August 25th, 2024
I was working with a sole proprietor who had recently started up a business. I was helping him with his digital footprint; setting up his webpage and helping hiem with social media. In this process, I always explain the importance of social engagement in the SEO process. I try to state the problem as clearly as possible: How will you attain business leads if no one will find you?
When I work with new customers, I typically build a profile on them. The profile acts as a digital footprint, letting me how much of a gap I have to fill in their web presence. To my surprise, this client had an old LinkedIn account and an old Facebook account. I also found some YouTube videos by his former clients that were both old and ranked extremely well. As neither of his social media accounts had been updated in years, I told him to go back and start updating new information: update his profile pic and start posting some on-topic information regarding his business.
A week had passed and I was preparing for a meeting with him. In my preparation, I googled his name and the first hit was a new Facebook account. He apparently had lost his old email address and created a new one from scratch. This account had immediately ranked so high that it went above all other content. I was actually shocked at this result as his new FB page had essentially just a cover image and a description without much else! Google SEO does tend to morph its own rules on ranking but it appears that they placed an extraordinary emphasis on the freshness of this account.
With this result, I had what many call a “teachable moment” for my client. I not only explained to him the importance of social media content in SEO rankings, but could also show him how his own changes were critical in having his content discovered. Not only had his new Facebook account made him easily discoverable, it had literally made him the first hit on the google search results.
In my experience, having a strong social media presence is critical to lead acquisition. When I work with my customers, I not only coach them on the importance of utilizing social media, but also understanding the pitfalls of ignoring them. I’ve had former clients ignore their social accounts, and watched as their business faded. An ‘autopsy’ usually reveals that the client got lazy, busy or simply refused to use a social media manager (who can usually be found for extremely reasonable fees). By neglecting their social media accounts, they miss out on all the free advertising that sharing and likes provide to their business. The neglect also impacts the SEO linkbacks to the web page that I created. I can only do so much to the page’s optimization, at some point linkbacks from other pages and social media accounts help rankings.
If you own a business and need assistance elevating your digital marketing strategy, feel free to contact me. Consultations are always free.
TechyWiz LLC
