SEO Vs. SMO - Which Way To Go?	Visited: 1383 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Kabir Bedi September 28, 2009

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization) are two powerful techniques to make a website popular in cyberspace and establish a strong brand presence for the company or business.

While SEO seeks to enhance the website's ranking in search results, SMO aims to establish a strong presence on the social media. Both the processes are extremely effective in attracting visitor traffic and making the website popular on the internet. However, the question comes... Can both the processes co-exist?

Let us run down a comparison between the two optimization techniques...

Mode of Popularization

SEO relies heavily on link building. In fact, the number of inbound links to a website is what determines its popularity and subsequent ranking in the search results. More the number of links, more are the chances that the website gets ranked in the top slots of the results' page.

SMO on the other hand, relies on voting. When you share content on social media platforms, users there have an option to vote for it and share it further. If your content is unique enough, more and more people will vote for it and spread it out further. This further increases its popularity with the search engines.

On Page Elements

SEO depends on on page elements like title tags, headers, image titles, alt tags, bold text and keyword density of the content. This is because search engine crawlers place increased importance on these elements and if you have placed relevant keywords within them, it could enhance your search engine rankings.

SMO in turn depends on tagging. The tags that you use for your content are of extreme importance because users use these tags to read through information on social media websites. On social media websites, users are more interested in reading new information and not searching for something in particular.

Titles of Content

SEO requires you to use your relevant keywords within the title of your content. This is because search engine crawlers place increased importance on the titles which would further increase the relevancy of the content.

SMO requires you to write crisp and interesting titles in order to grab attention of users and prompt them to click through. You don't need to include keywords as much as you need to make it interesting.

Readers & Audiences

SEO content, though it needs to be relevant for the users, also needs to cater to search engine crawlers. This means SEO content has an audience of human users as well as search engine crawlers and it needs to fulfill requirements of both the segments. The prime purpose of the content should be to rank well in the SERPs.

SMO content is purely for human users. Even if you don't include your keywords in it, you need to make sure it is interesting enough to lure users to click through. It would further establish your reputation as an industry professional.

Analysis

SEO results needs to be analyzed to determine the relevant keywords and to figure out what changes have made an impact on the ranking of the website in search engine results.

SMO analysis is required to determine what kind of content gets popular among the audiences.

So much for the comparisons. The trick is to run both SEO and SMO activities simultaneously and make both of them work to enhance the credibility of your website. SEO in conjugation with SMO can bring substantial visitor traffic and take your website to successful heights.