I’ve been diving deep into the whole SEO and social media relationship lately, and I read Moz's article about it.
And it's right: social media and SEO are not two separate worlds.
But are we truly leveraging their synergy, or are we just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best?
Moz talks about how social media boosts brand awareness, which leads to more branded searches. Cool, right?
But here’s my question: Is that enough to say social media directly impacts SEO rankings? Moz says the more people search for your brand, the more Google (and other search engines) take notice.
So, should we treat social media as a long-term brand-building tool, knowing it might indirectly help SEO, rather than a direct ranking factor? Personally, I lean toward that direction.
Can we afford to ignore social signals? Probably not.
But does that mean we can fully rely on them? Not sure either.
Let’s talk about content ideation, then.
Moz mentions how social media feedback is pure gold for content creation.
But what happens when your audience gives feedback that contradicts what your keyword research says?
Do you go with what your audience is shouting about, or do you stick to the data?
As an SEO expert, I’ve learned that user intent will always win, but I also know that community insights can bring a much-needed human element to what might otherwise feel like just a bunch of search metrics.
Then, Moz talks about social profiles and SEO visibility. Sure, optimizing social profiles sounds great. But again, how much weight does Google really give to social profiles? I suppose optimizing social for SEO is just an in-social action that might reflect on SERP, but that's not direct.
I think, in the end, that collaboration between SEO and social media teams has huge potential. But is it enough to have these two teams working together in theory?
How often do SEO and social teams actually get in the room together to discuss strategy?
I’ve worked with teams where SEO and social media work in silos, and it’s not always productive. Integration is important, but can it truly be done?
The question is, are companies and agencies as well (yes, them too) ready to let go of their silos and align their strategies in a data-driven yet human way?
SEO and social media are definitely not enemies.
But the real magic happens when we treat them as complementary forces, not just separate campaigns. The question is, are we really doing enough to integrate them or just doing the bare minimum?