SEO is dead: Long live social media

There is a frenzy surrounding search engine optimization (SEO) and how website owners should optimize their sites to increase traffic. This article addresses the six advantages social media claims on SEO.

With an ever evolving online market, new opportunities and methods arise almost instantaneously. Therefore, it is with no surprise that strict SEO methods are being replaced with alternative and faster ways to achieve similar or better results.

Article source – SEO is dead: Long live social media

For some, using social media to increase traffic makes a lot of sense, while others may need a little more convincing.

1. Information on social media is on search engines

Information on social media networks is channeled through most search engine platforms (try it yourself by googling one of your social media profile names).

Similarly, all posts shared on your social site will also appear on search engines. Therefore, if you have high-ranking posts or that are re-tweeted or shared often, your traffic will increase, and thereby your overall ranking.

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2. Your profile pagerank (PR) score can increase traffic

With the many visits from social network junkies and increasing popularity of your Twitter or Facebook page, your social media network page may have a better chance of achieving a higher page ranking than your actual website. With the increased pagerank of your Twitter or Facebook page, any links count as high pagerank backlinks, making using your social media site to increase your website’s SEO your best bet.

On the other hand, Google has long said they will discontinue pagerank sooner rather than later. Whether that actually happens is anyone’s guess, since they like to play their cards close to the vest. Ultimately no one really cares about pagerank anymore, because there are better ways to optimize your site for SEO.

3. Social media sites respond faster

Marketing occurs as soon as information is shared on social media, unlike SEO, which does not occur instantly for many reasons, such as the numerous changes in search engine algorithms. This results in a slower pace of change than on social media channels like Quora or LinkedIn.

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4. Better potential for authority status

Those of you familiar with internet marketing will know that a lot of poor-quality articles clutter directory databases. Why? Every new internet marketer wants to generate more traffic and was told that keywords and fresh content is all they need. Article quality is therefore often diluted as quantity is becomes the motivating factor for fresh content. Writing is often outsourced to the lowest bidder, making it harder to find quality reading.

On the other hand, you could simply tweet what you are looking for, and get lots of information from sources you trust, that recommend tried and tested products. By the same token, if you provide high quality articles and links, not only will your information be shared, but also recommended, increasing your credibility and brand awareness.

By the way, use the right URL shortener to give the link juice.

5. Search engines use social media integration

Say what? Search engine giants like Google have recognized the power of social media and now incorporate it into their own properties, like Google Buzz, which allows individuals to star (rate) results. Google Plus allows people to comment, share and also click on the plus sign, similar to Facebook’s Like.

Most search engines can now display real-time results from almost all social networks, including YouTube. It seems that, in the future, delivered results may be determined more by their authority on social media sites than article directories.

6. Information goes viral sooner with social media

Traditionally, increasing website traffic means ensuring continuously publishing fresh content on your site, and submitting 300-500 word articles to directories in order to create backlinks to your website (usually one or two backlinks per article).

By comparison, look at how quickly links on social media sites can spread and go viral. A good article posted on your social network profile or corporate blog will likely be shared by hundreds of your blog readers, associates and contacts. A ripple effect will follow as their friends share the same link, for instance via Twitter.

Before you know it, you have 300-500 links across the social media platform, which is not only super fast, but will also save you a lot of time.

Bottom line – the real kicker

Regardless of whether you’re a dedicated SEOer, social media strategist or web analytics service provider, the tips in this article make one thing apparent: the need to stay in tune with the changing times on the web. In order to stay at the top of our game we need to stay up to date with everything that goes on – especially the social media revolution. That sums up the latest SEO info and how you can use it to benefit your business (SEO metrics everybody can use).

About the guest blogger

This guest post was written by Lior Levine, a marketing strategist for a custom neon sign store, who also works for a company that lists the best web hosters.

Disagree? Sure. Leave a comment!
Just one question I hope you will answer: How do you work social media channels to improve your SEO?

TL:DR. @ComMetrics says: 6 ways to leverage SEO – guest post Lior Levine |Tweet This

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