What relevance does Social Media have in SEO?

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Hi guys, I'm a local tradesman that is currently looking to hire an SEO consultant to help drive more traffic to our site with the view to generate more calls/leads - the consultant will be making a Wordpress site for us from scratch and the on/off-site SEO.

I have received a few quotes, however one of the consultants said that their strategy HEAVILY focuses on social media and that it was becoming an increasing integral part of any SEO strategy, however another consultant said that it wasn't 'that important';

"Shares are the only factor that would impact on SEO as all the others are internal to Facebook and Twitter and Google wouldn't be able to know. Alternatively, I have a contact that can add the shares and that tends to meet the same end. It's not a colossal factor but probably is a small one. "

Who's right?






Also I asked the consultant some other questions, what do you think of his answers/strategy? He seems like a good guy, has over 600 positive reviews on PeoplePerHour and has a 1st page SEO ranking in London for his own business.

What methods would you use to achieve our search rankings?

He said:

1.Site audit to check for 404s, duplicate copy and other technical issues errors as the site is new I’d imagine this should be minimal.
2. Keyword Research for key terms
3. Copywriting and blogging – this site needs a blog and more content to showcase the value of the products and also to add keywords
4 Marketing and link building
5 Custom reporting
6. Adjust and continue

This may tie into the previous question, but how will you build relevant links?

He said:

I build links through a variety of means – the links that tend to have the power are the editorial sort – so we use guest posting, broken link building, skyscraper link building, press releases and then some other sorts of links like profiles and quality blog commenting for diversity.

Would really love and appreciate to hear anyone kind enough to share their thoughts.

Thanks.
#media #relevance #seo #social
  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

    Who's right?
    They were both correct really, but answering different questions.

    Social media interaction itself has a negligible role in improving your keyword rankings directly. But there is still an impressive correlation between high social media interaction and improved search rankings.

    The first person was answering the question where SEO means an entire marketing strategy that promoted content and engages with an audience because that will ultimately lead to backlinks and traffic.

    The second person was answer the question where SEO is more literally optimizing your site for search engine traffic.

    Which one is the answer that's going to work for you? That's another question entirely, but I personally wouldn't try to run a site without trying to leverage social media at this point as part of my marketing strategy.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

    Hi guys, I'm a local tradesman that is currently looking to hire an SEO consultant to help drive more traffic to our site with the view to generate more calls/leads - the consultant will be making a Wordpress site for us from scratch and the on/off-site SEO.

    I have received a few quotes, however one of the consultants said that their strategy HEAVILY focuses on social media and that it was becoming an increasing integral part of any SEO strategy, however another consultant said that it wasn't 'that important';

    "Shares are the only factor that would impact on SEO as all the others are internal to Facebook and Twitter and Google wouldn't be able to know. Alternatively, I have a contact that can add the shares and that tends to meet the same end. It's not a colossal factor but probably is a small one. "

    Who's right?
    Social media does not play a direct role in rankings. Honestly, the only thing a local tradesman really needs to pay attention to social media for is branding. Nobody is searching for a plumber, dentist, contractor, etc. on Facebook.

    Also I asked the consultant some other questions, what do you think of his answers/strategy? He seems like a good guy, has over 600 positive reviews on PeoplePerHour and has a 1st page SEO ranking in London for his own business.

    What methods would you use to achieve our search rankings?

    He said:

    1.Site audit to check for 404s, duplicate copy and other technical issues errors as the site is new I'd imagine this should be minimal.
    2. Keyword Research for key terms
    3. Copywriting and blogging - this site needs a blog and more content to showcase the value of the products and also to add keywords
    4 Marketing and link building
    5 Custom reporting
    6. Adjust and continue
    Number 3 is total bullshit. No local tradesman needs a blog.


    This may tie into the previous question, but how will you build relevant links?

    He said:

    I build links through a variety of means - the links that tend to have the power are the editorial sort - so we use guest posting, broken link building, skyscraper link building, press releases and then some other sorts of links like profiles and quality blog commenting for diversity.
    Link diversity is a big myth. Link profiles and blog commenting are risky and can lead to link penalties. No real, high quality business advertises through blog commenting.

    Broken link building and skyscraper link building are catchy SEO buzzwords. They really are not the type of thing an SEO would typically do on a local SEO project.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoinprogress
    Got it, thanks so much for clearing that up. So, if I'm correct, it's more of a case how Social Media can help indirectly vs directly?

