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Optimize Your Social Platforms for Local SEO

There has typically been a large focus on SEO best practices for a company’s website including content, website architecture, meta data and linking. These sections of SEO are critical for a website’s search ranking, but as social media rises in importance, the more natural, less manufactured aspects – such as social identity, engagement, and interaction – have become increasingly important standards for SEO efforts.

When increasing social SEO efforts, many business owners can be unsure of where to start. Finding that starting point can become even more challenging when you’re targeting a local audience. Below you will find a few starting points for increasing local social SEO efforts as well as social engagement.

1. Use Local Keywords as Hashtags in Posts
Start by selecting 10 keywords that represent the local audience you would like to target. For example – are you targeting farmers in New England or Rhode Island Truckers? Turn these keywords into hashtags for your post and rotate using these keywords regularly. Not only will these keywords target your specific audience, they will also target the location of your audience.

2. Encourage Sharing of Posts
When followers share your posts, new audiences do as well which, in turn, gives you a boost in SEO. This boost in SEO is due to the fact that Google, and other SERPs, view post sharing as a third-party vote that your content is relevant and authoritative.

To increase sharing of posts, post relevant and informative stories that followers will want to share. These posts can include company or local news stories, industry trends, giveaways and offers or fun and creative blog posts.

3. Partner with Local Companies and Share Each Other’s Posts
Do you have local company connections within your network? These connections can be utilized as a local social engagement partner. A local social engagement partner is a connection that will like and share your posts with whom you will return the favor on their social platforms. Reach out to a few of your connections and set up a schedule of mutual post sharing. This will help increase your local followers on social platforms as well as increase your SEO efforts with the increased amount of third-party shares.

4. Update the “About” Section of your Profile to Include Local Keywords
Reinforce your local reputation by including your company’s location and website URL in the “About” section of your social media profiles. By doing this you will increase the use of local keywords across your social media platforms and offer a direct way for your followers to visit your website. Both of these action items will increase your SEO efforts for your social media platforms and increase visitors to your website – which is always a good thing!

Once you have implemented these best practices into your SEO social efforts, keep track of your progress. See which methods worked best for increasing your social SEO and focus your efforts on those methods. If you follow these best practices you should experience a higher social search ranking, an increase of engaged followers, and an overall more effective social platform strategy.