“Whether you are a small business owner, looking to increase your website’s search engine ranking, or an aspiring search engine optimization consultant, understanding how to use social networking sites for proper SEO is of the utmost importance,” says Crisafi. “That’s why our Expresso SEO training include social networking as part of search engine optimization training.”

According to Crisafi, maintaining a large-scale social media presence can reap serious benefits for a business and those that have numerous social media network profiles have a greater chance of garnering high search engine rankings.

“In order to successfully integrate social media networking profiles into an online marketing plan, we teach our students to use keywords prominently in the profile name,” says Crisafi. “We also suggest that businesses fill out as much profile information as possible without putting too much of the same information into multiple profiles, as this could have a negative effect on search engine ranking.”

Crisafi also notes that friendship is the name of the game when it comes to social networking, so including links that allow users to easily follow a company on Twitter or Facebook will help create incoming links from other profiles and ultimately boost search rankings.

With the advent of real-time search, a social media presence is even more critical for SEO campaigns.