Hootsuite and SEO: Friends or Foes?

Hootsuite is an incredibly dynamic social media dashboard that allows you to track, monitor, and manage various social media profiles, including the usual suspects – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – as well as some not-so-usual suspects – Mixi and MySpace. Some would-be users express concern that using Hootsuite will negatively impact SEO efforts. Is that the case? And, can it positively impact SEO efforts?

First, to end the suspense, Hootsuite can be a great SEO tool. There had been concern that using the ow.li URL shortener can impact your search rankings. But here’s the good news: Hootsuite fixed this mid-2012 and now ow.li uses the 301 redirect. This is far more search engine friendly and won’t affect the ranking you’ve earned.

Another concern is that posting from Hootsuite to Facebook can damage, or at least not promote, user engagement. EdgeRank, Facebook’s algorithm, determines how many and which followers will see your posts. Using a third-party platform can decrease your reach. This is an easy enough fix: monitor Facebook via Hoosuite, but post directly from your Facebook account.

Now on to the benefits in terms of SEO: more and more, the line between SEO and SMO are blurring, and outright disappearing. Social is an important part of marketing and branding efforts, and a tool like Hootsuite can help you get a handle on your profiles. You can see activity streams from different accounts, as well as track mentions, comments, +1s, etc., search public posts, and track specific keywords. If you are talking, being talked to, or being talked about, then you’ll be able to see it on Hootsuite. Another useful feature is analytics, which you can customise to meet your needs and give you the data you need.

Hootsuite offers a wide range of features and tools with which to manage your social media presence, which will only help with your integrated SEO/SMO/Search Marketing efforts.