SEO and SMO- The Era of Digital Marketing

Marketing is all about getting the spotlight and creating awareness of your product. And, today SEO and SMO have topped the list of a new era of digital marketing.

SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. This method of digital marketing works to put your website on the front page of various search engines such as Yahoo, Yandex, Google, Bing, etc for search terms (keywords) related to your business. It helps businesses to extend and expand their reach by improving their business ranking on various engines.

SMO refers to Social Media Optimization. This method of optimization deals with enhancing your company’s presence and online reputation through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It helps businesses in promoting their brand by developing engaging social media platforms.

How do they differ?

 

There are ‘n’ number of benefits that businesses can get while using both optimally. And, as mentioned in one of the Forbes articles, strategies for combining social media with SEO can leverage the power of both systems to achieve the business's aims. 

Startups have been effectively using these techniques to get traction. 

An interesting story that needs to be highlighted is about a beauty brand called Glossier, which reached the people by way of interaction through social media even before the company was announced. The promoter used the feedback from the audience to build the brand in real time. It grew to 15k followers before it was even in the market through its behind the scene posts on social media which helped connect it with the users. 

Some SEO and SMO hacks : 

• Design the campaigns for SEO and SMO around the same strategies, while using the same keywords. Ensure the content you are posting on social media is leveraging the keywords that you are trying to rank for on your website. 
• Make sure to keep the social media algorithms in mind. Algorithms, backed by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, dictate how a user sees content in their feed. For example, on Instagram, as per one article by Upgrad, the data is pulled from the comments, likes, shares, and saves on a particular account’s posts. The Instagram algorithm further uses this information to understand user likes and dislikes to promote that account’s posts to a higher ranking on the user’s feed and suggest similar accounts in the ‘explore’ section. So, to make these algorithms work for you, 

o Try to increase engagement by conducting polls, asking questions, replying to comments, providing quality content, and encouraging people to save (in Instagram), comment, and like on the posts. 

o Embrace SEO in all of the SMO strategies by using relevant and appropriate hashtags. 

o Post on times when a large number of users are active on social media platforms. 

o Try to increase the frequency of posts and stories to increase visibility. 

o The potential of videos and reels has been seen in the past. Creative motion content attracts the audience in a way like no other. 

o Use analytics to track the performance of the content and accommodate the changes accordingly. 

• Share as much as possible. ‘Sharing content through social media can lead to obtaining links from high domain authority sites and encourages other sites to link to your content. The more external links you gain from authoritative sites, the higher you’ll rank in Google’s organic search,’ Forbes. 
• Build social campaigns on search data. Make the content plan that begins with an SEO strategy that identifies long-tail keyword phrases your target audience is entering

Conclusion : There isn't a comparison between whether SEO or SMO works. What works is what works best for your business. 

Be creative in developing your unique digital marketing strategy, and if that entails taking equal parts of SEO and SMO to create the magic potion, so be it..!!