Two of the most important factors for any growing online business are SEO and Social Media Marketing.
But is one more important than the other? Should you put more time and energy into one and not the other?
Which can make a bigger difference on your bottom line?
Let’s explore some of these questions…
SEO Is More Important For Raw Traffic
SEO will get you more traffic up front than social media will and even though social media is gaining more and more traction every day, it still don’t come close to what a number one ranking can do for your site in terms of raw traffic.
On the other hand, getting top search rankings for high ranking keywords is difficult but not impossible to achieve.
Regardless of what people say, it can take months… even years because this is the land where most of the big boys play (major corporations, etc).
Not to mention that this also takes a lot of time (investment) and can cost you a lot of money as well.
So when starting out, the best thing to do is search out less-competitive keywords, that won’t have as much competition.
This will allow you to get ranked higher (for your niche key words) and traffic coming in a little faster than you would if you try to compete for the more competitive words or phrases.
To me, SEO is a longer-term strategy than social media. You might get more traffic overall than social media, but it takes more effort and has a randomness factor as well. Plus the truth is until you really start ranking you don’t know if it’s actually working.
Social Media Is More Important For Reputation
On the other hand, social media is free. It’s easy to manage and doesn’t take months before you see results. That said, you won’t see the same kind of traffic that you’d get from a number one ranking search listing.
Social media has a lot of side benefits that go beyond the raw traffic stats.
Prominent social media figures build a strong reputation in a space, which often increases their conversion rates because of their reputation.
Likewise, they’re more likely to get invited to speaking engagements, where many profitable business deals can be made.
The key to good social media marketing is to provide something your users want, consistently. If that’s a weekly how-to video, then make sure you provide that video every week, without fail.
The Real Answer: The Two Are Merging
Most SEO experts agree that search engines are taking many social media factors into account when ranking pages.
In other words, instead of just looking at backlinks and PageRank, the search engines now look at your Facebook likes and reposts as well to help determine rankings.
When it comes down to it, the secret to successful SEO and social media are really the same. Provide good content, consistently. It’s what people tend to pass on and it’s what the search engines are looking for.
One may be more or less effective for specific businesses, but if you focus 90% of your efforts on creating a great user experience and 10% on marketing techniques, you’ll have a great chance of succeeding with both.
Is one more important than the other? “Yes,” in the sense that one may work better than the other for your business in the short term. ”No,” in the sense that in the long run, they’re more or less the same.
I hope you’ve found this information to be helpful and if so I’d love to hear from you! Please let me know what is the one tip you received from this post that you think will help you in your business the most by sharing your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you have any additional questions about starting your business or need assistance with expanding or marketing your business, please feel free leave me a comment or post it on my Facebook Page and I’ll try to assist you in any way I can!
Have an awesome day!
Pam Lawhorne
Nice article Pam! I agree with you about SEO beeing a long-term strategy.
Although, I believe a good work on social media can do something better than traffic, wich is creating relationships and the strengthening the branding of your corporation.
Hi Bruno!
I agree! with you I use social media heavily in my own online marketing campaigns and teach my clients how to do the same.
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Pam
Pam, thank you so much for all your articles, and for correcting my last sentence. Keep up the good work! Best wishes from Brazil.
;o) You are welcome my friend! Thanks for dropping by!
Pam
Hi Pam,
Great post – too many business owners I speak to just want to put their eggs in one basket. It’s better than nothing but if you want to build a sustainable position online, you need to make use of social media and SEO, not one or the other. Do you think offline brand building efforts are dwindling in importance as a result of social media?
Sally -
Of course I use Social Networking a bunch but I also use other online marketing sources too. When people tell me that they only market their business on #Twitter or #Facebook I tell them that they are basically playing the online version of Russian Roulette with their business! And I think having a strong brand both online and offline are equally important.
The only difference is thanks to social networking and online marketing, these days you can build your brand (and reputation) online a whole lot faster!
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Great points!
Pam