Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
What is social media SEO?
Social media SEO refers to optimising social content and profiles for discoverability on a search engine results page (SERP). Search today has drastically shifted since the advent of the internet, with more and more opportunities for social channels and the content on them to be displayed on search engines.
Optimisation also offers internal benefits for social channels. Search on social has shifted researching behaviours, with reports from Sprout Social recording a 41% of Gen-Z use channels like TikTok, Instagram, Reddit or YouTube to find information, instead of traditional search engines.
Do I need to optimise social content?
If you are using your social channels as a tool, then yes, absolutely. Businesses can reap several benefits from implementing social media into their marketing strategy, both on the SERP and on the platforms themselves.
Creating content that leads to better discoverability and can enable a brand to raise brand awareness. This creates more opportunities for new potential customers to find and invest in the brand’s product or service. This gives businesses a better chance of improving engagement for both their website and social content.
Other benefits include improving local SEO efforts. Displaying this information makes it easier and efficient for the person searching. More so, it offers value to those searching across social media search engines.
How to optimise your social channels
Social content optimisations
One of the fundamental aspects of successful content is being session aware, ensuring every piece of content or asset put out is context driven. Optimisations are really small but important ways we signal to search engines and the customer that the content is valuable.
Using similar frameworks to those of traditional SEO enables the process of discoverability. Some of the ways this can be done are by:
- Defining the purpose of content, ensuring every asset has a reason for being posted. Intention is key when creating valuable content and reaching attainable goals
- Utilise your keyword research in your content captions.
- Use an editorial calendar to create structure and intention for your content
- Use high-resolution assets
- Create accessible content with subtitles and alt text
- Re-format appropriate content to suit the destination channel
Social Profile optimisations
Social profile optimisations are there so your audience finds the important information about your business with ease and speed.
Make sure the following information is readily available on your profile, which will ensure you’re prepared for potential customers:
- A clear social media handle, making it simple for your existing and potential customers to find you, is the goal. Keeping it simple and using the exact name of the brand, using symbols for variation.
- Use your bio to reflect your business’s offering. This ensures that when your profile is displayed, those searching understand what it is your business does.
- Include your business address. This is critical for both local SEO and ease of physically finding your business. The easier it is for customers to find you, the better the experience.
- Using brand imagery for your profile photos. Making it easier for new and existing members to recognise the brand.
- Including a link or Linktree. Using your social platforms to promote your other channels is a simple yet effective way to increase the volume of followers/subscribers.
With small, consistent steps—like refining your bio, using keywords strategically, and ensuring content accessibility—you’re signalling to both search engines and potential customers that your brand is valuable and trustworthy.
The key takeaway? Treat your social channels with the same strategic mindset as your website. Done right, social media SEO doesn’t just boost discoverability, it builds stronger connections, enhances customer experience, and ultimately drives growth.
