For the most part, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing have been thought of as two very different entities, sharing only the online world. But now social media and SEO managers are coming together and finding that they aren’t so different after all, and that if they work together they can achieve a highly improved outcome for both departments.
A successful partnership between SEO and social media can be highly beneficial for all involved, as the two increasingly become complimentary to each other. Working together will see advantages for both social media and SEO managers in areas such as promotion and outreach, content and branding management and tracking of objectives, thus improving the overall outcomes for both sides. Silverbean investigates:
Picture Credits– Matt Cutts sums up what online marketers should be trying to achieve
There are many speculations as to whether SEO has actually been replaced by social media marketing, with many dubbing it ‘social media optimization’(SMO). But in reality the partnership they have formed works in a way that means that both sides still have the same goals as they always did, but they have found that working together makes each one’s goals more achievable and to a higher standard.
The partnership works because of Google’s recent updates. The Penguin update, which rocked the SEO world with its new found love for content and discrimination towards bad back linking habits has paved the way for a new strategy in its own right, known as ‘content marketing’. With the most recent Hummingbird update, Google only further cemented the future for SEO success, at it lies within content.
Now this is where social media comes in. Social media channels and blogs have also recently risen to marketing fame, and in the last decade have become one of the pillars of modern day marketing. Because the essence of social media marketing is to encourage engagement and brand awareness, mainly through interaction and the sharing of content, you can now find that your social pages and blog rank higher in Google than your website!
How Does the Partnership Benefit Social Media?
Not only does a website with an integrated blog give you a fresh flow of relevant content to share on your social pages, but a good SEO strategy also benefits your social media page promotion. Building audiences on your social media pages is vital to the success of social campaigns, and a great way to gain new likes/follows is for your social pages to rank highly on search engines.
That way, when people are searching for your company, or even just for a related product/service that you could offer, if they see a link to your social pages they are likely to click on it for information about your company and like/follow your page for updates.
A person liking/following your company on social media can be even more beneficial to your long-term marketing than them simply visiting your site, as you can continuously market to them even after they become a customer, and can turn more potential customers into actual customers over time.
There are plenty more ways in which the social media and SEO teams can band together to create more complex and successful digital campaigns, and in the future there is speculation that the two will become even further entwined, creating potential for a whole new area of digital marketing.
Kamal Singh is a professional Writer who loves to write about Social Media and Seo. Kamal Singh is a founder of www.technologynews24x7.com.