Social media and search engine optimization (SEO) are often seen at opposite ends with the spectrum when it comes to online marketing. Social media is all about personal connection and making an impact with your audience en masse. Search engine marketing is all about finding the right key phrases to focus on in order to get the right search engine users connected with your website.

However, social media can be a very effective search engine optimization tool. Adding your company’s profile information and important keywords to your social media profiles can actually help you rank better for your keyword terms.

When your website and resources rank well in search engines, you’ll automatically get more traffic (and therefore more exposure) for your solutions. Search engines have realized how important social media is to online communication – and as a result, they’ve started incorporating updates made to your social media profiles into the search engine rankings. In addition, your social media profiles themselves are evaluated and indexed by search engines, which means that the words you use on your profile can help you get more traffic.

If you haven’t spent any time thinking about the keywords for your business – now is the time to start! Not only can you use these keywords to create great content for your website, blog and attract search engine traffic that way, but you can also incorporate those words into your social media profiles and updates for even more exposure.

To locate the best keywords for what you are selling, use a keyword research tool to find out which terms your ideal prospects are using to find the solutions that you offer. The Google Adwords Keyword Tool and the SEOBook Keyword Tool are two good free options for identifying appropriate keywords. You can brainstorm terms for your business and enter them into one of these tools. The tool will return a list of related keyword terms and their estimated daily and monthly searches. Create a list of relevant keyword terms and you’ll be ready to optimize your social media.

Start with your social media profiles. Since these are static, unlike your updates, you’ll get the best results from optimizing your content. Pick two to three important keywords or keyword phrases and work them into your profile in a natural way. For example, you could write “I am a Professional Organizer based in Austin, Texas who specializes in organization tips and ways to cut out clutter.” In this example, professional organizer, Austin, Texas, “organization tips” and “ways to cut out clutter” are all important keyword phrases but they are blended into the sentence in a natural way.

You can do the same with your status updates on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Keep a list of your important keywords handy when you are creating your updates so you can be sure to incorporate them in.

By finding the right keywords and using them combined with social media, you’ll be able to get even more mileage from your updates and your profiles, and most importantly attract pre-qualified leads to your website!

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Sydni Craig-Hart, The Smart Simple Marketing Coach, is founder of SmartSimpleMarketing.com. She is known for teaching her clients step-by-step how to fill their practice with ideal clients and create more money in their business. Check out www.SmartSimpleMarketing.com for your free marketing tools and to schedule your own “Profit Breakthrough” session with Sydni!