Last updated - July 8, 2021
Surely many have had a hard time deciding where to direct their budgets: SEO or SMM. We will try to briefly give our main thoughts on why you need both for a successful strategy.
What is better for marketing?
If you can afford to use SEO (search engine optimization) and SMM (social media marketing) together to promote, do it! But if you are one of these unlucky marketers who are overwhelmed with work, demanding results with limited budgets, receiving underpaid salaries, and are offended in every possible way, you should familiarize yourself with the information below. For example, when a student needs to finish their essay in the short term, they have a lot on their plates. In this case, it is more logical to use essay writing service or get essay help from proven reliable essay writers as EssayShark.
No one knows when the day and time will come (or maybe it has already come) when you have to make a choice and focus your efforts on one thing: SEO or SMM. So what should you choose?
SEO benefits
If you devote time to creating quality content, you will not only improve your SEO but also expand your presence in social media. After all, good content is usually shared.
If you create content that will be relevant even after a couple of years, then you will secure a steady place for yourself in the search results, and, therefore, an influx of traffic to the site.
Promoting queries with a long tail (three or more words in the query, for example, “analytics consultations in Boston”) will bring targeted traffic to your website, which can then be converted by offering targeted offers. Another plus is that for such queries the competition is lower.
Using SEO, your site will begin to link. Your positions in search engines and the reputation of the site will grow.
Local businesses investing in SEO will gain advantages, including in the mobile market. For example, if users are looking for information about you from a mobile phone, then most likely they are outside, which means they are closer to the place of purchase.
Although there are still a lot of technical issues with SEO, search engines pay more attention to the usefulness of sites for users. Usefulness is content, and the creation of good content is up to the marketer.
SEO Disadvantages
Creating good SEO content is time-consuming, and huge resources are required to maintain SEO.
High-quality content is not enough. Therefore, you still have to deal with technical aspects (redirects, site structure, hosting, etc.). In other words, the marketer alone will not be enough, so you will have to hire specially trained people.
Different search engines are dominated by different ranking factors. Therefore, if you want to promote in different search engines, you will have to develop several SEO strategies.
In SEO, there are things that cannot be controlled. For example, you cannot force reputable sites to link to you and influence ranking factors. You are at the whim of experts and fate.
You need to constantly use analytics.
SEO requires constant effort: content optimization, attracting new links, etc. You can’t get into the TOP once and then relax your efforts. You will have to work with SEO all the time.
Benefits of SMM
SMM has a positive effect on SEO. For example, Google loves when your site is linked, and your content is shared and liked. From this point of view, investing in SMM will help you advance in SEO.
Communication on social networks opens up prospects for you to make new acquaintances and increase your reach. In addition, social networks give you the opportunity to provide tailored advice to your clients. For example, you may see a new approach to educational writings’ advice in Essay Shark review. Other marketing channels cannot claim to provide this feature.
The same content can be easily modified and distributed to different social platforms without spending extra effort into its creation.
Social media provides precise targeting. If you know the defined audience of your business, then you can focus on it.
Social networks enable users to voice opinions, and reviews are crucial when it comes to shopping.
Disadvantages of SMM
There is never enough time for marketers. Namely, it is necessary to consistently create content for social networks. If you do not have the means and resources to come up with something new, draw infographics, and post videos, SMM is not for you.
As in SEO, social networks require continuous ongoing efforts. The process can be accelerated by abandoning organic growth and investing in advertising.
Content on social networks quickly becomes obsolete, unlike search engines. A tweet with a link to the best post of the month will be buried in a stream of other tweets in a couple of minutes, and a Facebook message will go down in the news feed to where the user does not look after a couple of hours.
In good communities, life is in full swing. You need to be on the alert all the time, reply to comments on time, respond to criticism, and do many different things. Monitoring tools can make marketing a little easier. But if there are too many responsibilities, and community functions are added to them, you can easily drown in the flow of information, trying to control and give feedback in all of your brand accounts on social networks.
What to choose?
The answer to this question remains open. Practice shows that SMM and SEO work best together. And the key here is content. Without it, search engines will have nothing to index and show in the SERP; also, users will have nothing to like and share. And if you still need to choose one thing, take a look at the shortcomings of SEO and SMM again and listen to common sense.
