A lot has changed in the digital landscape over the past decade. At one point in time, SEO was all about throwing in as many keywords in an article and hoping for the best.
However, with time, SEO has evolved into this incredibly complicated and sophisticated field of expertise. This field is characterized by changing best practices, evolving strategies, newer integrations, and new sets of challenges.
In the last few years, a new revolution has been brought by the advent of social media in the ecosystem. Every brand, individual, and institution wants to be on social media and gain in terms of reach, engagement, visibility, and more.
The common question that gets thrown around a lot is- which is better- SEO or SMM?
In this resource article, digital marketers from Digitrio, a leading agency try to answer this ever-important question.
What is SEO and why it is an Important Digital Strategy?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a series of strategies and guidelines intended to make a website rank higher on search engines. Every website is searched for by consumers basis certain keywords. These keywords are competed on by different businesses in the same niche or industry.
By using strategies like Guest Posting, Link Building, Blogger Outreach, and others, SEOs hope to rank their websites on search. The above strategies are termed as Off-Page and need to be complemented with On-Page SEO strategies.
On-Page SEO typically refers to making the websites in such a manner that they promise the users the best experience possible. Site speed, URL structure, SSL certificate, great server, and optimized UI and UX are typical On-Site SEO optimizations.
SEO is an organic strategy that helps you earn clicks against paying and buying clicks, typical with SEM. It also helps you maintain higher rankings for a very long time and be organically visible to your target audiences. A good SEO strategy can deliver on credibility, awareness, traffic, and sales generation.
Why pursuing an SMM Strategy become Important for Digital Performance?
Everywhere you look, people are on their smartphones and wired to one or the other social media platform. For brands, presence on social media is common sense. They want to be present in places where their target audiences can discover them, engage with them in real-time, and discuss any doubts or queries they have, including sales.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others enjoy billions of members and daily viewership numbers. This is why brands are very serious about pursuing online marketing, SMM, and strategies like Influencer Marketing, Video Marketing, and Live Streaming.
Regular posting on social media platforms and creating interesting content pieces is what brands strive for. Newer innovations on these platforms, like 30-second videos, become viral as soon as they launch. SMM is a very dynamic and rapidly-changing digital ecosystem.
SEO and SMM Together can help you get the Best Digital Performance
The question is not one or the other. In fact, if you do not have in place a complementary strategy between the two, you are losing out on digital performance.
Some keywords in SEO are so difficult that there is no way you can rank for them. You can show Google that you are driving a lot of traffic from social media platforms to your brand website for those keywords.
As soon as Google’s algorithms pick this up, they will start improving your rankings. Social media websites are high authority sites and are recognized by search engines in a major way.
If a brand can integrate SMM and SEO successfully, they will be in a better position in terms of-
- Improving the traffic flow from both search engine and social media platforms
- Increase in the website’s metrics (DA, DR, PA, Spam Score, etc.)
- Better Reach and Engagement with Target Audiences in Industry Niche
- Sales Queries and Generation from both search and social
- Better Brand Visibility and Awareness, including Credibility
The Bottom Line
Both SEO and SMM can benefit one another in multiple ways. While marketers are aware of some ways, it is only the algorithms of search engines and social platforms that know about the exact implications and advantages.
If you have any specific questions on SEO, SMM, or their integration, let us know. You can drop your questions in the comments section, and we will try our best to answer as many of them as possible.;
