Master the social search environment

Isa says: “Master social search.”

By ‘social search’ do you mean ‘not Google’?

“Yes, exactly. For the few who have been working in SEO as long as we have, we’ve always talked about social signals. However, we never really leaned into it because we didn’t understand it. We either didn’t think it was that important or we wanted to stick to what we knew.

Now I find that it needs to be a huge part of your SEO strategy. Social search, social intent, behaviour, etc. all need to be part of your strategy.”

Where can you go to discover what people are searching for on social media?

“Well, the vice president of Google said that 40% of younger generations – Gen Z and younger millennials – are using TikTok for their discovery. They’re using TikTok when they want to find places to eat rather than Google Maps. They’re using TikTok when they’re travelling, to find places they want to see.

If you search for ‘best beaches in Bali’ on Google, it’s going to give you an article from a brand or a dated article from 3 years ago. Whereas, if you go on TikTok, it will have user-generated content that’s got the most engagement and the most likes, which is obviously authentic. User-generated content that resonates with many is often interpreted as a reliable recommendation. That’s what people are going by at the moment.

In terms of where you look, look at the social platforms themselves. Look at hashtags and look at the trends that are getting really popular. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Facebook differs slightly due to its distinct audience, which is more inclined towards conversation and community building.

In terms of discoverability, you are thinking more about TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. They always have insights tabs, hashtags, engagement, and all the topics and trends that you need to follow. That would be a really good start.”

How do you make sure that you’re covering the right opportunities for your market?

“This is where you align your SEO search data with your social data because you’ll find a lot of it actually aligns really well. If you’re looking at long tail keywords and the sort of questions people are asking, you’ll find that aligns with the trends that people are looking for in social, because it’s all the same audience.

The same people who are going on search engines like Google, asking for certain things, will then go to social platforms like Instagram or TikTok if they can’t find their answer in the SERPs. It’s about aligning the two.

If you then do your search discovery with keyword insights – i.e., looking at Google Trends or Answer the Public to see what’s emerging – you’ll find that a lot of the same trends are emerging on social as well.

I also recommend exploring social platforms where your target audience is most active. Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest will have the most insights data and Facebook is good for social listening. Social listening is a huge part of finding your audience, your market, and how that aligns with your SEO strategy as well.

While TikTok is traditionally associated with a younger demographic, go deeper into your analytics as the older demographic is growing rapidly. Also, consider the specific sectors you’re targeting: platforms like Pinterest excel for fashion and interior design, while Instagram is well-suited for luxury and travel.”

Can you create the same content for social as you can for your website?

“Absolutely, but you need to have social in mind. Reels, for example, are short-form video content, so you need to find out how to cut through. You can create the same content, but you need to cut it down and format it in a way that is more adaptable for social.

If you’re creating a travel guide on 5 Restaurants to Eat in Bali for TikTok, for example, you need that audience engaged in the first 2-3 seconds. You need to be really quick because the attention span of someone on a social platform is going to be a lot shorter than someone reading a long-form thousand-word article on Condé Nast Traveler.

They’re also going to be at different stages of their user/customer journey, with a different amount of time. You need to figure out that social behaviour: what people are doing at that time, where they’re going to be, and what device they’re looking at as well.

Consider all of that and tweak the content a bit. Same concept, same theme, same insight and data, but structured in a way that agrees more with the social platform.”

Is ‘Bali’ an insight into what you’re looking for personally?

“I took a trip to Bali a couple of years ago and it’s kind of how I really started to understand the importance of social. I went for a month, and I realised I was that user who didn’t find what I was looking for on Google. Most of the recommendations I got for restaurants, beaches, hotels, and places to go were all found on TikTok – and I’m not the target TikTok customer.

That’s what got me thinking. We used to always go to Google and then hit up TripAdvisor and those big travel channels and go with what they said. Now, we’re actually getting real-time recommendations from people who are already out there and have had the experience. They’re saying, ‘Go to the Gili Islands. I had this drink that you need to have. Here’s the beach. I’m actually taking a video of the beach itself.’

It’s like having virtual reality glasses on, where users can go in and see what they are looking for, rather than someone writing a review or creating a slick, on-brand piece of content. It’s people getting into the grit of what they want and what they’re looking for.”

How different is search behaviour on TikTok compared with Google?

“With TikTok, we are getting lazy. We have things offered to us. It’s way more about discovery. You can actively search (and I sometimes do, particularly because of the work I’m in) but most of the time it gets served to you. If you search for something once or watch 2/3/4 videos, then the TikTok algorithm will decide that this is what you’re interested in, and it will start serving you similar content.

All you need to do is give it a little tweak and then it gets it, and starts serving you the content that you want to look for. It’s the same way that streaming channels like Netflix work. You’ll watch a couple of films or TV series and then it’ll go, ‘You might also like X, you might also like Y, etc.’ It’s the same way social platforms and their algorithms work.

Because of that, we have become a bit lazier, which means it’s less about typing in keywords and more about it being served to you. You could argue that it gets you into a bit of an echo chamber, and a little tribe. Then, you’re not getting the vast majority of what’s out there.

We’re living in an attention economy right now. All the social and search platforms are trying to do is get your attention. They’re going to offer you the things that you’ve looked at or shown interest in because they don’t want to lose your engagement.”

How does an SEO get their content into the echo chamber?

