How To Use SEO and Social Media Together To Drive Organic Traffic

SEO (search engine optimization) is all about making your content easy to find, and for as long as hashtags have existed, social media and SEO have been working hand in hand. But the way people use social platforms is changing. Today, TikTok and Instagram aren’t just for scrolling; they’re becoming the go-to search engines for Gen Z and Millennials.

Instead of focusing solely on driving traffic from traditional search engines like Google, savvy brands are now prioritizing discoverability on social platforms themselves. And here’s the good news: these efforts can now do double duty. Many social posts, including those on TikTok, YouTube and now Instagram, are also discoverable on Google, giving your optimized content even greater reach.

The best part? You don’t need to be an SEO expert to take advantage. With just a few smart strategies, you can start turning your social content into a powerful organic traffic engine.

In social SEO, traditional SEO factors are applied to social media channels — essentially, optimizing your social channels, so they appear first in search results. 

The concept is based on the same principles of optimizing content for search engines, and the fundamentals are relatively the same. You have a piece of content, and you want your audience to be able to find it organically when they search. Ideally, you want to be showing up first, above competitors, and at those pinnacle moments when a person searches for a keyword that you want to be found for. 

Whether they're in the research phase or ready to make a purchase, your potential customers are turning to social platforms to guide their decisions. A 2024 Statista survey found that nearly half of U.S. social media users aged 18 to 44 have made at least one purchase through a social platform, highlighting the growing influence of social commerce. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube now lead as top destinations for product research, especially before big purchases. Combined with earlier findings that more than 50% of Gen Z are willing to buy directly on social, it’s clear there’s never been a more crucial time to align your SEO and social media strategies.

SEO and social media are more interconnected than ever, working together in ways that can significantly influence your brand’s visibility across the web. From the ongoing debate around “social signals” — the idea that likes, shares and engagement on social media may indirectly influence a website’s search rankings — to the growing importance of branded search, where your social profiles can dominate the top of Google’s results page, the relationship between the two is evolving.

While there’s still some uncertainty about how directly social signals impact traditional SEO, what’s clear is that optimized social media profiles can strengthen your overall search presence and play a key role in discoverability. For the purposes of this blog, we’ll focus on practical strategies to optimize your social platforms for organic search, helping you get in front of the right audience on social channels and search engines alike.

Before diving into how to optimize, it’s important to understand why it matters. From boosting visibility to reaching new audiences at key decision-making moments, optimizing your social content for search can create long-term value that goes far beyond likes and follows.

Reaching Customers at the Right Moment

Optimizing your social content ensures you're showing up organically right when potential customers are actively searching not just passively scrolling. With more users using social media platforms like search engines, especially Gen Z and Millennials, visibility in those search moments is far more valuable than simply chasing algorithmic reach. Instead of relying solely on the feed, showing up in social search results helps you meet users at critical intent-driven moments.

Connecting With Non-Traditional Searchers 

Many users particularly younger generations aren’t using Google the way they used to. They’re turning to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to discover products, explore brands and find answers. In fact, Instagram's searchable map feature functions similarly to Google Maps, allowing users to browse tagged locations nearby by category. This shift in search behavior gives brands a new opportunity to reach consumers where they’re already looking even outside of traditional search engines.

Growing Your Audience and Boosting Brand Visibility

Social media SEO isn’t just about showing up for people who already know your brand, it’s about being discovered by those who don’t. By optimizing your content with non-branded, intent-driven keywords like “best skincare for dry skin,” “how to style wide-leg jeans,” or “gift ideas under $50,” you position your brand to reach users in the discovery phase, well before brand loyalty has formed.

And now, with the rise of AI-powered search experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's SGE, this strategy matters more than ever. These tools pull from publicly available content across the web, including indexed social media posts, to surface recommendations and answers to user queries. That means your optimized posts don’t just help you rank within social platforms or traditional search they can also increase your chances of being referenced or linked in AI-generated responses, giving your content even more reach and relevance.

In short: optimizing for social search today also helps you future-proof your visibility in tomorrow’s AI search landscape.

