A proper ranking on Google is a slow process that depends on several aspects, such as the age and authority of the domain, the incoming links and, of course, the quality of the content. This is an important and essential multi-channel activity that can benefit from some social opportunities to increase SEO rankings by making the most of snippets in Serp, create greater connections between entities and, possibly, enrich the network of links to the main website. In fact, it is a matter of taking advantage of the domain authority of very popular platforms, which often appear among the search results.
Obviously, the multi-channel editorial plan should include regular publications, consistent with the language of the channel and the message you want to spread. Below, I report some examples of social networks and platforms among those best indexed on Google. For each business area, there are also specific platforms that must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and can be even more effective thanks to the relevance and affinity of the content.
The first social opportunities concern the classic cold Seo content. We are talking about “How to” guides, advice and every long article trying to answer users’ questions. Some platforms are well indexed on Google and therefore allow a brand to occupy more positions than those expected in SERPs for a single domain and thus increase exposure.
LinkedIn is a great, often underestimated, resource for making SEO content on external platforms. Pulse articles allow you to publish long articles with a WordPress-like editor, with titles, formatting, and images. What is created is to all intents and purposes an SEO article, on a very authoritative platform in the business area.
Another opportunity is collaborative articles. For current topics, the social platform selects top experts, inviting them to leave their contribution. This is also an opportunity to increase your personal brand exposure and connect it to relevant keywords and entities.
Blogspot and WordPress.com
Google’s Blogspot and WordPress.com are two platforms hosted on very authoritative domains. A site in one of their subdomains is free and simple to build. It could be an opportunity at an early stage of a project if you find it difficult to get ahead of very strong competitors. Be careful, however, not to cannibalize other existing websites.
Guest posts
PR marketing helps to connect the brand to highly relevant keywords and entities, to be visible for hard-to-reach search queries and to obtain quality backlinks. Guest posts have the same goal, but, in this case, the company has to create content and give it to the publisher asking to be quoted.
Medium and Reddit
Medium is a platform that allows you to share articles, sharing them within thematic collections, often indexing its pages. Reddit works in a similar way, but in this case it is more difficult to open threads that comply with the rules of the social network.
Online directories
Online directories help increase a business’s presence in SERPs and enrich an entity’s network of valuable connections linked to it.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the sources most used by Google to compose snippets in Serp. However, it is not easy to have your own article or to be quoted within Wikipedia because the regulation states that you cannot write about yourself. In addition, all updates are subjected to user evaluation and can be modified.
Google MyBusiness
Google My Business is the fundamental platform for local businesses that want to be found on Google Maps. It is not used to position individual content on Google (which, however, can be linked from posts), but rather to optimize the listing of the activity on the map.
Yellow Pages online, Booking and TripAdvisor
General speaking, directories allow you to position yourself in specific snippets within the SERP. For example, Yellow Pages online is suitable for local businesses (in addition to Google My Business), Booking for hotels and accommodation facilities, TripAdvisor for restaurants and tourist places.
E-commerce on Amazon
Amazon is the largest marketplace in the world. Your products are shown in purchase-intent searches within a specific snippet, along with Google Shopping listings. Sometimes, Amazon pages may also appear in the main listing and in the “Images” tab. Working on Amazon also means working from an SEO perspective: the editing phase should not be underestimated.
Amazon can also be very useful for personal branding for book authors. In this case, the marketplace creates an author page that can be well indexed on Google and provides valuable information to the search engine.
Social opportunities for videos
Thanks to their impact and involvement, videos are increasingly searched for by users and rewarded by Google, which, for many informational search queries, has provided a specific snippet. Videos, often short and captivating, have become a part of everyday life and Google searches.
YouTube and other video platforms
YouTube is the largest online video platform. part of the Google family, it is often shown in search engine results. A video on YouTube therefore has a good chance of being found by users, as well as being embedded within blog articles to increase their quality. In addition to traditional and more structured videos, there are Shorts that will occupy a carousel dedicated to user-generated content.
Alternatives to YouTube, well indexed on Google, are Vimeo, Dailymotion or specific sections of large publishing groups.
TikTok
TikTok, which has been growing strongly in the last decade, is going to occupy the snippets dedicated to user-generated content with videos, They represent a great social opportunity to get organic traffic from queries related to easily usable content and related to current trends.
Social opportunities for images
Social networks live by videos and images. At the same time, Google is giving a lot of importance to images, in order to make content more immediate and usable by anyone. These must be chosen carefully and uploaded in accordance with the guidelines and adding the “Alt Image” tag.
The most visual social network of all is Instagram. The strength of images, accompanied by text and interactions, is the basis of its operation. These can be indexed in the “Images” snippet in the main SERP and also in the corresponding tab. There are precise guidelines, empirically studied, that allow you to maximize the effectiveness of images on Instagram.
The other social network of photos and images is Pinterest. Earlier than Instagram, it still often appears within Google results. A profile on Pinterest is recommended if photos are an important element of your business communication.
Social opportunities for news and current events
In addition to multimedia content, the real social opportunities can be seen for user-generated content and news on hot and current topics. These have a very exposed space in Google’s Serp and are activated for a short time both following a search and as a consequence of interests.
X (formerly Twitter)
The social network X (formerly Twitter) has long been used mainly in journalism and communication. Considered by Google’s algorithm as User generated content, it manages to cover current topics well, offering original results that enrich the search engine’s SERP
Facebook appears in Google’s SERP less frequently than other social networks, also due to the higher percentage of private profiles. However, some topical posts published by popular pages or in well-defined public groups may appear in search results
