If you're in PR or new to social media marketing, I'm sure you've heard of the term "SEO." But what is that exactly? SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization", which means that the quality of your content, such as keywords and media, can all help increase the visibility of your website or posts when it comes to looking for content in your field of interest. According to Google's AI search (when typing in "What is seo?" into the Google search bar), " The goal is to improve a website's visibility so that it's more relevant and easier to find when people search for products, services, or information." The better your SEO, the more likely you are to be seen and engaged with. If you want your website or content to be at the top of a search engine (rather than ignored with zero engagement), then you need the best SEO.
As to provide an example, I've had this website for a while now and although I've been posting, I rarely get any engagement and not as many views as I would like, so I asked ChatGPT how I could increase my views and engagement on a blog post about journalism and ethics using SEO.
When it comes to keywords (which can also be referred to as hashtags in social media), when we include specific words that are popular to a specific topic, the more likely we are to pop up. ChatGPT recommended a few website that can help you with search optimization for your platform, such as Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush. A personal and easier tool I like to use is Google Trends, which shows you what topics are trending, where and when. Other ways of finding tools to help you generate SEO keywords would be by looking up hashtag generators as well as keyword generators. I found this great website for free called, Word Stream and it actually gave me some pretty creative SEO keywords for my potential blog post. For hashtags I use the website All-Hashtag. Main point here is that your keywords are important for search optimization - the words you choose matter!
2. Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Titles are important. This goes hand in hand with keywords. Your title should be eye catching - be able to hook your reader, as well as contain a keyword for SEO. Some websites utilize meta descriptions, which according to MailChimp, meta descriptions explain in the search engine what your website/link is about. On how to create a successful meta description, MailChimp wrote a blog post about it here.
3. Create High-Quality Content
Of course I like to call this one a no-brainer. You have to have content that people actually like. These questions can help you identify whether or not you are creating high-quality content. Does it make sense to your audience? Does it add value to their life? Is it enriching? Can they find anything better? (The goal is hopefully no, yours is the best or atleast right up there). Is your content encaptivating, well done or well written? Does anyone care or hold any interest? Is it relatable? Does it include a variety in topics and media? Does it go in-depth? Are the images pixelated and disproportionately cropped? .... Anyways, you get the guist. It is recommended if you're going to be working with multimedia, the more the better, that means including videos, images, audios, etc.
4. Internal Linking
For example, a great way to overall grow my website, and not just a singular blog post, would be by linking previous blog posts to a connecting post. This would increase visibility from other topics and subjects I've previously written about and grow my the probability of my views overall. Which makes sense when you think about it and why people are willing to pay so much for advertisement to be mentioned or included by trending or popular celebrities or brands, popularity and increase in awareness leads to an increase of probable interest. But of course, it would be best that the linked content be similar as well; this would lead to more probable interest and better execution. Thankfully, social media allows for the options of reposting old content, which is an idea I recommend, if relevant.
5. Optimize Images
Pictures are great, especially as we live in a more visual era. But to make better use of graphics and images, a more advanced way to increase SEO on image based content is by adding alt tags(alternative texts or descriptions)/hashtags, descriptions, links, filenames and relevant keywords. Content with images tends to do better than content with no images (if it's good).
6. Mobile Optimization
Now this is a great point. Sometimes when working on my website on the computer, I don't often think of what it would look like on a mobile device. It isn't until I look up my website on my phone that some things look different, skewed or don't show up at all. So I make sure and go back to make edits on my website that make links easier to access as well as better organized for viewing on a mobile device. I was embarrassed when I first made my website and after looking up the link on my Instagram bio, you could only see a zoomed in portion of my face for my cover picture. I made the changes right away. Common mistake; it happens! Quick tidbit as well, sometimes links need to be updated, so it helps to get on your mobile device every now and then and check your socials and linktree links to see if they are still working.
7. Promote on Social Media
Exposure. Another no brainer. The best exposure we can get nowadays is through social media. Social media (influencing) is today's marketing gold. This is something I need to do more often, as just posting on my website alone has not gained enough traffic to meet my goals. However, I make sure to use the right social medias to promote my blog, such as Twitter (X) or Threads. You need to know your platform as much as you need to know your audience. Some content may not be as accepted as on another platform.
8. Encourage Engagement
We can encourage engagement by leaving an open ended statement in our description of our posts or by, you guessed it, engaging with others. You can engage with others that are on brand with the theme or topic of your content. This will lead to interest, curiosity, and awareness. Anything we can do to increase traffic. You can ask viewers to "comment down below..." their opinion on your content or what their shared experience is like. You can tell people to "feel free to comment below/ask any questions." I could end my blog post about journalism and ethics with a question such as "What courses have you taken that have improved your knowledge on ethics in journalism?" This could lead to a discussion in my comments and increases the probability of sharing and SEO. The more people that engage with your content, the higher SEO. It is the more popular websites (or higher paid), that end up at the top and shared more.
9. Update and Repurpose Content
By updating your content, it allows for your post to regenerate in SEO and allow for new audience members to discover and engage with it. You can either update your text or, as suggested by ChatGPT, you can convert your content into different forms of media, such as podcasts, videos, picture graphics, slideshows, etc. So with my blog post, I could create an Instagram Carousel of images that relate to what I learned in my Journalism and Ethics class.
10. Monitor and Analyze
Now, ChatGPT recommends to use Google Analytics to monitor and analyze that analytics and metrics to your website or content. However, as someone who does not use Google Analytics, I just depend on whatever analytics each media site offers. Most social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, etc. offer the bare minimum of analytics, such as views, likes, etc. The platform I use to create and edit my website, Wix, also provides me analytics on the performance of my posts and website, such as clicks and views. Of course, it is important to monitor and analyze the data presented as we can see what is and isn't working with engagement as well as reason why. Especially if there is feedback, that is most useful.
Thanks ChatGPT! With these thorough steps, we can all benefit from using SEO and increase in both views and engagement for our content.
(As you can tell I am going through a ChatGPT/Ai phase right now, and I am loving it - I am thriving).
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