The Role of Social Media on E Commerce
Every organization, especially the ones in the e-commerce industry, is looking for ways to increase its virtual presence and attract more customers to its website. Many effective strategies are employed by the firms to this end.
If you are one of those who own an e-commerce website, you already know that social media platforms are one of the areas through which you can improve your traffic.
Social media and SEO
The role of social media on Search Engine Optimization is a much-debated topic. Especially since the stirring comment by Google’s Matt Cutts in 2014 stating that social signals do not affect search rankings. Those experts who were hell bend on improving Facebook likes and Twitter followers were flabbergasted by the statement. The whole e-commerce industry stood in stunned silence.
Yet, through the years of experience, the experts have come to a conclusion: Though social media do not have a direct role in improving the Search Engine rankings, they play more than a substantial role in building up the trustworthiness of customers.
This improved brand awareness and connection with customers will lead to more traffic to the website, and ergo! improved SEO ranking.
Impact of SEO on e-commerce
There are a few things to understand about the impact of social media on the e-commerce website. They are as follows.
- The impact of social media is not clear
The first thing to know is that because one of the posts that you created on Twitter went viral, does not guarantee that the backlinks will improve the SEO rankings. So don’t get your hopes too high.
Nevertheless, it has been proven that it has a nontrivial influence on the pages. There are unknown factors in play here that make things unpredictable.
- Social media allows better communication and builds trust
One of the factors that we can sure about is that social media can help build a fan base. As Facebook pages and Twitter handles have become places of improved communication, clever use of it can lead to improved customer care and subsequently the brand value. Thus it can be used to build a fandom for your products. By and by, your customers will become the greatest advocates of your goods.
- It is the best place to host promotions
Hosting promotions and flash sales are a great way to attract more traffic to your website. Social media is the best platform to publicize such campaigns. Making customers feel privy to special bonuses can indeed boost their engagement.
- You can encourage user-generated content
The best kind of advertisement is one where your customers become your brand ambassadors. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on provide that versatility. You can give incentives to your followers to share your posts and hashtags. This can surely widen your reach and boost the business on your e-commerce site.
Wrapping it up
To conclude, social media may or may not have a direct influence on the SEO rankings of your e-commerce website. Nevertheless, you can use it cleverly in many ways to ensure more reach for your products and thus improve the traffic to your site anyway.
If you can drive more traffic to your site, your Search Engine rankings will surely improve.
