Social media SEO is intimidating, y’all.

If you are intimidated by SEO, Search Engine Optimization, then run away in fear and trembling.

If you are intimidated by social media, like yours truly here, then start screaming now.

Okay, let’s give everyone a second to clear the room.

Are they gone? This is your last chance to run.

Sweet, let’s do this.

What the Hello Kitty is Social Media SEO?

SEO is used to get your web content closer to the top of search engines, like Google, so that you can increase your traffic. You accomplish this by using a ton of different methods, but the one that most people know and understand is to use keywords.

Keywords are the phrases people will type into that Google search bar to come up with an answer to whatever they are looking for. Using those keywords strategically on the page you are ranking bumps up your result higher on the list.

Social media SEO is this same process, but for social media.

But social media is a little different than web pages.

And here’s why:

• They are time sensitive and can disappear from public view after a certain period of time has buried them with other posts
• Popular social media like Instagram and TikTok don’t value captions as much
• Social posts are rarely looked at more than once
• Hashtags, ya know, exist

When you are trying to make your social media posts make a statement and make it to Google, as some do every now and again, then these are some of the things you need to be aware of.

1. Remember that you are posting for humans, not algorithms

I am going to die on this hill over and over again and I will not apologize.

The first rule of social media SEO is to always remember that you are posting for people first. 

Create your copy so that it reads like a human wrote it and in a way that a human understands it.

Even on social media, businesses tend to write in such a way that you can tell they are pushing for something. You aren’t even sure what, but it just feels off. Take a scroll on Instagram and see what I mean.

Pretty rough, huh?

But what do you like about the good ones? My guess is that it sounded more natural and you didn’t have to spend a drop of mental energy to decipher their intent.

It’s powerful, it’s simple.

Write to humans, for humans.

2. Use only very specific keywords and don’t spam them

Just like with web copy, you can choose a keyword to focus on, but you have to use it differently for social media.

You don’t want to use the keyword over and over and over in a short 280 character tweet, right?

So your keyword strategy is going to be less about individual posts getting ranked, but being intentional about keywords across your social channels.

If you are focusing on a keyword, then use it often across multiple posts – go wild and even use it across various platforms, too.

The more specific the keyword, the shorter and simpler it is, the better. It is going to be way easier to use it well and use it often that way.

3. Use your copy space wisely

The interesting thing about social media SEO is that you have variances in the amount of space you have for copy. 

A 280 character tweet and a 3000 character LinkedIn post are going to be wildly different in both content and keyword usage.

Just because you have the space to cram that keyword in more, doesn’t mean you have to.

Refer to #1 here and make sure it fits the goal of the content being written and sounds like it was written by humans and for humans. If you only need 100 characters to accomplish that goal, do it. 2562 characters needed? Then do that instead.

While we are at it, it is worthwhile to mention that people like bite-size captions based on what they are viewing. 

On Instagram, for example, you are more likely to get people to read a whole caption than you are on TikTok. 

4. Don’t let the data scare you

Social media algorithms are tricky things. They are constantly changing and search engines like Google are constantly changing how they rank social media, too.

You may have social posts that do incredibly well and others that kind of fall off. It’s fine. Social media SEO is going to be a long-content strategy anyway – you are going to need plenty of content for the SEO powers to kick in.

So don’t get freaked out by a handful of poorly received posts. Instead, learn what you can and try to improve for the next time around.

5. Hashtags, Use ‘Em

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, I don’t care.

They are there and you need to use them.

Make your keyword a hashtag, of course. That’s the biggest thing.

But use good hashtag research to make sure you are hitting the right targets surrounding your social media SEO strategy.

Social Media SEO Can Be the Spice of Life, If You Let It

Wrapping up, let me finish with this…

…Social media SEO can actually be a lot of fun to put into practice. It gives you a sense of purpose and continuity across your social content.

But if you are posting the exact same type of content constantly, then people are going to naturally tune out and the algorithms will notice.

By keeping things fresh you are forcing yourself to learn how to teach and say things in new ways, you are forcing yourself to talk about your theme more and more, and you are creating a space where you can get creative with how you create and share content about your topic or theme.

Really, it’s up to you to make the most of it and try to enjoy it as much as you can.

So post a couple stories, then try some videos, and how about some Reels or TikTok videos? It will be more fun when you experiment with it all anyway, right!?

Alright, go do the thing, you social media SEO master in disguise!

Ready to Tackle the Social Media Beast???

If you like what you see, then hit me up and maybe I can draft some sweet, sweet copy for you. Otherwise, I would love for you to join my group for those wanting to take a more human-centered approach to digital marketing (interacting online). That still not your thing? Okay, fine. Then, do you like emails? I send those, too. You know the drill from here!