A couple of weeks ago, I heard of a company who claimed they were using Snapchat for SEO. This has been weighing heavy on my mind ever since, and I knew I needed to get this out there. I am taking a very hard and firm stance on this. Snapchat is NOT, by any means, an effective tool for SEO. Period.
Let me reason this with you:
Facebook can be used as an effective tool in boosting SEO. You can post links, link your profile back to your website, boost posts with links and even promote your website right from Facebook.
Twitter can be used as an effective tool in boosting SEO. Again, like Facebook, you can post links, create ads, and link your profile back to your website.
Google Plus (although an incredibly ineffective social media tool) is a great tool for SEO. Google likes when you’re using their platform and therefore posting to Google plus and posting blog links to Google plus can be an effective SEO tool.
Pinterest can be a very effective tool for SEO. We’ve had clients where 14% of their website traffic was coming from Pinterest. Pinterest is all about content and blog sharing.
Instagram, on the other hand, not an incredibly effective SEO tool. The only link is the one in your profile. It’s good, but, in my opinion, in most cases, it’s not going to be very effective in boosting website traffic.
And then there’s Snapchat. You have no profile, you can’t post links, there’s no directing anyone back to your website unless you tell them in the message to do so. (And at that point, you can’t track it unless you’re giving them a unique landing page that you’re not promoting anywhere else.) So, how on earth, anyone could consider Snapchat an effective tool for SEO is beyond me.
Furthermore, with the constant change in online marketing, Google’s algorithms and industry best practices, SEO is just not what it used to be. While I fully and completely agree that social media has become vital in your online optimization (which is why we do not offer SEO without including social media) Snapchat is simply not one of those platforms that we will see boosting your site.
As someone who has been devoted to social media best practices over the last six years, it is incredibly frustrating to me when others in the industry are using ineffective practices, giving social media a bad name as it cannot be effective to its full potential when not used correctly. At Transformation Marketing, we work hard for you, making sure we are spending your marketing dollars wisely, using platforms that will best serve you.