on Google isn’t always easy. It requires time, effort and a mapped-out strategy, we’re not all SEO extraordinaires out there. 🤷♀️ If you’re active on socials already, why not test out this new SEO feature? Make a conscious effort to use alt text functionality on creative assets from now on. We guarantee that you’ll see an improvement in your growth and conversions in time.
How to polish your social SEO skills 👇🏼
Test out the new alt text feature
Continue to use it if it’s working for you
Always split test
Enhance your general keyword research with the help of tools like Semrush or Google's Keyword Planner
Spend time on socials to better understand key trends and conversations
Have fun with your socials!
Want to know more? Reach out to our team to chat about how we can help you rank higher on the search engines with the help of a Search Engine Optimisation Campaign.
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All information has been Sourced from Hootsuite’s Ian Beable.