Whether users are searching directly within Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest or through Google (or even ChatGPT), a well-optimized profile increases your chances of being discovered by the right audience at the right time. Here’s how to do it effectively across platforms:‍

1. Complete Every Field Thoughtfully

Start with the basics: fill out every available field on your social profiles. That means your bio, description, category tags, location info, website URL and contact details. The more structured and complete your profile is, the easier it is for both platform algorithms and search engines to understand and surface your content. AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s SGE often pull from indexed content that includes rich metadata and clear, contextual cues. By making your bios and posts easy to interpret with keyword clarity and consistent branding you improve your chances of being surfaced in AI-generated search responses too.

2. Leverage Link Tools Smartly

Tools like Linktree or Dash Social’s LikeShop help bridge your social profile to your broader digital ecosystem. Not only do they improve user experience, but these links can be indexed by search engines if structured properly boosting visibility and click-through potential from search.

3. Use Keywords Strategically

Just like SEO for websites, your social bios and captions should include keywords your audience is searching for. Think about the terms people might use to find products like yours or problems you solve. Use these in your:

• Bio and description
• Post captions
• ALT text (where available)
• Hashtags (but keep them relevant and focused)

Pro tip: Choose a handful of high-intent, non-branded keywords to anchor your strategy. These help your content surface in discovery moments even when someone doesn’t know your brand yet.

4. Follow Platform-Specific Best Practices

While it might seem obvious, adhering to each platform’s best practices — like following image size guides and video length guidelines — is key to maximizing reach. Visually appealing, well-formatted content not only boosts engagement but also sends strong quality signals to the platform’s algorithm. High-performing platforms like Pinterest and TikTok factor user interaction and content formatting into how they rank and surface content, so aligning with their guidelines can give your posts a valuable visibility boost.

5. Optimize for Local and Global Discovery

If you serve a specific region, add your location to your bio or business info. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok use this data to surface local results, especially when users search using map-based features or location tags.

6. Consistency Builds Recognition

Lastly, use consistent naming and visuals across platforms. Your handle, profile image and voice should feel unified to build trust and recognizability across search results, whether a user finds you on Google, TikTok or Pinterest.

While general SEO best practices apply across all platforms, each social network has its own quirks and opportunities for optimization. Below is a breakdown of how to tailor your strategy for the major platforms to improve discoverability both in-app and through traditional and AI-powered search.

Instagram SEO Tips

Instagram has been steadily evolving its search functionality, giving marketers more opportunities to be discovered organically in-app and on Google Search. Here’s how to make your profile and posts search-friendly:

• ‍Add ALT text to your posts. Use the advanced settings when uploading a post to include descriptive, keyword-rich ALT text. This helps with both accessibility and SEO.‍

• Use relevant, niche hashtags. Choose hashtags that are both specific to your brand and frequently searched. Limit to 3–5 per post for better performance and avoid clutter.

• Optimize your bio and handle. Include relevant keywords in your bio, username and handle when possible. If you serve a specific location, add it to your contact info. Instagram uses this to deliver local search results.

• Keep your profile public. With Instagram content now appearing in Google Search, ensuring your posts are crawlable is key for discoverability beyond the app.

Facebook SEO Tips

Facebook offers a wide surface area for optimization, and with its deep content capabilities and powerful search functionality, implementing a strong Facebook SEO strategy can deliver meaningful results.

• Customize your page URL. A branded, keyword-inclusive URL helps both users and search engines understand your page.

• Optimize the About section. Clearly communicate your value prop and front-load it with natural-sounding keywords.

• ‍Use keywords throughout your content. That includes photo captions, headlines, status updates and product listings.

• Stay active. Posting regularly signals that your page is active, which can help boost its ranking in both Facebook and Google search results.

YouTube SEO Tips

As the second-largest search engine, YouTube SEO is a must for any marketing strategy especially when optimized videos can also show up in Google’s video results.

• Rename video files using target keywords. This helps YouTube understand your video content before it's even uploaded.

• Craft keyword-optimized titles and descriptions. Keep titles under 60 characters, front-load your keywords and avoid keyword stuffing in the description.

• Use tags and categories. Tag your videos with related terms and assign appropriate categories to help with content discovery.

• Add closed captions and subtitles. These are crawlable by Google and boost accessibility and search visibility.

• Pin a comment to boost engagement. Encouraging replies helps signal relevance and audience interest.

Pinterest SEO Tips

Pinterest behaves more like a visual search engine than a traditional social platform, making it ideal for crafting Pinterest SEO-driven strategies.

• Fully optimize your profile. Your name, username and bio should include clear, relevant keywords.

