Over a year ago now, both Google and Bing announced that they factor social signals from social media into their organic search algorithms. As the lines between social media and search engine optimization continue to thin, social media will gain importance for SEO. As Google described it, social media is about relationships and relationships prove relevance. Relevance is at the core of organic search.

It’s well known that Facebook has 845 million active users and 50% log in daily. These numbers are astounding! I guarantee you that your customers and prospects are included in those numbers. They are on Facebook and they’re likely trying to engage with your brand.

If you don’t yet have a Facebook Page for your organization, you really ought to consider optimizing your content marketing strategy to include one.

Here are 10 SEO reasons why your organization needs a Facebook presence as part of your content strategy:

1. Google and Bing crawl and index Facebook Pages because they are publicly available. As a result, Facebook Pages do indeed come up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
2. Google announced in early November 2011 that they now crawl and index Facebook Comments.
3. People are starting their branded searches at the Facebook search box. Test to see if your brand comes up when you search for it in Facebook.
4. SEO is now about web presence optimization (WPO) and Facebook is a must for any web presence.
5. Your target audience (unless you think they’re not included in the 845 million Facebook users) is hanging out there.
6. The “Like” button is the new “backlink.”
7. The “Liker” (the Facebook User who did the “Liking”) is the new “lead” or “contact.”
8. Your Facebook presence adds quality backlinks to your website.
9. Facebook is accessible on mobile devices, giving your prospects and clients easy access to your content and brand.
10. Your competitors most likely have a Facebook presence.

SEO as a digital marketing tactic continues to evolve because our friends, at places such as Google, keep adjusting their organic search algorithms. In fact, it is estimated that in the past 12 months Google made 500 adjustments to their algorithm. As the lines between SEO and social media continue to fade, we can count on one thing – that Google will continue to tweak their algorithm to include more emphasis on social signals coming from not just Facebook, but also Twitter and Google +1.

Learn how to optimize your Facebook Page for organic search and improve your web presence. DOWNLOAD: SEO your Business Facebook Page for Google – A How-To Guide

This is a guest post by Krista LaRiviere, CoFounder & CEO of gShift Labs, a web presence optimization company. She blogs and speaks about SEO and the importance of social media, public relations, and press releases to SEO. Her team has helped hundreds of organizations get control of their entire web presence in order to rank higher organically in the search engines. She believes SEO campaigns should be just as easy to execute, track, manage, and measure as email marketing and paid search. Connect with Krista: @KristaLariviere, +KristaLariviere, @gShiftLabs, +gShiftLabs, and on Facebook.