While the largely unknown “social algorithm” means all social platforms give your website some SEO benefit, direct old fashioned backlinks are still the highest priority for most SEOs when it comes to Social Media Marketing.
So, Social Algorithms aside (get lots of followers, interactions and shares, that’s best practice) which platforms give you the best bang for your SEO buck?
Facebook is the grand old dame of social marketing and gives you a great chance at finding customers but not much in the way of SEO. Looking at Facebook performance in search results would certainly suggest some validity to that fabled feud between Facebook and Google. Google sees Facebook badly (on page metrics are almost non existent – Google sees the page name as both the title and H1 – that’s about all it has to offer) and all links are no follow and without anchor text.
See above. I often wonder if there’s any room for Twitter on the social landscape anymore! Again, what value Twitter offers is all about community building and click through, not SEO.
Linked In offers slightly stronger ranking metrics than Twitter and Facebook (possibly due to wordier page content and easy win name based keyword targeting) but has the disadvantage of relatively low stickiness – so click through is far lower and engagement is harder. LinkedIn is growing for now but at present does not offer followed links or anchor text.
A pretty little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Pinterest combines all the good things…well almost. Mind boggling click through rates, deep linking opportunities everywhere, followed links aplenty and even a kind of quasi anchor texting. While you can’t anchor text each individual link, your Pinterest Board name is anchored to the link, so be careful when naming those fabulously pretty boards. Be warned though, Pinterest terms and conditions are frightening. Don’t break any copyright laws or you may end up paying for Pinterest’s day in court!
Google Plus
The holy grail of Social Media SEO. Ample followed, anchor text, deep linking goodness….and right now, Google Plus is essentially a big, expensive ghost town, so each link is worth just that little bit more. Deep link to every corner of your website with anchor text links in your contributions box and your recommended links box. This kind of goodness can’t last so signed up now!
