Social media optimization is the key to ensuring your posts show up in search results. When your profiles, visuals, hashtags, and post structure align with what social algorithms and search engines look for, your content reaches more of the right people and drives them back to your website or profile. This article breaks down the anatomy of an algorithm-optimized social media post, with strategic advice to improve your online visibility, engagement, and site conversions.
Table of Contents
- Typical Structure of an Algorithm-Optimized Post
- Using Social Media Apps Their Way for Audience Research
- Optimizing Social for Search Engines and AI Search: Enabling Public Indexing
- Social Media Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
“Why aren’t my posts doing well on social media?” is the most common question we hear on consultation calls with brand-new business contacts. Nine out of ten times, the answer is simple: their posts aren’t optimized.
Social media optimization is a tactic most effective when deployed as part of a strong content marketing strategy. Your social posts are extensions of your lead generation and client acquisition efforts. The right content attracts the right audience, convinces them to convert into site visitors or on-page profile leads, and disqualifies the rest.
But none of your efforts will be seen if your social posts don’t follow the typical structure necessary for social apps to crawl and assess your content and intended audience.
The Typical Structure of an Algorithm-Optimized Post (Any Social App)
Below is an example of an algorithm-optimized social media post that adheres to Google’s quality rater E-E-A-T guidelines. The advice in bullets takes into consideration how text, visual images, and videos signal to social app algorithms of your content’s relevance to app users.
I. Professional Profile Picture or Logo
Your profile picture, like you, is the face of your professional reputation and establishes in the viewer’s mind the quality of service they can expect from you. If you choose to use your logo instead, ensure it’s large enough to be visible on a phone or tablet.
- Your Face Should Be Visible: Profile pics should be headshots so everyone can see your face on a phone, desktop, laptop, and tablet.
- Keep it Friendly and Professional: Be sure you’re smiling or in the middle of an activity that pertains to your business.
- Remember the Click-Through Experience: Your profile picture is clickable, so keep in mind to maintain that what they see needs to be consistent with what is on your profile page.
II. Name + Industry Keywords or Company Name
This is your chance to include important keywords and audience-relevant search terms that help you rank among organic searches within the social app.
- Relevant keywords: Keep to 1-2 relevant keywords. Social apps know when you’re “keyword stuffing” in the same way Google does.
- Keep it Simple: Remember, you don’t have that much space here, so get to the point of what you do or what your company does in terms they understand.
III. Text Description
The descriptions are always tricky because some apps only allow a limited number of characters. So plan out your content in advance and format the copy across all your social apps (if you use many).
- Important Points at the Top: Some apps, like LinkedIn and Facebook, truncate the top three lines, so capture the point of your post at the top. This text needs to be enticing enough to convince someone to click the “…more” or “expand” text at the end of this section.
- Expand Your Primary Argument: Once expanded, your primary argument should include bullet points of your process and sources. Include important search terms and keywords here.
- Whitespace for a Good Flow: Write with plenty of whitespace, but not too much that it interrupts your reader’s flow.
- End with a Strong Call-to-Action: Keep them reading. Here, you want to take them to the full resource on your website or LinkedIn article URL, or have them visit your profile, where you have a clear way to get in touch.
- Use Emojis if Appropriate: Only use emojis if it’s in keeping with your brand voice and tone. No one expects or wants emojis from a lawyer’s office, but they don’t mind them from an ad agency.
- Linking Out to Your Website or Profile: Some social sites don’t allow links in your text or video, so in those cases, link to your bio, and ensure your full content resource, blog, or video is a link on your profile. You can also use tools like LinkTree to house all your short links.
IV. Visual Portion (Visual, Photo, or Short Video)
The visual accompaniment to your text description is just as important as the text itself. Take care not to treat this section as an afterthought.
- Visuals as Complements: The visual isn’t there to repeat what’s in the text; it should serve as a standalone content asset with its own value offer.
- Second Opportunity to Convince: The visual is additional real estate, so take advantage of the chance to further explain your argument or add context to your overall topic. Include diagrams, flow-charts, or instructional carousels where possible.
- Create What the App Needs: Some apps lean heavily into video, so if that’s the case, create a quick video that does what a visual image or diagram would do, with your narration.
- Pay Attention to Detail: Social apps read video, images, and text. They determine if your video has multiple people, one person, background detail, audio recognition, and captions. Everything counts, so pay attention to detail.
V. Relevant #Hashtags
Hashtags are still very much part of the social media search experience. Within a social post, hashtags not only indicate to the viewer the intended audience, but also appear within general in-app search results when typing in related keywords or the hashtag itself.
- Relevance: Your hashtags should be industry-relevant to your target client base.
- Topic-Rich: A little time spent on hashtag research can help you learn about niche problems or recurring topics specific to your audience members. Use hashtags to signal to viewers that you understand and can speak to these issues.