    As we are a local plumbing business, I'm not really sure we can produce relevant content (as opposed for the sake of it) to engage with our customers besides showcasing images of our before and after work?

    Given the nature of our business I'd say the second consultant is probably better for us as he said Social Media will still be a focus, just not a CORE focus as the other did.

    EDIT: MikeFriedman just seen your post, thanks for your advice. What would better alternatives be? I'm really worried about getting any penalty for some black hat tactics and then not ranking at all. It's hard to know who to trust when I don't know what goes into SEO myself.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      You are hiring someone...and they are going to us wordpress?

      No wonder they are talking about social signals.

      They are clueless.

      I would not pay one cent.

      Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

      Got it, thanks so much for clearing that up. So, if I'm correct, it's more of a case how Social Media can help indirectly vs directly?

      As we are a local plumbing business, I'm not really sure we can produce relevant content (as opposed for the sake of it) to engage with our customers besides showcasing images of our before and after work?

      Given the nature of our business I'd say the second consultant is probably better for us as he said Social Media will still be a focus, just not a CORE focus as the other did.
      Nobody is going to Facebook to find a plumber when their pipes break or the toilet stops working. They are going to Google. They might go to Facebook to ask their friends if they can recommend anyone, but there is little you can do to manage that.

      What someone might do once they find your website and assuming it is not an emergency situation is visit your Facebook page to decide if they want to work with you. So posting before and after pictures is great. Some basic discussions on there or tutorial videos on something simple like unclogging a sink or how to determine if you can fix different issues yourself versus knowing when it is time to call a plumber. That kind of stuff is great both for your site and Facebook/Youtube.

      It's really about branding for yourself when you are talking about a local business.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

      EDIT: MikeFriedman just seen your post, thanks for your advice. What would better alternatives be? I'm really worried about getting any penalty for some black hat tactics and then not ranking at all. It's hard to know who to trust when I don't know what goes into SEO myself.

      Probably the #1 local ranking signal are citations. I'm a little concerned that the consultant you talked to did not mention them at all as a part of their planned work. That would be a giant red flag to me and make me run the other way.
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      • Profile picture of the author seoinprogress
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        You are hiring someone...and they are going to us wordpress?

        No wonder they are talking about social signals.

        They are clueless.

        I would not pay one cent.

        Paul
        What's wrong with Wordpress? I am a small local business so I thought it would be ok to use it, am I wrong and should I not go ahead with this SEO consultant on the basis we are using a Wordpress site?

        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        Probably the #1 local ranking signal are citations. I'm a little concerned that the consultant you talked to did not mention them at all as a part of their planned work. That would be a giant red flag to me and make me run the other way.
        Sorry, not sure I understood your point? Are you saying I should get some evidence of his rankings? He did send me over a domain overview report showing the growth in traffic etc. and as mentioned his business ranks number 1 itself so is this safe enough for me to go by?

        Thank you so much again to everyones help.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

          Sorry, not sure I understood your point? Are you saying I should get some evidence of his rankings? He did send me over a domain overview report showing the growth in traffic etc. and as mentioned his business ranks number 1 itself so is this safe enough for me to go by?

          Thank you so much again to everyones help.

          No not references. Citations. Citations are an occurrence of a NAP (Name of business, Address of business, Phone number of business). You typically build them in local directories like Yelp. They are the driving factor for local rankings in Google. The consultant mentioned nothing there about building citations, which is something any SEO working on a local project should make a priority.
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          • Profile picture of the author seoinprogress
            Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

            No not references. Citations. Citations are an occurrence of a NAP (Name of business, Address of business, Phone number of business). You typically build them in local directories like Yelp. They are the driving factor for local rankings in Google. The consultant mentioned nothing there about building citations, which is something any SEO working on a local project should make a priority.
            Ah, sorry for the dumb question. Forgot to say but I think he may have mentioned it earlier on in our email conversation:

            "With regards local rankings I’d aim to do this within Google Maps as most of the local searches tend to cause Google to return a map. This requires some on-site work and then citations and a G Local business page (which you told me you already set up)"

            Hope that's ok and what you were referring to.

            Lastly, before proceeding, should I expect a contract or do not all SEO consultants provide one? He has already confirmed that we will maintain authority of the site and all content in the event we part ways - not sure what else to ask him?


            Thanks once again for all the kind help thus far.
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            • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
              Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

              Ah, sorry for the dumb question. Forgot to say but I think he may have mentioned it earlier on in our email conversation:

              As regards local rankings I'd aim to do this within Google Maps as most of the local searches tend to cause Google to return a map. This requires some on-site work and then citations and a G Local business page (which you told me you already set up)

              Hope that's ok and what you were referring to.

