Search Engine Optimization (seo) Vs Social Media Optimization (smo)

Search engine optimization (seo) Vs social media optimization (smo) may sound new but it has been growing consistently among internet marketers. As most of us might be familiar with the concept of search engine optimization, it basically refers to the process of optimization of your website for search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo etc. Social media optimization or smo is relatively newer and it basically refers to the process of optimizing your website for social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin etc.

Search engines still holds the key to success for a website but a relatively newer phenomena known as social media has taken the world by storm and grown enormously in the last few years.  Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, not only helps in generating the free traffic for your website but also helps in creating a brand awareness for your site as it is recommended by the people you know. Obliviously there will be a difference in your perception when you reach a website using search engines and when you reach it while following one of your friend’s Like on Facebook.

This particular feature, when a post or entire site is shared by people on these social media sites, have potential to go viral even if it is not well optimized for search engines, is a killer advantage of social media optimization over search engine optimization. Even if your site is well optimized for a particular keyword for search engines, you can never assure yourself of getting good traffic from it. And the reason behind is very simple that there might not be many people looking for that information at that moment. But even if a keyword is not in trend, if it is shared on social media sites, is bound to generate good number of visits to your site and if it is carefully drafted, then it may result in huge profits for you.

At the moment, it won’t be fair to write off search engines and their significance in online world but looking at the trend in last few years, it won’t be surprising if we find that social media overtakes search engine in this space in next few years.  There are lots of sites which are well optimized for search engines but have little value for their visitors whereas in case of social media optimization, content is the real king and not back links or age of domain.

So if a site has got real good content, then it becomes fairly easy for it to succeed through social media optimization. As mentioned earlier, when a post or site is shared by someone you know, you trust that site and have a better perception about that. There are many marketers who are already focusing on social media optimization and if you have been ignoring it, you better start doing it.

Search engine optimization will remain important but social media optimization looks to hold the key to success in future. Please share your thoughts on it. Share your opinion if you will trust a site more if it is already shared by your friends or a site which you reached after searching it in some search engine.