Social media and local search in the long tail

 

Except for Twitter, with whom it has a direct contractual relationship, Google has difficulty getting visibility into what’s happening on social platforms. So “being active” on social media doesn’t help your local search visibility. And even if you’re wildly popular on social media, it’s unlikely that popularity will translate directly into higher local search rankings.

One way it might translate is if your social profile is frequently linked to other websites due to your popularity. The link you’ve added from your profile to your website then passes additional authority to your website. But that’s a fraction of a fractional increase in authority. Not one that’s worth getting hung up on.

You should focus your social media efforts on engaging your customers with exciting content, promotions (if relevant), and polls and conversations that will increase their affinity for your brand. You can promote your website to a degree, but generally speaking, improvements in your local rankings will come from other factors.

Social media is for conversations

It’s far more productive to treat social media as an engagement channel rather than a means to rank better. Making yourself available to your customers and responsive to their questions on the platforms above — as well as the locally-focused NextDoor — helps create the positive association for your brand that social media is best designed for. Utilize your social media channels for brand awareness, customer engagement, and loyalty, not rankings.

Local SEO conclusion

Local search has become a multi-faceted paradox in the last couple of years. While the algorithm has evolved to reward real-world behavior, the SERP interface rewards more technical tactics like Schema markup and rich snippets.

And while the sophistication of Google’s algorithm and the number of local businesses paying attention to local SEO makes it more challenging than ever to rank, the payoff may be lower as fewer businesses win organic real estate above the fold.

But Google isn’t going away anytime soon. Organic search results will continue to be an effective customer acquisition channel far into the future. Regardless of how Google changes over time, the techniques we’ve laid out in this local search strategy guide should help position your business effectively for the next innovations!

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