Combining Social Media and WordPress to Gain More Traffic

Social media and websites go hand in hand, whether you are attempting to gain more visitors to your WordPress site or simply want to allow your visitors to easily share articles to their favorite social media profiles.  Integrating the use of social media with your WordPress site has become a necessity and is easier than ever.  Thanks to a number of WordPress plugins and some simple tips, you can start using the power of social media to get more traffic to your WordPress site.

Use Social Media Sharing Buttons

The first step in adding social media integration is the use of sharing buttons.  There are many WordPress plugins that will add sharing buttons in a widget or in another location on your website, such as the top or bottom of each article.  When you have these buttons in plain view, users will see them and can quickly share your WordPress pages to their friends and family with the click of a button.  Not only can this bring in more visitors, it can build backlinks to your website.  As more people share your articles on social media sites and leave comments on posts, the amount of social media chatter related to your site will increase, which is one of the main factors in Google’s search engine rankings.

Link to Your Social Media Profiles

In addition to including sharing buttons, you should also have links to your own social media profiles or profiles that you have created for your business or blog.  A good location for these is along your sidebar or in the footer.  Again, there are plugins that will handle the placement of these links.  Another way to include links is to include a feed from your profile on your website.  Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus all have HTML code that you can copy and paste into a widget that will display information about your profile, including your most recent posts.  Facebook refers to this as a Like Box, Twitter calls theirs a widget, and Google Plus has badges.  Whatever they are referred to as, they help keep your visitors aware that you have a social media presence.

Become Active on Social Media

While the first two suggestions will help with the on-site integration of social media on your WordPress site, you should spend some time promoting yourself on social media.  Join a community and start actively sharing helpful information, commenting on others posts, and occasionally sharing links to your own articles.  When you join a community on any social media platform, make sure you read any rules or regulations that the community may have to keep a moderator from deleting or removing your post or comment.

By providing links to your own social media profiles, adding sharing buttons, and being more active on social media, you can start taking advantage of all that social media has to offer.  More people use social media to find websites, products, and other online information than ever before.  The word of mouth provided by social media is an indispensable tool that every WordPress site owner should pay attention to.