SMO vs SEO | The Digital Clicks Blog
In a world where social media is the driving force behind online activity, the task of SMO is becoming increasingly important. Some critics even believe that it will soon become essential to successful Internet marketing, if not more so, than SEO itself. In a study conducted on the number of hours users spend on the web and the amount they spend on Facebook, the results were staggering. It showed that from March 2010 to March 2011, Facebook usage increased by 69%, whereas usage of the rest of the web fell by 9%. So although people are using social media more than anything else online, why is it being regarded so highly as a goldmine of web traffic? As well as spending vast amounts of time browsing Facebook, users spend a lot of this time following links from the site. For this reason, Facebook is becoming one of the key sources of outbound links currently on the web. Unlike SEO, the focus of SMO is all about creating appealing content that users will want to share and discuss with their friends. So what effect does all of this have? Will an online marketing company have to change their strategy to incorporate SMO more than SEO? Is this already the case, and have we just not realised it yet? It’s arguable that, while ranking highly on search results is a great short-term source of inbound traffic, the most valuable method of drawing activity to your site is creating a lasting relationship with your audience. Not to mention the fact that if you can increase traffic to your site (along with building customer loyalty) through SMO strategies, the boost in traffic will cause Google to regard your company more highly when ranking searches anyway. It’s not easy, but cracking social media can create a strong foundation on which a continuously growing online presence can be built.