Unlocking the Power of Social Media SEO: My Complete Guide

Social media SEO is the process of optimizing your social media content to help users better find and engage with your posts and profile.

To understand social media SEO, you need to understand traditional SEO, which focuses on optimizing your website content so that it appears in search engine search results.

Until recently, there has been an obvious distinction between how people use browsers and social media sites. However, platforms like YouTube and TikTok are being used for search and discovery more and more often. With 24% of Americans using social media as their primary method of finding information online, the lines between the two are blurring.

In response, social search algorithms are evolving, those aiming to grow on social media have begun to use traditional SEO tactics to do so.

Social media SEO works in two ways:

1. Boosting the visibility of your social media content in traditional search engine results pages (SERPs):

2. Helping your content show in the results of the social media platform’s native search engine:

For the best chance of seeing results from your social media SEO, you need to make sure your profiles are optimized.

First, choose relevant usernames and display names for your accounts. This ensures that users will be able to identify your account straight away, whether they’re searching specifically for your brand or discovering your content through relevant search results. Your best bet is to go for your brand name. If it’s not available as a username, don’t worry – as long as you add it as your display name it’ll still appear in searches.

You should then optimize your social media profiles for SEO in the same way you would for your website, which will give them the best chance of showing up in SERPs.

This means undertaking keyword research for your social media content. You’ll need to research each of your chosen platforms independently since trends, query types, and user behavior will vary between them.

Once you know what users are searching for on your chosen platform, you can optimize your content for these key search terms by including them in your bio, captions, and hashtags. All of these elements of your profile will help you to appear in social media search results for your target search terms, getting your content in front of relevant and engaged users.

Give or take some variations, basic social media profile optimizations are similar across the board. However, the best practices for optimizing your social media content for SEO are more platform-specific.

So how can you optimize your content for your target search terms? Below, I’ve broken down each platform and listed some top tips!

Instagram SEO Tips

• Include your target keywords in your posts’ captions and hashtags
• Add subtitles to videos and Reels to ensure your target keywords are included and appear on-screen
• Edit the alt text for each of your images/posts to accurately describe the visual content. Don’t force your keywords unless it feels natural to do so
• Tag your location to target local searchers

TikTok SEO Tips

• Use TikTok’s Creative Center to finetune your keywords and hashtags for the platform
• Include your target keywords in the video description to help boost your chances of appearing in TikTok search results
• “Double dip” your keyword by including it in the audio of the video and the caption – when you include it in the audio, it’ll automatically appear in the TikTok-generated captions too!
• Add relevant keywords to your profile and bio to help boost the SEO success of your overall TikTok profile

Facebook SEO Tips

• Use your target keyword across your Facebook profile, including in your main title, description, and URL
• Add your business address to your profile to boost your chances of appearing in local searches
• Include alt text for all of your images to help Facebook understand what your content is about and present it to relevant users
• Feature your target keywords in your posts and image captions

X SEO Tips

• Include your main target keyword in your X (formerly Twitter) bio to help your profile appear in X search results
• Add alt text to your images – not only does this make them more accessible, but it’ll help tell X what your content is about so it can include your posts in related search results
• Include your keywords naturally in as many of your posts and hashtags as possible, but it’s important you don’t overdo it, or your posts will appear spammy

Pinterest SEO Tips

• Create Pinterest boards based on your target keywords and name them accordingly
• For each pin, write an informative, engaging description that includes your target keywords
• Use the titles of your pins to optimize for long-tail keywords such as “things to pack when going camping” as opposed to “camping essentials.” This will help you show up in more searches and encourage users to click through to your website
• Feature high-quality images so that you don’t miss out on searchers who are using the Pinterest Lens feature

LinkedIn SEO tips

• Use your most relevant keyword in the tagline and URL of your page
• Create long-form content directly on LinkedIn that’s optimized to include your target keywords – and feature these keywords in the main body text, subheadings, and image captions
• That said, LinkedIn has one of the best filtering tools for spotting spam content, so if you stuff your content and posts with too many keywords, you’ll set off alarm bells!

An engaged social media community equals high social signals, which are the engagement metrics that your posts generate – think likes, comments, shares, and followers. Social signals are powerful for SEO because search engines and social media platforms will look at the number of social signals your content is generating to determine how useful it is to users.

Plus, the more users comment on your posts, the more opportunity there is for you to feature your target keywords in your replies (not forgetting the fact that users may unknowingly include them in their comments).

Most social media platforms are looking for the best content to show in their search results, so if your posts have a high number of likes and comments, it suggests that your content is adding value and is what users are looking for. This boosts your chances of appearing in search results.

So how can you build an engaged following to improve your SEO on social media?

• Ask your audience questions to encourage interactions and start conversations in your comments
• Respond to all comments and messages promptly – this helps to build a relationship with your audience, and you can include your target keywords in your reply too!
• Encourage the creation of user-generated content and reviews (reviews in particular are a strong sign to Google of the quality of your business)

Encourage Social Sharing

Social sharing is a great way to build up your backlinks (links pointing towards your pages from others) and encourage engagement – two things that are a surefire way to increase your visibility.

While it isn’t entirely within your control whether people share your content on social media, there are some actions you can take to encourage it:

• Create unique content that users will want to share, such as eye-catching infographics and unique research
• Share your content between your own platforms to attract new audiences and social reposts
• Add social media sharing buttons to your website to make it as easy as possible for users to share your content
• Run giveaways where users have to share your posts to their stories and tag friends in the comments to enter the contest

Unsurprisingly, working with influencers can help to boost your sales – research shows that 49% of consumers make at least one purchase per month based on an influencer recommendation.

While collaborating with influencers isn’t a direct SEO strategy, it’ll help to build brand awareness, establish credibility within your niche, and grow authoritative backlinks for your business page – all of which will greatly benefit your SEO strategy.

You can use influencers to drive your sales in multiple ways, including:

• Starting an affiliate program
• Sending them free products in exchange for reviews
• Briefing scripted ads
• Getting product placement in their social media content
• Collaborating on giveaways

You’ll be able to integrate SEO into many of the social media platforms above. However, it’s good to focus on one to three accounts so you can give it your all.

So, which platform(s) should you choose?

Since each has its unique capabilities, it’s impossible to give a one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, you should prioritize the social media platforms that your target audience are most active and engaged on.

This helps at two levels:

1. Search engines: Searchers will be more likely to click through to sites they trust and are familiar with.
2. Native search: Your content will be available on the platforms your target audience use to conduct their online research.

However, you might have noticed that some social media sites appear a lot more frequently in SERPs than others.

YouTube videos, for instance, are present in over 40% of SERPs in the US. A large reason for this is that YouTube is owned by Google, but non Google-owned platforms are included in SERPs because they have a high domain authority, which means that search engines trust them.

Other platforms commonly seen in SERPs include:

• X
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Reddit

Creating an omnichannel social presence is a brilliant way to grow your brand online. Unfortunately, you’re not the only one who got the memo – a huge 96% of small businesses use social media. However, the social media SEO tactics I’ve shared will help you go the extra mile to stand out.

All that’s left to do now is get started! Optimize your social media profiles and content, engage with your community, and create high-quality content for your audience to enjoy and share.

Once you’ve done that, why not check out some more of our best SEO guides, including the ultimate SEO checklist and the only SEO glossary you’ll ever need?