Social Media Marketing ROI (Part Three): Search Engine Optimization

Implementing a Social Media Marketing strategy can also aim to improve our website’s Search Engine Optimisation. There are several reasons why developing Web 2.0 initiatives can positively influence organic search rankings. However, among the various possible actions, the advantages associated with launching a Corporate Blog are particularly noteworthy. Naturally, before undertaking and launching any initiative, it will be necessary to define the SEO objectives to be achieved and take the following into account:

• The search terms for which we aim to rank.
• The countries in which we want to rank.
• The languages spoken in those countries.
• The level of internet adoption and digital culture among the target audience we wish to reach.

With this in place, we will develop and implement our strategy.

• A Blog as a way to increase the number of indexed pages. Indeed, a well-structured and well-designed Blog, regularly updated with unique and relevant content, is an excellent way to position a significant number of pages in search engines for terms related to our hotel, its surroundings and its destination.
• Original content can benefit us through a substantial number of inbound links, referencing different articles as influential and relevant for different search terms. Likewise, the number of inbound links can create a virtuous circle: Inbound links build authority, and authority generates even more inbound links. In other words, other blogs may even reference us simply because of our authority.
• The Long Tail can generate additional rankings and a substantial number of visits from search engines through highly specific searches.
• etc.

Ultimately, these benefits associated solely with launching a Blog can almost certainly deliver short-term SEO benefits. To achieve this, while it is easy to create a blog for free, it will be necessary to invest in resources—namely, the management of the blog itself or our social media profiles, and the engagement of the community that revolves, or that we aspire to revolve, around it. Investing in specialist resources to generate content that is relevant to search engines or to a community can be vital, and the metrics by which we should assess progress and achievement of objectives are quite straightforward:

• Number of pages indexed by search engines.
• Number of inbound links.
• Site ranking
in specialist directories.

but, above all, the metrics related to search engine rankings themselves:

• Current and historical rankings for the selected terms across the different search engines and target countries.
• Traffic analysis from searches using the selected terms, and determination of whether they actually originate from the geo-social area we intended to target. In other words, a qualitative as well as quantitative analysis of our traffic.

Thanks to technology, the ROI of Blogging in terms of search engine rankings is the easiest to measure, manage and monitor. Ultimately, because we would use the same method we use to measure ROI in our Online Marketing. The various conversion tracking options, such as that offered free of charge by Google Analytics, if properly installed in our online booking system, can tell us with considerable precision which and how many of our sales originate not only from our Blog, but can even provide the return generated by each of the search terms that resulted in one of the pages indexed thanks to our Social Media Marketing strategy.