• Claim your website. This unlocks Pinterest analytics, helping you track performance and identify top-performing content. Using this information, you can get an idea of what is popular and create a board or share more of that type of content. Increasing user engagement on Pinterest is important for improving your rankings and discoverability.

• Be specific with board names. Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles and fill out board descriptions (up to 500 characters). Pinners usually don’t see this text, but it is used for Pinterest to understand, categorize and determine topic relevance.

• Create Rich Pins. These automatically pull metadata from your website and give your Pins more context in search results.

TikTok SEO Tips

As the fastest-growing platform for search-based discovery, developing a TikTok SEO strategy offers a powerful opportunity to rank through content not just profiles.

• Use keyword-informed content ideas. Start with your existing SEO terms and explore TikTok’s predictive search to find trending variations.
  • For example, if you’re in the wedding industry, and you type in ‘wedding dress’ into TikTok, the top searches today that would make great SEO-fueled content are ‘wedding dresses I didn’t get’, ‘ wedding dresses for women over 50’, ‘wedding dresses plus size’, etc. Creating videos for your niche market with phrases that are already being searched is a surefire way to reach and capture the attention of your desired audience. 

• Incorporate keywords in audio and captions. Say your keywords in the video, and transcribe them in captions and hashtags.

• Use hashtags sparingly and strategically. Aim for 2–3 targeted hashtags. You can even integrate them into the video description text without the hash symbol to maintain flow.

• Focus on accessibility. Captions not only improve UX they can also support SEO, especially with TikTok’s emphasis on semantic relevance.

Twitter (X) SEO Tips

Twitter/X can play a strong role in both branded search and topical discoverability especially when tweets are indexed by Google.

• Optimize your bio with key terms. Use all 160 characters to include brand identifiers and descriptive, search-friendly phrases.

• Incorporate keywords in tweets. Use researched hashtags and phrases naturally within your tweet content to improve visibility.

• Add ALT text to images. Tweets with images get more engagement, and optimized ALT text can improve their visibility in search.

• Be consistent and active. Regular posting keeps your profile fresh and helps boost your indexed presence across platforms.

When it comes to social SEO, the best part is you don’t need a massive tool stack to get started. In fact, most of what you need is already built into the platforms you’re using every day. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube and even Twitter/X all have native features that support SEO, like alt text, searchable bios, trending hashtag tools and analytics dashboards. You just have to know where to look and how to use them strategically.

If you're trying to figure out what your audience is searching for, tools like TikTok’s search bar, Pinterest Trends or even Google Trends can help uncover relevant, real-time search terms. You can also use tools like AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked to dig into actual questions people are typing into search engines. Which is a goldmine for creating content that gets discovered.

And once your content is out there, tracking performance is key. This is where platforms like Dash Social come in. You can see which posts are driving the most engagement, understand what’s resonating and use predictive insights to guide future content decisions and discover what your audience is already talking about. It’s all about making sure the content you’ve optimized is actually performing the way you want it to.

At the end of the day, social SEO doesn’t require complex tools it just requires a smart, intentional strategy backed by the right insights.

‍What is social media SEO?

Social media SEO is the practice of optimizing your content and profiles on social platforms so they’re more discoverable both within the platform itself and on search engines like Google. It’s all about helping people find your brand when they’re actively searching, whether that’s in the Instagram search bar, on TikTok’s For You page or even through AI-powered tools like ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview.

Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on getting your website to rank in search results, social SEO is about showing up when people search for things like “best haircare for curls” or “fall outfit ideas” on social platforms. It means using keywords, hashtags, alt text and other platform features to boost your visibility, especially for non-branded, high-intent terms that can reach people before they even know who you are.

How should brands incorporate social SEO into an existing social media strategy? 

The easiest way for brands to incorporate social SEO into their strategy is to integrate the search optimization tips we’ve listed above into their daily social media tasks. These two strategies need to go hand-in-hand. Conduct preliminary research and create a list of keywords for your brand and products.  Let this focus set of keywords guide your text-based content on each social media platform. Where possible, add your keywords to hashtags, titles, descriptions, subtitles, captions, etc. The key to this is moderation, and if it doesn’t sound natural, do not force it.

Are my instagram posts searchable on Google?

Yes, if your account is public, some Instagram posts (like Reels and captions) can now be indexed and appear in Google search results. To improve visibility, use relevant keywords, alt text and keep your content public.

‍