Search Engine Optimization Vs Social Media Optimization
SEO has been a frequent activity of website owners for years now. Although search engine optimization still remains largely a mystery to many webmasters and bloggers, its basic concepts have been, and still are, fairly simple. The reason being optimization of small websites is a general lack of knowledge and the high price tag they have for most professional services which is not easily affordable by people. SEO also faces ignorance as well. This is because it is not easy to produce immediate results and real growth in search traffic takes time and demands patience.
There are a few things which are incredible :
1. Search engines send tons of free traffic to those with high rankings for popular search terms.
2. Traffic is targeted since the visitors have searched for what you have to offer.
3. With continued development of a site search engine traffic should increase with trust and new pages being added.
4. You have control over which search terms you are targeting.
5. Once established, a strong authority site can quickly achieve high rankings for brand new pages (example Wikipedia).
If we talk about Social media optimization, we can say that it came into being from the past few years with the expansion of social networking sites. If the comparison is to be made, the SEO is more successful then SMO and receives a bit more traffic. Although those who use social media effectively can consistently draw traffic with new content, even the best SMO experts experience large peaks and valleys in terms of traffic. But fortunately, the peaks will be very high.
One of the biggest differences between SEO and SMO is the networking aspect. SMO is heavily-reliant on networking and strong profiles, while SEO can be done without this.
Now lets take those aspects of SMO into consideration which makes it stand out in the crowd:
1. Anyone can do it.
2. Success can be accomplished from day one of a new website or blog. There’s no need to wait to become a trusted domain.
3. The highs in traffic can be very high.
4. It’s free.
5. You’ll make valuable contacts along the way.
6. A power profile will allow you to get traffic just about whenever you need it (with certain sites).
7. You can help others in the process (and they’re not necessarily your competition like with search engine rankings).
8. The traffic snowballs. Those who are successful draw large audiences. Large audiences can lead to more success with social media and increased visibility.
9. The structure of your website isn’t really important like it is with SEO.
Some Comparisons and Similarities of SEO and SMO:
Link Building:
SEO – Inpouring, penetrating links plays a vital role determining the ranking.
SMO – Links are a result of success, which means that SEO benefits from good SMO.
On Page Elements:
SEO – Title tags, headers, image title, bold text and use of keywords influence search engine rankings to a greater extent.
SMO – Visual grabbers attention make a bigger impact as coding and tag have a bit of importance.
Titles:
SEO – The title tag of a page tells the search engines what a page is about and carries a lot of weight in the rankings. Example : SEO friendly Title tag of a page about a model for cars in india can be like "Tata Manza in India - Tata Manza Price, Tata Manza Reviews"
SMO – Titles and headlines are extremely important for grabbing attention and getting users to click-through.
Content Must be Easily Readable:
SEO – By search engine spiders.
SMO – By human readers.
Content Plus:
SEO – Content alone will not produce high rankings. The structure of the site must also be sound.
SMO – While quality content is essential, visual presentation can also make a big difference.
Analysis:
SEO – Analysis is necessary in order to know which changes have made an impact (positive or negative) on the site’s rankings.
SMO – Analysis is necessary to know what types of content draws interest.
Predictability / the Benefit of Experience:
SEO – Experts are able to reproduce success with new sites (although it’s not as easy as it sounds), as the same elements can be applied.
SMO – Those who know the social media audience can recreate success by publishing posts and headlines specifically for this purpose.
Success Breeds More Success:
SEO – Trusted domains will have a positive effect on all pages, including new pages.
SMO – Power profiles on sites like Digg can keep traffic flowing with new submissions.
Can SEO and SMO Co-Exist?
Although the title of this article is “SEO vs. SMO”, I really think that the two work together rather than separately. The best example for this is the link building. Pages and sites that are popular with major social media sites like Digg and del.icio.us will usually receive a lot of inbound links. Though those links are direct result of SMO but a significant impact could be seen on rankings of search engines as well.
The best way for new websites and blogs to develop a sense of sustainability is that they should be provided with quality inbound links. To promote the content, social media comes out to be the best medium as it is a way to make the content apparent for as many people as possible and draw inbound links.
New websites and blogs need to start getting quality inbound links in order to start getting search engine traffic. Why not use social media to promote this content, make it visible to as many people as possible, and draw inbound links?
I believe that SMO is the best way (at least it’s the best free method) for new websites and blogs to draw visitors. This early success with social media can have long-lasting effects on search engine rankings as well.
Similarities Between SEO and SMO
Link Ability :
What suggests that the ability of the website to get connected, linked with other websites in this heighten world of cyber is the linkability. It facilitates a reader to place the attractive content offered onto their websites without seeking the permission. Both the procedures of internet marketing refer to increasing the link ability of a website in order to popularize a website in its targeted marketplace.
Quality Content :
A natural consequence of the linkability factor that comes out is the content that is published online. It plays a vital role in drawing, fetching a large number of visitors on the website. Repeat visitors increase credibility of the website and thus, enhance its web value as well.
Pull Marketing :
A marketing strategy through which the customers request the product to be pulled is pull marketing. What works as a helping factor are the various advertising and promotional strategies so as to generate publicity to attract customers to gravitate towards a seller’s products portfolio. Both SMO and SEO encourage pull marketing to achieve long-term goals of an organization.
Thus we can say that both Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization are unable to work in isolation and will loose their existence if they are not together as one acts as a helping hand for other.


