Hashtag Optimization: The New Strategy in Website Optimization

If you are on any social media site, then you've surely had your fill of the #hashtag. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and just about every other popular social media platform allow their users to use hashtags to identify and categorize content, and conversely, to look for trending content tagged with the hashtags they seek. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary has recently added an entry dedicated to the word “hashtag” now because the hashtag is already shaking up the way web marketing works. 

  

So, what is a hashtag? 

Hashtags are phrases or words that start with the # sign, like #sneakers or #Nike that can be used for marking topics and keywords. 

How do they work?

The correct use of hashtags will enhance your search engine optimization, which influences the visibility of your brand in search engines. SEO is vital for businesses to sell their products, grow their audience, and increase the influence of their brand. Using the right hashtags will isolate topics or keywords and allow fans and prospective clients to find your business quickly on social media.  

What is hashtag engine optimization (HEO)? 

Each like and follow on an account or post contributes as a backlink to the global ranking of your company’s products and services. Marketers know that social media signals –likes, follows, shares – are critical and contribute to backlinks and, ultimately, faster ranking in search engines. 

SEO focuses on attaining higher rankings in SERPS, which is beneficial to large organizations over the small ones. But HEO addresses this problem by simply retrieving trending hashtags. HEO involves finding appropriate hashtags, creating useful and relevant content around them, using those hashtags effectively to get wider exposure on social media platforms, and bringing heavy traffic into a landing page or website. 

While using HEO for your website optimization seems like a great strategy to grow your audience and boost sales, there is a likelihood that hashtags have become too popular, with various Facebook pages created by annoyed fans coming up, such as “I Hate Hashtags” and “Stop the Overuse of Hashtags”. So, perhaps marketers should be reminded of what makes a good hashtag.

How to use Hashtags Effectively  

Keep it simple and memorable: The most effective hashtags are your keywords, but finding the right keywords for your business is not that easy. The best way to find relevant keywords is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Think about what words or phrases you would use to search for your company’s products or services. 

Use hashtags sparingly: It is recommended that you don’t use more than three hashtags at any given time. In some cases, you may want to include more than three keywords in your post, which is not advisable. Instead, try to incorporate them in multiple posts, photos, tweets, or pin descriptions in order to optimize on your keywords without overwhelming your fans. 

Don’t Abbreviate: People rarely use abbreviations when running a search, so using a hashtag abbreviation will limit your visibility. For instance, it is unlikely that you would search FB in the place of Facebook, so skip the likes of #FB for the complete keyword #Facebook.

Website speed optimization is critical to keep your visitors on your site long enough to appreciate your products or services and convert them to buyers, but a well-structured hash tag engine optimization campaign will get you loads of prospective buyers. Keep your hashtags simple, avoid joining too many words that may confuse the audience, and track your campaigns to see how your social metrics are impacted.

For the best #keyword tips, contact Website Optimization today.

Website Optimization
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