It should be no surprise to companies that in order to build their brand, they need both social media and search engine optimization (SEO). How can one help the other?

In more ways than one, your social channels have the ability to help improve your search engine visibility. While many people are aware that social networks and SEO work together, they are still unsure about how this is accomplished.

Let’s take a look at how these two can work hand in hand.

Utilize Social Pages and Their Ranking Potential

Did you know that social media profiles are often in the top results for a brand name? This is because social networks already have high domain authority and ranking potential. Businesses should use this to their advantage. When done correctly, social media channels even have the ability to appear before the official website of a company, as you can see here.

While you should never use targeted keywords in an unnatural manner, it is good to craft engaging social media content around them on your social channels. This can help create multiple search listings for a brand.

Bonus: Did you know that it’s possible for an individual tweet to appear and rank in Google’s search results? Google searches the Web for the latest in a specific topic and, if it is your tweet, given that it is relevant and credible, it will show up first on the page. Although it is easy for your terms to appear at the top of the page, it is just as easy for it to be dropped to the bottom if more suitable information is found.

The Hunt for Backlinks

Another way to boost your brand’s SEO is by posting relevant and useful backlinks. Social channels are a great place to encourage your potential clients or customers to learn more about your company, services and overall brand by clicking on your website. Links to your content and website on social media networks help search engines, like Bing and Yahoo, recognize that your company is credible as well as what keywords to associate you with, based on your content. While Google has not officially announced that backlinks from social media are part of their search ranking algorithm, it is highly suspected that they are.

Be sure to create content that is useful, informative and necessary. Don’t drive your audience away by stuffing your social pages with unnecessary backlinks. An example of effective link building with content would be to create a Youtube video for every blog your company publishes, then embedding it into the social platform when you share the blog. This allows you to capitalize on the social channel’s Web authority while sending traffic to your site.

Grow Your Fan Base

Having a large number of followers also helps give Google the green light that you are a trusted brand. It’s true that a company with 500,000 followers on Twitter will rank higher than one with 5,000. However, Google also has the ability to detect when you have fake followers and will penalize you for that.

While it may take a bit of time to build a prominent following on social media, the key is to stay patient and consistent. Post content that relates to your brand and demonstrates your authority in the industry. Don’t forget that social channels were created for you to be social. Connect with those who engage with your posts and pages by commenting, liking and sharing what they said.

While there are still many unknown or unverifiable factors that go into determining a website’s search ranking, it is no surprise that social media plays a vital role in the process.