“A lot of the time, departments work very much in silos. The SEO department and the paid search department work separately from the social department, and no one really talks to one another. It’s a case of merging all the departments and looking at the user journey.

If I’m booking a holiday, looking to buy a sofa, or looking to take a hiking trip, I don’t just put that into Google and then, bish-bash-bosh, I’m gone. The discovery is very different. I might go and look at a review, then I might go on Google, then I might go to a certain brand page or website, and then go on social. We need to follow the customer.

Customer habits have changed. We’re not just going and searching, we’re using different platforms to get our information, looking at user-generated content, looking at what the reviews are saying, and then making an informed decision on what we’re going to purchase or what we’re going to go for. That’s how we, as search marketers, need to be thinking.

What I’ve been doing with my clients lately is using social intent to qualify what people are actually looking at. This is the content that they’re looking at. This is what people who are interested in, let’s say, sustainable fashion are talking about on social. If you then bring that in and feed it into your search insights, then you’re creating content that covers both bases.

It covers search intent, and people looking for stuff, but you’re also creating content that aligns with social discovery and social intent. You’re getting 2 for the price of 1 if you merge them right at the start of your strategy.

When you’re coming up with campaigns and content, if you’ve always got an ear to what people in the social world are talking about, then you don’t miss a trick. You can align search intent with social intent and merge them together.”

How do you ensure that the content is exactly what the user is looking for?

“It is a case of reviewing what already exists and trying to make something better, but it’s also about reoccurring themes.

The other day, I was showing a client an example about selling patio chairs over the summer. I used loads of different keywords, looking at Google Trends, Exploding Topics, and SEMrush. Then I went onto social like TikTok and Pinterest. I also went onto Reddit and Quora to see what conversations were there.

A recurring theme emerged from AnswerThePublic, which was looking for chairs for people who are bigger – the inclusivity of patio chairs for bigger people, taller people, etc. That theme kept coming up in every single instance.

That is an example of looking from a search point of view, looking at social and other conversations, and listening. There were posts on Quora saying, ‘I want to buy a patio chair, but I’m worried about finding one that’s going to fit me because I’m a bigger size.’ That’s telling you, from all sides of search and social, that inclusive patio chairs are a topic people want to talk about. That’s the content that you then create.

You’re still covering the top line of ‘patio chairs’. You’re talking about outdoor patio chairs in the summer, you’re keeping seasonality, but then you’re touching on a topic that no one’s answering. People are asking, but no one’s answering it. It’s about leaning into recurring themes that you notice while you do your research, and then creating content around it.”

Is the language that they’re using important as well?

“Absolutely. You merge it all together and then you make it make sense in terms of how people would search for that. Then, you literally create content that joins it all up, and you’re covering both bases of social discovery and search discovery. Obviously, you’re also making sure you optimize it to be discovered in social.

You’re not just thinking about getting your website optimized so Google can find it. Your website also needs to be optimized so social platforms can find it as well. You need to think about that. When you’re putting stuff up on Instagram, it’s now giving you all the tools for SEO, like alt tags for your images.

There’s so much you can do, but people aren’t doing it because they don’t see social as a search platform. You should absolutely be doing it, with TikTok, Pinterest, etc. as well. Make sure you’re optimizing social for search and vice versa.”

Now, with users transitioning between social and traditional search, how does an SEO measure the value of such a convoluted user journey?

“You can gauge this through metrics like referral traffic from social channels and assisted conversions. Additionally, the level of engagement your social content receives is a strong indicator. If you’ve got social content and it’s getting views, likes, and people asking queries, you’re on the right track. As for traffic, you can measure this by increased page views and conversions. Social media campaigns, in particular, have a proven track record of driving sales through social buzz and word-of-mouth marketing.

There are companies now that don’t even bother having a website. They just create a TikTok store and an Instagram store and they sell directly from social. These are all signs that you need to be thinking of social commerce as well as social discovery. Think about how you bind the two to make sure you’ve got those key metrics in place.

Sometimes, people may start on Google but not find what they want. So, they go on TikTok and then search. Sometimes they might discover something on TikTok and then go on Google to see what’s there.

One thing I will say about social platforms is that the trust still isn’t as strong as it is on search platforms. Platforms like TikTok are filled with misinformation and disinformation. For some industries like travel or luxury for example, though social media platforms provide valuable insights and user-generated content, consumers typically turn to search engines like Google to make their purchase.

This is due to their established reputation for reliability and trustworthiness.

If I Google something, and something comes up, there’s an assumption that the brand or platform that shows up in the results is going to be reputable.

This is why they both need to work hand in hand. I do say cheekily, ‘Watch out Google, TikTok’s coming for your crown.’ However, maybe not yet, because that trust hasn’t been built yet. Platforms like TikTok still need to work on vetting their content because not all of it is 100% credible.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Stop following the algorithm. Stop following the Google ranking factors and all of that stuff.

Follow your audience – where they go, where they hang out, what they’re searching for, what they’re interested in, how their buyer behaviour has changed, and how their search intent has changed.

Get into their minds and figure out how they are looking for stuff. Become the customer. You are also the customer. We are marketers, but we’re also customers. How would you find something? How would you discover something? Use that to inform your strategy way more than you are already.”

Isa Lavahun is a Search Strategist and Trainer at LAVLY, and you can find her over at digiprcomms.com.