              Lastly, before proceeding, should I expect a contract or do not all SEO consultants provide one? He has already confirmed that we will maintain authority of the site and all content in the event we part ways - not sure what else to ask him?


              Thanks once again for all the kind help thus far.
              Different SEOs will handle contracts different ways. Personally, I would never feel too comfortable about being locked into a 6-month or 12-month contract with anyone. I do contracts with my clients when they request it, but the only thing that is locked in is the price. They can back out (or I can back out) at any time.

              Be careful about who has control of the site, hosting etc. YOU should be the one that has control of the domain registration and hosting account. You can find plenty of horror stories where SEOs/marketing companies held clients hostage by holding their website. You have some legal protection in most countries if that happens, but that can cost you time and/or money to pursue.

              There is absolutely zero reason for an SEO to hold control of your company's website.

              As for Wordpress, Paul just hates Wordpress. For a local business, there is nothing wrong with being setup on it as long as the SEO knows what they are doing. Wordpress is not SEO friendly out of the box.
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              • Profile picture of the author Frank Hollywood
                Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

                Different SEOs will handle contracts different ways. Personally, I would never feel too comfortable about being locked into a 6-month or 12-month contract with anyone. I do contracts with my clients when they request it, but the only thing that is locked in is the price. They can back out (or I can back out) at any time.

                Be careful about who has control of the site, hosting etc. YOU should be the one that has control of the domain registration and hosting account. You can find plenty of horror stories where SEOs/marketing companies held clients hostage by holding their website. You have some legal protection in most countries if that happens, but that can cost you time and/or money to pursue.

                There is absolutely zero reason for an SEO to hold control of your company's website.

                As for Wordpress, Paul just hates Wordpress. For a local business, there is nothing wrong with being setup on it as long as the SEO knows what they are doing. Wordpress is not SEO friendly out of the box.
                Forgive me if I'm jumping in, but perhaps this applies to the OP as well.
                What could an affiliate marketer do to make Wordpress more SEO friendly? Would you skip Wordpress altogether and go with something else for a Niche site or squeeze page? I'm really new to all of this...
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                • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                  Originally Posted by Frank Hollywood View Post

                  Forgive me if I'm jumping in, but perhaps this applies to the OP as well.
                  What could an affiliate marketer do to make Wordpress more SEO friendly? Would you skip Wordpress altogether and go with something else for a Niche site or squeeze page? I'm really new to all of this...
                  No I would not necessarily skip Wordpress. There are just some definite issues with it. Tags and users can cause a lot of duplicate content. It does not use canonical tags out of the box. If you pick another theme, it often has a lot of bloated code in it.

                  Yukon has a pretty good theme that is optimized well. You'll need to know some coding to "pretty" it up if you want, but if you want to build SEO-optimized silos within Wordpress, it is the best option I have seen so far. It uses some design elements that are similar to what Wikipedia is doing for SEO. You will probably want to add something like Yoast SEO to deal with canonical tags and give you some more control over some of the other SEO aspects. Put those two together though and you are off to a good start.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    The guy touting social as If it's SEO is a moron.

    There's nothing wrong with social as an alternative traffic source but it has nothing to do with ranking webpages on Google SERPs.
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    • Profile picture of the author seoinprogress
      Mike, thanks for your help and time in formulating your responses it is greatly appreciated. I would say given the consultant has been honest and patient with with me throughout, not guaranteed me any false promises such as a 1st page ranking when asked if he could do so, been transparent about his tactics and methods and will be utilizing citations for local rankings, seems like a safe bet.

      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The guy touting social as If it's SEO is a moron.

      There's nothing wrong with social as an alternative traffic source but it has nothing to do with ranking webpages on Google SERPs.
      Yes, it seems so as we have cleared up. Funny to think the consultant I saw was beaming from ear to ear about it saying that they have 'coined the phrase Social SEO' and it's one of their USP's so to speak. They were so proud of it which is why I was keen to know how much of a part it played in rankings.
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by seoinprogress View Post

        Yes, it seems so as we have cleared up. Funny to think the consultant I saw was beaming from ear to ear about it saying that they have 'coined the phrase Social SEO' and it's one of their USP's so to speak. They were so proud of it which is why I was keen to know how much of a part it played in rankings.
        Sure they coined the term (Social SEO), it's a figment of their imagination. FYI, ponies & rainbows also won't rank pages on Google.
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