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Will Social Media Marketing Replace SEO?

Whether you’re a blogger, or internet marketer, getting more traffic is always on the back of your mind. It wasn’t to long ago when Social Media Marketing (SMM) was just beginning to blossom into the powerhouse it has turned into today, and what it will become in the near future. Many people are spreading rumors and posting articles about the death of search engine optimization (SEO), and talk about how Social Media is going to replace SEO completely. I think they are taking it a little to far, or are they just trying to start a little controversy??

I remember it was just a few years ago when I first got into Internet marketing, and everyone use to preach about search engine optimization should be my main priority, especially for getting quality traffic. No one really mentioned social media or using it as a way to get traffic to my mini niche sites.

The Power of Social Media has really swept over the world and internet, in a short amount of time. It’s always been around, but now it plays a major role for getting quality traffic to your sites, as much as SEO can. Social Media obviously is also a major factor in creating or continuing a successful business, online or offline.

Thanks to some Brilliant Minds like, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook creator) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter creator), everyone and there grandma loves social networking.

How Popular and how Fast is Social Media Growing?

Compete’s top 50 list for Dec. 2009 -Look at how many social networking sites are on the list, and their stats!!

Alexa’s Top 15 list again many of them are social media sites.

1. Google.com
2. Facebook.com
3. Youtube.com
4. Yahoo.com
5. Live.com
6. Wikipedia.org
7. Blogger.com
8. Baidu.com
9. MSN.com
10. QQ.com
11. Yahoo.co.jp
12. Twitter.com
13. Google.co.in
14. Myspace.com
15. Google.cn

According to Emarketer, a survey was done on senior marketers Top Priorities for 2010. The results are shown below on the chart.

Their number one priority is social networks and applications, so even the top experienced marketers are changing gears over to social media marketing.

Why should you start putting more effort into social media marketing?

Social Media is Awesome because it spreads virally. It takes just one person to go to your site and spread the word about your great post or product, then all of a sudden you get a BLAST of traffic from just one person who started the viral effect. It’s one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get traffic to your websites. Just make sure you work on your Social Media Optimization (SMO) by making your websites compatible for social networking sites. Such as the type of content, adding functionality with rss and social bookmarking buttons.

I found that websites that have been around for a good while and have authority, get more traffic from search engines, rather than from social media. However, newer sites can easily get traffic quicker and faster, if you utilize social networking before the seo kicks in.

Now, to utilize social media to the fullest it takes time, a lot of effort continuously networking and giving value to others first.

Why does social media work so well for conversions?

You get to meet and network with like minds which can lead to connections, opportunities and more traffic.

People can easily learn more about you, build a relationship with you, which may lead to trust, and ultimately more money in the bank.

Word of mouth advertising, testimonies, trust and recommendations are some of the top reasons people make a purchase. We’ve all seen it used on infomercials, websites and other forms of advertisements, why? It’s a proven method of convincing someone to believe in your product or service and ultimately let their guard down and make a purchase.

Isn’t that what social media is all about, interacting and hearing what others have to say about things they’re interested in. I believe it’s human nature to naturally put up a barrier before we make a purchase or decide on something. We want to find the best value, and we don’t want to look like a fool because of past scams, phonies, and b.s. that we’ve seen or gone through before.When we see a testimony from someone who already tried something out, or hear a recommendation, then we tend to let our guard down and we believe in the product or service more.

Social Media allows people to hear feedback on just about anything, almost instantly. I know some Top Internet Marketers who create something valuable, whether it be a elaborate post or product. It takes just one person who finds it and spreads the word using social networking and they get so many visitors that they max out their servers within a few hours. Word of mouth works online, and the majority of us are just figuring this out.

Are you looking for More Loyal, Repeat visitors?

Ad network Chitika, did a study in which they analyzed their traffic  for over 33 million unique visitors over the course of September 2009. Their study was to see out of their Big 6 Traffic sources who brings in the most “loyal visitors” – meaning a person who came back to the referred site 4 or more times in the same week. Even though the majority of their unique visitors come from Google, some of the social networking sites bring in more loyal users as you can see on their chart below, and Loyalty is a Great thing for us bloggers in so many ways. Facebook was #1 with over 20% of all visitors from Facebook visited the referred site 4 or more times in a week.

I believe in order to be successful at just about anything, learning to adapt is crucial. Everything changes constantly online, seo and social media will continually evolve so we have to move with the times. It’s now time to focus more on social media marketing if you haven’t already, but continue with SEO just like before.

Another interesting tidbit that many people have reported is that social media traffic tends to bring in more long term users and buyers. While search engines bring in more short term users and clickers. You should plan ahead on what kind of traffic you are going after depending on what your site is about, and what form of monetizing you are doing. I believe social media plays a major role now for getting targeted traffic and to make or continue a successful business, but search engine optimization (SEO) will be around for a good while as the front runner for website traffic.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization involves a number of things. The term is used to describe the process by which the visibility of a site is increased. Search Engine Optimization is therefore not limited to just webmasters, marketer’s bloggers or the like.

For anyone looking to have a strong online presence and increase the number of people visiting his or her site, then search engine optimization is the answer.  The importance of these techniques can best be explained by reviewing how people search for information online.  In most cases, people rarely go past the first page in a search result. The goal of any webmaster, marketer or blogger is therefore to appear on the first page of a search result.

While this is easier said than done, appearing on the first page of a search result demands devoting a lot of time, effort and money to the search engine optimization techniques, trying out what works best with what and having an ongoing project of SEO.

Any one SEO technique is not a guarantee that it will result in amazing results, even when it is perfectly implemented. A lot of factors that go into consideration during a page rank make this almost unpredictable. Thus, effective SEO experts realize that using more than one technique is more likely to produce the desired results.

While is common among Search Engine Optimization experts to place a lot of emphases on pleasing Search Engine Spiders, it is equally important to think about the end user. This is because, those who return to a website after the initial visit are more likely to purchase something or make a subscription.

Think of the market needs and have your website content updated frequently with new relevant material. For example, when dealing with ‘auto insurance’, think outside the box by offering content that target tracking companies, mothers, moving companies and others.

You will be amazed at how many people will visit your website due to that content.  Good content brings returning visitors who eventually link to your site and this results in your site getting highly ranked.