- The Right Number: There’s no minimum number of hashtags to use in a post, but you want to be careful not to disrupt the reader’s experience. Too many hashtags can look “spammy.”
Do you publish blogs too? Read the Anatomy of the Search Engine and AI-Optimized Blog Article to improve your overall blog reach and search visibility, and to learn about Google’s ranking factors in-depth.
Using Social Media Apps Their Way for Audience Research
Social media rewards activity. Ultimately, all the big social media apps make their money through ad revenue. Their goal is to create the largest, most active online community to entice businesses to spend their marketing budgets on ads that can appear to the largest audience possible.
For you, this means the more you use social media apps in the way they recommend, based on how they’re built, the more likely your content will be recommended to new people. Better quality activity enhances everyone’s social media experience, which keeps people on the apps.
The backend programming behind social media ranking signals can get quite complex, so below is a basic diagram that very simply explains how relationships and interest-based activity help improve the likelihood of being shown to new people.
While using social media apps, focus on the following:
- Creating content of interest to your ideal audience.
- Follow accounts and engage with content similar to the profiles of your ideal client base.
- Follow company profiles that your ideal client base would likely follow for industry information.
To get the best market research experience, train your feed to look similar to what they’d see.
For a more in-depth explanation on how LinkedIn and Instagram specifically rank and recommend content on their apps, read our article, LinkedIn Strategy: How Small Businesses Get in Front of Prospective Clients, and the article, Instagram’s Algorithms: How Instagram Delivers Ranked Content & Its Impact on Small Business Social Media Marketing.
Optimizing Social for Search Engines and AI Search: Enabling Public Indexing
In the same way you optimize your website to effectively showcase your services, expertise, case studies, student life moments, modality, or approach, your social media requires the same level of effort.
Google and other search engines index content distributed on public social accounts (professional, business, or creator), just like they do for crawlable websites. This added online visibility within organic search results means your social media content should follow Google’s quality rater E-E-A-T guidelines.
- Experience: The first-hand experience of the creator.
- Expertise: The expertise of the creator.
- Authority: The authoritativeness of the creator, the main content itself, and the website.
- Trustworthiness: The extent to which the page is [trustworthy] accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.
You can use these tools to confirm if your profile visibility is enabled for search engines to crawl and index your social content.
- Enable your visibility settings on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Google Search Console: Use the URL Inspection Tool within the Google Search Console to check the index status of a specific URL (like a LinkedIn article or individual post).
- Search Engine Operators: Perform a site search using the operator “site:linkedin.com,” for example, to search which pages on the domain have been indexed by Google and appear in the results.
Not enough time to create speaking videos? Learn how to ethically and effectively use faceless marketing to scale your social media content quickly.
Social Media Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is social media optimization?
The process of updating your content and profiles to adhere to the requirements and standards of social media apps to rank in their organic search functions and search engines, and AI search tools.
How many followers do I need to be ranked and recommended on social media apps?
There’s no minimum requirement for the number of followers, and social media apps don’t prioritize larger accounts. All apps have made huge strides (and continue to do so) in showcasing great content from small business, creator, and professional accounts. Some apps do have a minimum follower requirement if you’re interested in monetizing your account (that’s different).
What is the ideal length of a well-ranked social media post?
Just like there’s no minimum blog article length, there’s no minimum post description length. There can, however, be character limitations (like on X or Bluesky).
How should I use my social media posts on my website?
Most social media apps allow you to embed your posts on your website, which is a great way to showcase carousels and reels that performed well on social as part of your website experience.
We recommend testing any intro videos or approach videos on your homepage, embedding carousels or informational posts within your blog articles or service pages. You can also find WordPress plugins that show your social media feed on any page, like Juicer, WP Social Ninja, or Tagembed.
How do I increase my followership?
You can use QR codes on business cards or print material to take someone to your website, where your social links are present in the header and footer, or to your profile directly.
Engage with people on social media apps, repost their interesting content, and follow them to encourage a reciprocal effort on their part. Ensure your social media profiles are linked out from your Google Business Profile and any profiles on listings and directories. By posting optimized social media content, you’ll automatically rank within the app’s algorithms, which will inevitably yield new followers.
Do I need to post every day on social media?
Thankfully, no! We aim to post on our own channels and for clients three times a week, but what’s more important is that you adhere to the different posting formats on each app.
For example, Instagram’s organic post options include single posts, multiple image posts (or carousels), reels, and stories. They encourage you to post a variety of formats regularly.
How can I be more intentional in the way I use social media?
The key to understanding your potential impact and success on social media apps is to understand whether your target audience is even active on the app and the issues and concerns they face.
We always recommend building a marketing strategy that digs into the research behind your target markets, their industries, marketplace behaviors, and interests. Then you can build content to publish on the apps in the formats they require.
Let’s Talk Social Media Optimization and Lead Generation Strategy
Let’s discuss your social media optimization strategy and the right social platforms for your business.
