As you know, social networks especially Facebook and Twitter are becoming more and more influential in users’ behaviors. So, many website owners took advantage of this to develop their websites by connecting them to these social networks.
However, to share your website content on Facebook and Twitter effectively, you need to optimize the content first to make it display well. This includes optimizing the content to not only display well but also be more suitable for users. Thanks to that, you can attract more users on social networks. Thus, you can get more visitors to your site as well as increase traffic.
In this article, we’re going to talk about how to do it so that you can apply these tips in real practice.
There are many techniques to optimize your website for social networking sites, from content and technical elements to other factors on your website. I will show you the detailed way to optimize each element.
Content Optimization
It can be said that content is the core element for the website. Of course, the more attractive and useful the content is, the more users will read it. When people find boring content on Facebook and Twitter or even a duplicate one, I guess they will skip and ignore that information immediately. So, no one seems to want to visit your website anymore.
The question now is, how to make your content really attractive to users on social networks?
Research User’s Behavior and Habits
First, you should know about users’ habits, or how they interact on social networks. So that, you can understand what they like, what they want, what they usually care about on social media. Then, we can find the right interesting content to attract them. It means that you have to find out what users are searching for, so you can create content that suits their needs. Thus, you will draw in more targeted audiences.
When your customers read the content that they find relevant and useful on your website, they are likely to follow your website for a long time. Since then, they will become your loyal fans and get back to your site as well as read more in the future. It means that your website’s organic traffic will increase significantly from these loyal audiences. Apparently, your website score and rank will be higher, and the search engines will highly evaluate your website. Moreover, when they visit your website more frequently, it will be easier for you to lead them to the product pages then make an order.
When analyzing users’ behavior and habits, you should also pay attention to the writing style in the content. We should know which wording and writing style they like so that we can orient the content to fit them. As they will feel that the writing style is more suitable, they can remember information easily, enjoy reading more, and stay on the site longer.
Take the targeted audiences as law students for example. If your website is only for searching for general information, you can write the content in the academic style. But, provided that you intend to share that information on social media with these students, you need to find out what writing style they like. If they like funny style, you need to express academic content in a funny way. It helps you attract the right targeted readers through social media in addition. I guess this content will make their study more interesting and students will acknowledge more of this information.
Obviously, you can’t immediately have all the information about the type of content and writing style that your users like. So, you have to figure it out by creating different content and sharing it on social networks for testing. Then, you can see what kind of content users interact with and like most.
Prime Time for Posting
You should not only pay attention to the content but also need to find out the “prime time” to post and share it on Facebook and Twitter. To know when the “prime time” is, you also need to analyze all the statistics related to users’ habits and behavior.
Specifically, you need to see when they are usually online and active most. You also need to know when users like, share, comment on your post most. We'll choose the time period when there are the most people online. So, users may immediately approach the information and won’t confuse it with the old content. Moreover, users will interact more with the post and read more compared to other times.
In contrast, if you share your post in the "dead time”, no one will be online to read that content. For example, you sell midnight-snack but you post them during the daytime. So no one will read it or even when they read your post, they may easily ignore it.
Technical Optimization
While the content gives readers useful information, the technique will bring a good visual experience. When you see a dish being not decorated beautifully, you won’t want to eat it, right?
Likewise, no matter how useful your content is, the reader may not want to read it if it’s not presented suitably. Presenting the content is the first impression of your article, so you need to do it well.
At least, you need to make sure that the image and text are fully displayed without any problem. So, to do it, these elements must conform to the social network’s standards.
Title and Meta Description
The title and meta description are the two most important factors in displaying the content of an article on social networks. When you share your content on Facebook and Twitter, it will be shown like the below image.
Thus, you need to write an attractive title and meta description to attract more readers at the first sight. But, social networking sites have rules for each one. For example:
- The title of Facebook can only be up to 60 characters
- The title of Twitter is about 65 characters
- The meta description of Facebook is less than 70 characters
- Twitter’s description is about two sentences with about 135 characters
If you write them longer than the standard, a part of this content will be hidden. In addition, there is a small tip that you should add keywords to the title and meta description so that audiences can easily catch the main content.
A meta description is not available in WordPress by default. So you can add it manually or use plugins to add it. To save a lot of time, you can use a plugin like Slim SEO to add meta descriptions automatically.
Image Optimization
Normally, the information shared on social networks is mainly images. Almost all users prefer to see images rather than read. So, your article without images will find it difficult to attract them.
However, not every image is suitable. Thus, social networking sites have their own standards for this. For example, when you share a post from a website on Facebook or Twitter, the featured images of articles may be cropped, enlarged, or reduced according to the standards of each platform. To avoid it, you should set the image following those standards. So that, they will be displayed properly as you want on social networks.
At Slim SEO, we recommend the following image sizes for posting on Facebook and Twitter:
- Facebook: 1200 x 628 pixels
- Twitter: 800 x 418 pixels
For reference, please follow the rules here.
Video Optimization
It is undeniable that video is a good way to convey information. Thus, it is great if your article contains interesting videos. Social networking sites also strongly appreciate you sharing information in the form of videos. The reason is that it contains not only useful content but also entertainment information that users are keen on.
Likewise, your videos also need to meet the standards of social platforms to display beautifully when posting. For example, you can refer to the Facebook video standards here. For video optimization, you have to ensure the frame rate, video format, and quality of videos as well.
There are many ways to share your articles on social networks. Normally, to share the post, you can copy the link of the article and paste it into the callouts on social networks. But this is not the best way. You should create sharing buttons. Thanks to that button, the post can be automatically shared on personal Facebook and Twitter with only one click.
When users feel the information is useful and want to share it on Facebook and Twitter while reading, what should they do? If your website has available sharing buttons, users just need to click the button to post the content immediately to their personal social page. What a convenient way!
Other Factors
Responsiveness
Have you ever seen the text or images on a website displayed too small or too large when using a phone or tablet? If so, it means that the website is not well optimized for display on small screen devices.
According to many researchs, users often use phones and tablets to browse Facebook and Twitter. Displaying the content well on those devices is an important thing. When using a phone to surf the website, users will definitely find it uncomfortable and difficult to read if they see small texts. They do not even want to read anymore and leave your website.
To avoid that case, you need to have the right interface for such devices. The first thing is that your website needs to have a responsive design. When the website has it, change the layout to fit the screen.
Page Loading Speed
You know it, users often use phones and tablets to surf websites. So, they need wifi, 3g, 4g for the internet connection. However, their signal quality may not be good enough every time. That’s why having a fast and light website will be a highlight.
If it takes more than 5 seconds to load the page, your site is too heavy and slow. This strongly affects the user experience when they have to wait a long time or even without loading the entire page. At that time, they may leave your site and not even want to come back. You should make sure your website is optimized in capacity and page loading speed. There are many ways to optimize it. We have a series about different ways to speed up your website that you can dig in.
Last Words
In the current development of social networks, it is necessary that you take advantage of this to share information on your website. This helps you to attract more readers and increase the website’s traffic. In fact, there are many ways to optimize, so you should do it wisely to avoid wasting effort, money, and time.
I hope these tips mentioned above will help you to optimize your website effectively and leverage the power of social networks well. Good luck! And, feel free to share it with your friends!