How Can SEO and Social Media Work Together?

Digital Marketing / August 19, 2025

In recent years, the most effective digital strategies have had one thing in common: they’re fully integrated. SEO, social media, and paid media no longer live in isolated lanes. They converge to create a cohesive ecosystem that reflects the modern consumer journey. As we move into 2025, this convergence is no longer a nice-to-have… It’s essential.

Several major shifts have unlocked a new level of SEO and social media synergy:

1. People Are Searching Everywhere

Search doesn’t start and stop with Google anymore. A 14-year-old looking for skincare tips might head straight to TikTok. A developer might jump into Reddit. A millennial planning a vacation might scan Instagram for inspo before asking ChatGPT for hotel prices. These platforms aren’t just for content consumption; they’re now search engines in their own right.

2. Google Now Indexes Instagram Posts

As of July 2025, Google began crawling and indexing public Instagram content. This is a game-changer. Your brand’s Reels, carousels, and even caption copy can now influence your organic visibility on Google. This levels the playing field between traditional web content and social content in SERPs.

3. LLMs Reward Brands with Strong Web Presence

With the widespread adoption of AI search tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, etc.), your brand needs more than just a few keyword-optimized blog posts. LLMs synthesize data from across the web (social mentions, backlinks, Reddit threads, reviews, content tone, and sentiment) to answer user queries. If your brand doesn’t show up consistently across these touchpoints, you won’t make it into the conversation; that’s one of the key aspects of Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO.

If your SEO and social media teams aren’t working together, you’re missing opportunities for compounded visibility, richer content, and stronger authority signals. 

But before we dive into how to make it work, let’s go back to basics.

SEO vs Social Media: What’s the Difference?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your web presence (typically through website content, technical structure, and backlinks) to rank higher on search engines like Google. Its strength lies in driving high-intent traffic, building long-term visibility, and establishing trust through authoritative content.

Social Media Marketing focuses on engaging and growing communities on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X. It’s where your brand builds awareness, showcases personality, drives engagement, and sparks conversations.

Traditionally, these were treated as separate disciplines: SEO was focused on being found in search, while social media centred around building community and sparking engagement. 

One optimized for algorithms; the other thrived on connection.

But that’s no longer the case.

The Line Between SEO and Social Media Is Blurring

In 2025, SEO best practices aren’t just for your website, they apply to your social content too. Captions, descriptions, and even hashtags can be optimized to improve discoverability on both the platform’s algorithm (e.g., Instagram’s Explore page, TikTok’s For You feed) and external search engines like Google.

Likewise, your social media activity now feeds back into your SEO performance:

• An insightful LinkedIn post can earn backlinks if it’s quoted or embedded in articles.
• A viral TikTok with useful product information might appear in search results and earn brand recognition.
• A consistent, valuable presence across social platforms contributes to your topical authority, a factor increasingly rewarded by AI search engines.

But, this doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with teams working together toward a shared content strategy that aligns tone, messaging, keywords, and audience intent across every channel.

How to Create Synergy Between SEO and Social Media

To thrive in a multi-platform, AI-assisted search world, brands must prioritize content that gets found AND content that gets engagement. 

Here’s how to bridge the gap between SEO and social:

1. Let SEO Research Guide Your Social Content

When you create content for social media, don’t rely solely on gut instinct or trends. Let data lead the way. SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Google Trends can tell you what your audience is actually searching for: questions they’re asking, language they’re using, and topics they’re curious about.

Now imagine that insight being applied to your:

• Instagram captions that mirror top-of-funnel keyword phrases
• TikTok descriptions using mid-funnel questions or “how to” terms
• Alt-text that helps Google understand what’s in your visuals
• YouTube titles structured like search queries

This simple shift makes your content more findable, not just by your followers, but by anyone searching across Google and social platforms.

2. Turn One Idea into Many: Repurpose Everything

Why reinvent the wheel when you can repurpose it?

That SEO-optimized blog post you spent hours crafting? Break it down into bite-sized carousels for Instagram. Pull out a quote and turn it into a LinkedIn post. Use the main insight to create a 30-second TikTok. One idea, multiple formats, endless reach.

And it works both ways. A social post that pops off? That’s your cue to explore the topic more deeply in a long-form blog article or a pillar page. A lively comment thread on LinkedIn? It might uncover questions worth answering in an SEO-rich FAQ.

This isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about showing up in different ways for different audiences, without losing your message.

3. Make Every Social Post Search-Ready

As mentioned previously, your social posts aren’t just social anymore. In 2025, Google indexes content from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and even Reddit. That means every post is a potential search result.

Think of your social content as mini webpages, each one with the power to be discovered outside its platform.

To capitalize:

• Write captions with clarity and keywords in mind.
• Use alt-text that accurately describes visuals, not just for accessibility, but for search engines.
• Name video files and titles with phrases people actually search for.

Done right, your content becomes searchable, scrollable, and scalable.

4. Hashtags Were Dead… Until They Weren’t

There was a time when hashtags reigned supreme. They were the shortcut to visibility. More tags meant more reach. Then came the backlash. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri himself told creators that hashtags weren’t effective in increasing visibility. Experts declared them dead. And for a while, it seemed like hashtags had lost their power.

But here’s the twist: in 2025, they might matter again, just not in the way they used to.

Thanks to smarter algorithms and AI-powered search, hashtags are no longer about spamming every possible trend. Instead, they play a subtle but strategic role in semantic discovery and topic clustering. Think of them as quiet metadata, less about virality, more about relevance.

So what’s the move? Precision over volume.

Stick to (max!) three well-chosen hashtags that:

• Align closely with your content topic
• Reflect the niche you’re targeting
• Reinforce the keywords and themes your audience is searching

In the right context, a hashtag isn’t just a tag. It’s a signal to search engines and social algorithms alike. Used sparingly and strategically, it still earns its place.

5. Build Trust Through Cross-Platform Signals

Search engines don’t just rank content; they evaluate trust.

And trust is built when your brand shows up consistently across platforms, speaks with a cohesive voice, and creates content that resonates and performs.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Blog post that embeds your YouTube product demo and links to a relevant landing page
• Reddit thread where users organically recommend your brand and share honest reviews
• Pinterest board that curates your brand’s content alongside complementary resources, reinforcing your niche authority
• Guest appearance on a podcast that gets transcribed and backlinked to your site
• Instagram Reel that recaps an industry trend and drives traffic to a full blog or webinar

All of these send positive signals to search engines: that your brand is relevant, reliable, and talked about. And the more those signals echo across SEO and social, the more authoritative your brand becomes.

The Importance of Aligning Your Social and SEO Strategy

If you’re still treating SEO and social as completely separate teams with completely separate KPIs, you’re missing the bigger picture. The future of digital visibility is integrated, multi-channel, and designed for discovery, not just within platforms, but across the entire web.

The brands that will win in 2025 aren’t just optimized. They’re aligned.

At Bloom, this is exactly where we’re headed: breaking down silos between channels to build smarter, search-ready strategies that perform everywhere your audience is. Whether you need support with SEO, social, or unlocking the power of both, let’s chat.