In boosting your search engine ranking, it’s almost criminal to exclude social media marketing, especially given its pervasive presence online.

Last year, nearly 70% of people worldwide used social media in one form or another. Also in 2016, 2.34 billion people had a social media presence, and stats predict that this will increase to 2.67 billion by next year.

Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2020 (in billions)

It’s not clear how Google really gauges social media when it comes to ranking websites. That’s understandable, considering the search engine has always been very secretive about its algorithms. What’s clear at this point, however, is that social media does help in driving traffic to your site, albeit indirectly.

The correlation can be found in the top ranking websites, which also have very strong social media signals. So even if Google says that social media shares don’t really count as one link, a large volume should account for something.

Below are just some of the ways social media marketing can boost rankings:

Cultivates Relationships With Customers

Social media provides an easy platform where businesses can directly interact with their customers. More than superficial interaction, it actually allows you to develop a relationship with your clientele. Successful use of social media even gives the power to the consumers to dictate how product value is offered. It’s not just about numbers, but rather making them feel that they have a stake in the company. Cultivating your customers through social media will drive more traffic to your site, resulting in a better ranking on Google.

Links to Your Website

The main purpose of social media is to raise awareness of your product or service. The main goal of Google, meanwhile, is to give the most relevant result when users submit a query. Posting your web address on your social media page—and asking your customers to share it—will also drive traffic to your website.

Businesses are always trying to figure out where their customers are, especially if their websites fail to get traffic even when they have existed for quite some time. Social media offers a ready customer base, with its almost three billion population. The trick is how to harness it.

Means to an End

You should keep in mind that social media is just a means to an end, as Google doesn’t really recognize any of it in its search engine results page (SERP). Knowing this, it’s important for you to make great content that can possibly go viral. YouTube, in fact, has become the battleground for marketers to create the next viral video. It may not directly lead traffic to your website, but it does make for perfect brand recall. Of course, knowing the attention span of Millennials, you’ll need to routinely churn out great content to be effective.

In sum, just remember these simple steps to boost your Google rank with social media.

• First, create an account on social media—particularly the big four of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube—which can help drive traffic to your website.
• Second, fill your social media account with great content, with proper search engine optimization techniques, to make sure Google crawls through the page and indexes it in their search engine results page.
• Third, make sure that the viewers or readers can see the share button to make it easy for them to post your content on their own social media accounts. Afterward, just wash, rinse, and repeat.

Customers, however, are not as keen to forgive on social media, as compared to websites, when the company fails to respond immediately. As such, it’s best to appoint an administrator tasked to respond to queries or complaints on your social media page so your customers walk away happy. This increases the chances of visitors recommending your business to their families and friends.