A year ago I would not have stressed the importance of having a Strategy that complements SEO and online marketing however this has all changed. Social media is not only a way to discover new content, it also affects how a business is searched for and found through search engines.

Something which I came across just yesterday was a recent study conducted by Searchmetrics. The results from this study were fascinating however I’m definitely not surprised. As you can see below in regards to SEO ranking, Seven out of the top 8 SEO ranking factors are social.

As you can imagine, Google+ is at the top of the SEO ranking list as Google is the worlds largest search engineso of course their social network will be influential in SEO ranking. Facebook also proving to be strong for SEO with four of it’s feature in the top 8 followed by Twitter and Pinterest.

As this study suggests, social sharing is now the number one driver for SEO ranking. Google and the likes of Bing are constantly monitoring social activity for each site and determining from this how high they should be ranked. In other words, the more social you are, the higher you will be ranked in Search.

So, how do you use Social Media to improve your SEO? Here are 3 tips to help you improve your SEO through social.

1. Be actively using Social Media

Its obvious but for social media to play a part in your SEO, you do need to posting on all of your networks every single day and you should also be engaging with your audience as much as possible.

2. Share fresh content

When using social media, search engines are not looking for you to create content that you think they will like, they want you to share content for your community. If they see you connecting and sharing relevant information, this will help you increase your SEO ranking.

3. Unique Sharing Options

The typical share buttons that every single site has on the internet is no longer helping with SEO. You need to be more inventive. Try running discounts or promotional codes through your social channels that they can receive once they have joined your community. This is a great way to show google that you are thinking about your consumers needs.

The true power of social media for SEO is huge and if you aren’t maximising your social channels, you will be missing out on free, constant traffic to your website!