What Are Social Media Backlinks
In our last post, we went over ways to build local backlinks. Today, we are going over what should be the first place you look when building any type of backlinks. Social media backlinks are links from social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) that link back to your website. Backlinks built through social platforms can be some of the easiest and most valuable backlinks you can find. Profiles, Posts, and Group pages are all fair game to leave a link for people to check out more of what you have to offer. With all the tweeting, sharing, and reposting, your website has a lot of opportunity to grow.
Leveraging Social Media Profiles
The first place where you should have a backlink on social media is in your profile. Most, if not all social media platforms have a section in the profile to add a link. If you have a personal page and a business page, this gives you two backlinks already. Let’s review where you should have a profile link on some of the top social platforms.
—> In the About section under your Contact Info
—> In your Instagram bio under the Bio text
—> Underneath your location (for Personal Page)
—> As a button next to the Following button (Business Page)
Twitter (X)
—> Under the location
Tiktok
—> Below the short bio
Threads
—> Next to your follower count
If you have your business on all of these platforms, and have a business and personal page, you have 12 backlinks already! Now let’s get into where and how you can use social backlinks in your post to gain reach.
Including Social Media Backlinks in Your Posts
Social media content can be used to link to service pages, blog posts, about pages, and more. With the millions of people browsing through social apps, there is a lot of opportunity to get social media backlinks. But you need to create good content and have a call-to-action encouraging users to see more content on your website. This call-to-action can be “Learn about our ____ by visiting our website”, “Set up an appointment with us today to ______”. Call to Actions should be short and simple. Let’s go over where you can use these call-to-actions and social backlinks on your social media accounts.
—> Linking to a blog post in a post on your Facebook wall
—> Including a link on a pinned post on your Facebook group page
—> Connecting to a blog post or web page by putting the link in your post
—> LinkedIn displays the featured image of your blog post when you include a link so make sure your featured image meets the sizing requirements
Threads
—> Caption of an image with a call-to action, followed by a link
—> A short anecdote from a blog post that links to the post
—> A short caption describing an image or video, followed by a call-to-action, and link
How to Attract Social Media Backlinks
Now that we covered the ways in which you can build your own backlinks on social media, Let’s talk about how you can influence other accounts to link to your content. Building social media backlinks through the online community is about quality content, authentic interactions, and networking. It’s also about emotion. People are emotionally inclined to learn more when they relate or genuinely appreciate what you post. Here’s some tips on how to emotionally appeal to other creators.
Telling a Story
Everyone likes a good story. Whether it’s a come-up story, a heartwarming story, or a funny anecdote, a good story makes us want to see or read more. By having a story behind your social media account and how your business came to be, you can attract viewers to link to your content. A good story has three main elements…
- Characters
- Conflict
- Solution/Resolution
Some questions you want to ask yourself when creating a story in your social media content are these…
- Who is involved in the creation of my business
- How did my business come to be
- What are some of the struggles that were endured in building my business
- What are some of the struggles that led me to build my business
- How did/am I overcoming these struggles
- How am I making an impact
And most importantly…
- What’s my why
By answering these questions, you can create content that tells a story people relate to or empathize with. This will help you create a following that supports and links to your content.
Using Keywords
SEO goes beyond your website. Social media platforms also value SEO to help users get in front of their target audience. Keywords are a main part of SEO that help define your niche. If you’re a web design agency like us, your keywords may be “web design” or “professional websites”. As a small business you should be using Local SEO on social media . Local keywords for our agency would be “website design in NJ” or “professional web design in NJ” For your local keywords, you want short descriptive words that tell what your small business does and where it is located. Here is where you should include your SEO keywords on social media.
- Hashtags
- Alt text
- Captions
- Profile/bio
- Keywords should be frequently used throughout your posts so you can put yourself in front of other creators that find your content interesting. This way, you have a better chance of being seen and linked to by other accounts.
Promoting Blog Posts and Articles
A common post businesses make on Facebook and LinkedIn are blog posts. Blog posts are great for backlinks, because people can repost the post you created that links to your blog, and add their own feedback.
You can encourage discussion around your blog post by…
- Asking questions
- Starting a controversial debate
- Discussing a trend
Your blog content should relate to whichever way you choose to stimulate conversation.
Monitoring Your Social Media Backlinks
Now that you know how to build and attract backlinks, you need to be able to track your progress. There are several tools you can use to track how many link clicks you have from your social profile. You may be able to use in-app tools to track link-clicks as well.
On Facebook you can track link clicks by…
—> Going to your professional dashboard (on desktop)
—> Clicking “See more insights”
—> Clicking “See details”
Another way to track link clicks on Instagram and other social platforms is through setting up a link that includes UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters.
You can use the Google Campaign URL Builder tool (https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/) to create tagged URLs. Here’s how you might set it up:
- Website URL: Enter the URL of the page you’re linking to.
- Source: Enter the name of the social media platform (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).
- Medium: Specify the medium, which is usually ‘social’ for social media.
- Name: Name your campaign (e.g., Summer Promo).
- Content: Add any additional information to differentiate links (optional).
- Term: Use this for paid keywords if applicable (optional).
This tool will generate a custom URL that includes these parameters, which you can then share on your social media channels.
Recap: How to Build Social Media Backlinks
Social media is a tool, and if used properly it can be a big asset to your business. Having social media accounts and a website is becoming a must for any type of business in 2023. While backlinks are becoming less of a valued tanking factor, they still hold weight in improving your local SEO. Make building backlinks easy for yourself by starting off with linking your website to your social media profile. Using this approach, you will build a solid foundation for your backlink strategy. If you’re a small business owner struggling with building local backlinks for your website contact us today to schedule a free consultation session.
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