To help you get the most from your social media marketing efforts, it’s best to include social media links in the right places, from your website to your Google Business Profile.
In this blog post Katya Shakarian, Social Media Manager at Ignite Visibility, will cover how to add social media links to a Google Business Profile, with some clear guidance from our social media expert.
What You’ll Learn:
- Understanding Social Profiles and Their Role in Google
- How Google Displays Social Profiles
- How Do I Add My Social Media Profiles to Google?
- Best Practices for Social Media Links
- Troubleshooting Common Issues With Social Media Links
- FAQs
My Expert Insight into Social Media Links for SEO
If you have social media profiles, you’ll want to maximize their visibility. Posting social media links to your Google Business Profile can not only get more people to see your brand, but it can also help build trust.
The more prominent your brand appears online, the more likely your audiences are to turn to you over your competitors. You’ll also be able to grow your following as more people discover your hubs when they search Google profiles.
Understanding Social Profiles and Their Role in Google
To begin, let’s look at how social profiles work and their importance in search.
Why Social Profiles Matter in Search Results
A social profile is an account that individuals or entities could create for any social media platform, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and others.
People can then find these profiles using Google searches or another social network profile finder, such as each platform’s native search engine.
There are a couple of key reasons you should know how to show a social media profile in Google search results:
- Increased Credibility and Visibility: By showing your social media links when people search Google profiles, your brand will appear more credible to audiences while also maximizing overall visibility online. In turn, you’ll also boost more sales, as 80% of social media marketers state that people purchase more products through social platforms than other channels.
- Better Navigation: Appearing for all social network profile finders will also make it easier for people to navigate your brand and improve the overall search experience.
How Google Displays Social Profiles
Google displays social profiles within a business’s knowledge panel, or knowledge graph, on the right side of search results. These panels condense relevant information in a concise format for ease of comprehension.
Among other information, they can show a list of social media profiles for people and businesses, with clickable social media links.
How Do I Add My Social Media Profiles to Google?
Google automatically discovers social profiles and chooses which to include, often testing different profiles for user engagement. You can still help update your knowledge panel by making a suggestion.
To suggest changes to a Knowledge Panel, you need to be a verified representative of the person or organization featured. This involves:
- Claiming the Knowledge Panel: Search for the entity’s name, click on “Claim this knowledge panel,” and follow the verification steps.
- Verification Process: Sign in with an official site recognized by Google, such as YouTube, Search Console, Facebook, or Twitter. Providing verifiable and official sources increases the likelihood of your suggestions being accepted.
Using Profile Schema Markup
To specify a markup for your social media profiles, follow Google’s guidelines by using the schema.org vocabulary and the JSON-LD markup format. JSON-LD is an open standard for embedding structured data onto webpages, enabling Google to recognize the data as a social profile.
Schema markup, a type of structured data, allows search engines to understand the context of your webpage. By combining schema and JSON-LD as profile schema, you can help Google ensure you show up in a social media profile search.
To do this, publish a markup on a page of your official website without blocking Googlebot by robots.txt. You’ll also need to include a Person or Organization record within the markup using the URL of your official site and the “sameAs” for the URLs of your official social media pages.
How to Specify Multiple Social Sites with JSON-LD
Keeping in stride with the schema.org language, use this simple template to specify multiple social media sites that are associated with one organization:
To specify a person instead of an organization, use the same template as above, but replace the “type” with “Person” instead of “Organization.” Then, use the person’s name instead of the organization’s name.
How to Specify using Microdata or RDF
As long as you’re using the same schema.org types as the example, you’re able to use microdata or RDFa markups instead of JSON-LD. An example of this is:
How to Test and Publish the Specified Markup
Your structured data that’s enclosed with the <script types=application/ld+json”> tags is able to be inserted into any HTML page of your brand’s official website. Then, it will be crawled and indexed by Google.
You’ll need to first verify and test the markup to determine how it will be processed by Google. Simply paste the HTML source from your markup page into Google’s Structured Data Tool (or add a URL).
Google will then crawl the code and then tell you if it validates.
On the right side of the box, you’ll get the All Good that’s highlighted in green, as well as highlighted errors, if any. The box will allow you to expand the Organization markup element to see your social media markup. For more in depth results, click Results to filter down to Social Profile Links to see the social media structured data.
You can then resubmit your entire site or just individual URLs with the fetch as Googlebot tool.
How Would a Social Media Site Know My Google Account?
Linking your social media sites and Google account can be even more beneficial in helping you show up in search.
Most social media platforms allow you to sign in with your Google credentials. Creating an account and signing up with your Google account on each platform will give social media sites more information about your Google account, including your Google Business Profile.
Best Practices for Social Media Links
To maximize your brand’s visibility in a social media profile search, follow these key best practices:
Maintain Consistency Across All Platforms
Align all of your social media profiles with your brand and other social media links. Using the same visuals, messaging, and links will not only help you remain uniform in search results, but it will also boost more recognition and trust among audiences.
Regularly Update Your Profiles
Keep your profiles consistently active and updated with the latest information. If any details about your business or branding change, all of your social media profiles must reflect this change.
Test and Validate Your Schema Markup
Any time you implement schema for your profiles, be sure to test and validate it using Google’s Structured Data Testing tool. Doing so will help confirm whether it’s working.
Incorporating Profiles into Your Digital Strategy
Regularly posting on your platforms and including rich business information in your profiles can help you show up in search results. Posts could also drive more engagement on your website, from blog posts to main pages, indicating to Google that this content is worth ranking.
Tracking Performance
Platforms like Facebook have native measurement tools to help you see what kinds of traffic your profile is getting. You’ll be able to see how many people are visiting your profile from Google, which will indicate your rankings. You can also track other social media KPIs to gauge the overall success of your social marketing efforts.
Troubleshooting Common Issues With Social Media Links
You might experience certain issues that keep you from showing up when people search Google profiles.
These issues could include:
- Incorrect or outdated schema markup that is no longer relevant, such as schema detailing the wrong business name or link.
- Unverified profiles or incomplete information on social media profiles.
One way to resolve potential issues is to revalidate your website using Google Search Console, which you can do by taking the following steps:
- Sign into Google Search Console.
- Click Add Property and provide your website’s URL.
- Choose one of the main verification methods, including HTML tags, Domain Name Provider, Google Tag Manager, or Google Analytics.
- Click Verify to complete the process.
FAQs
1. How does Google know my social media accounts?
If you’re wondering how to get social media profiles in Google My Business, you can do so by incorporating schema markup and aligning your social media profiles with your website.
You may also ask, “How would a social media site know my Google account?” By signing into your social profiles with a Google account, you can easily connect these platforms to your social media.
2. Can I control which profiles are displayed in search?
To some degree, you can control which profiles appear in search engines. In most cases, this will involve changing privacy settings on each social media platform. You may be able to prevent some profiles from showing if you make them and their content private.
3. What happens if I don’t use schema markup?
Schema markup makes it easier for Google to understand your profiles and relate them to your brand. Neglecting to use it could make it harder for your social media links to show up in Google when people search for you online.
Easily Get Social Media Links on Google With Ignite Visibility
Want to get your social media profiles to appear in Google searches? Ignite Visibility can help with this and many other aspects of social media marketing. We also have the resources to develop a fully integrated digital marketing solution that implements social media and much more.
When you work with us, you’ll be able to:
- Develop high-quality social media profiles on top platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok
- Use schema and SEO tactics to maximize your social media profiles’ visibility in search results
- Regularly update your profiles with current information and new posts
- Connect social profiles to your website
- And more!
Contact us today to learn more about how we can build your next social media strategy.
