A question we are often asked is whether or not social media increases your senior living SEO?
We have so many clients who are sick to death of social media. The politics and fighting on Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the sheer amount of false information and bots, are definitely off-putting.
The unfortunate part is Facebook provides such a great platform for sharing the “life” that happens in senior living communities through photos and stories. It would be a big loss to your brand identity to just give it up.
But does social media help with your SEO?
Many providers have been led to believe there is a direct correlation between SEO and social media Likes. That Google weighs how many folks Like and Follow you and considers that when ranking your site.
The answer is: nope. There is no direct social media ranking factor for Google.Here’s a quick video of John Mueller from Google answering this very question:
Here’s the transcript if you just want to read what he said…
“Do social media signals have an impact on organic rankings in Google? Not directly. No. So it’s not that there’s any kind of a ranking effect there. To a large part social networks also have a no-follow on the links that they provide when they post this content, so it’s not the case that would give you any kind of a ranking boost there. What you do sometimes see however is that the social posts show up in the search results.”
But there are indirect benefits derived from social media. One is the ability to reach more people with the great content you create.
Let’s say you create a fabulous guide that helps families who are just beginning to realize their senior loved one needs a little extra help. You pump it up on your blog and link to the landing page.
How else can you promote it?
Here are just a few quick, easy ways:
- Twitter: If you’ve built a following on Twitter that includes writers and journalists who cover aging issues, your might find yourself getting some great coverage on the topic. You’ll likely find followers will retweet the link if it’s something they think their followers will benefit from it.
- Facebook: One thing we know about Facebook is the “birds of a feather” principle applies. When one friend is struggling to care for an aging parent, chances are good a few people in their circle of friends is dealing with the same problem. Facebook shares can help drive those families back to your blog or landing page.
- LinkedIn: Is LI a social media platform? Depends on who you talk to. But LinkedIn allows you to share and publish, too. If you have physician’s office managers, hospital discharge planners and social workers you are LinkedIn to, this guide can be a great resource for them to share with patients and families.
So if you are trying to decide what the heck to do about social media… stay or go… keep all of this in mind.
And if you need great content that is the real driver of senior living SEO, drop us a note. We’ll be happy to set up a time to talk about your strategy!