Online marketing is all about visibility over the internet. More so often, people find your online store in one of the following ways:
- The company name comes up early in search engine results
- Recommendations by people when they visit your website
- They already know about your company and search it online
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a wide set of strategies to bring more people to your website the first way, improving your search engines rankings. SMO or Search Media Optimization is a part of SEO but it targets all the categories mentioned above.
Before we jump to the discussion of SEO vs. SMO, let us first understand both the terms clearly.
What is SEO?
The purpose of SEO is to improve a website’s search engine rankings, give it more visibility and gain more traffic. It deals with adding keywords in the title, meta tags, content and meta description, updating the website frequently, and increasing the speed at which it loads on the devices. This means if your website is properly optimized according to SEO, chances are your website appears on the first or second position in SERP (Search engines result page).
What is SMO?
SMO or Social Media Optimization is the method of developing profiles on social networking platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn about your online store so that the members of that network can view or share your profile or page with others. It is the best way to share information and acquire a large audience for your business website.
SEO vs. SMO: Understanding the difference
Whether you opt to focus on SEO or SMO, it depends on the company’s goal but as a matter of fact, both are important and they need to understand the difference between the two.
| SEO | SMO |
| Process: Optimizing the website for search engines | Process: Sharing content off-site |
| Goal: Increase organic traffic | Goal: Increase brand recognition |
| Method: Use keywords, optimize HTML and backend coding, add meta descriptions, headers, and more | Method: create quality content and spread it widely over social media platforms |
| Results: Visible over a longer time | Results: Visible over a shorter time |
Why Focus on Both?
As far as technology changes, search engine algorithms will continue updated with the latest technology. So, both strategies SEO and SMO need to involve in the latest trends. Nowadays, SMO can bring you a large number of audience and customers in a short time and quality SEO can increase your ranking in different search engine and so that you bring more success in the long run.
In SEO and SMO the most important factor is the quality and uniqueness of content. If you use original content means written by you only then this content is more valued by search engines and customers. So, it’s important to focus on both. SEO allows your site to high o any search engines result page while SMO allows you to connect with potential customers at the present level.
SEO & SMO comparisons and similarities:
1. Title of a site:
SEO: The title page of any website tells search engines that what actually your page is about and a title is most important in ranking a site.
SMO: With the use of titles and some headlines we can attract the attention of a user, and so that we can get more click-through rate.
2. Content should be easily Readable:
SEO: Content readable to search engine bots or crawlers.
SMO: Content should readable to a human being
3. Qualitative content:
SEO: If you want to rank in search engine then your content should have unique and qualitative.
SMO: To get more reader attention it is important to have qualitative content in your site.
4. Analysis of the site:
SEO: When your site publishes and ranking as well then you need to analyze such things that what changes can impact in higher ranking.
SMO: For SMO purpose you need to analyze such things that what type of content draws the interest of a user.
5. Link Building Strategy:
SEO: Link building is the most important factors in ranking. Inbound links are a huge factor for a ranking site.
SMO: We consider that links are a result of success so we can say that SEO benefits from SMO.
Things to Keep in Mind While Opting Between the Two:
Both SEO and SMO can be a good tactic for your online store. That being said if you still opt one between the two; these are the things you need to consider:
- Budget: Budget plays a very important role in any business and so for the online store. You may not want to spend endlessly on the campaigns that yield no results to your online store.
- Short and Long Term Plan: Understand the output of the two SMO and SEO. SEO aims at long-term goals while SMO delivers results within a short frame of time. So first figure out on the time frame within which you require results for your online store and then choose between the two.
- Access market competition: Before choosing SEO over SMO or vice versa, first, consider analyzing your market and competitors. What strategies they are focusing on. Market insights can give you valuable information to plan better and target better. It will not only help you decide between the two for your online store but also guide you to channel the budget.
Final Thoughts:
Both SEO and SMO are important to any business but it depends on the company’s short and long-term goals to choose between the two. In today’s competitive and digital marketplace, if you need to keep your business at the top, you need to optimize your business site through SEO. And also push for branding and publicity of your site so that more and more people can interact with your services through SMO. Also important are the factors mentioned above while opting between the two.
What do you think? Mentioned your thoughts in a comment!
