SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM, PPC… there are way too many acronyms in the digital marketing world, and they can confuse newbies. In fact, it’s not uncommon that someone confuses some of these terms, and ends up making mistakes in their business because of it.
So we’re here today to tell you about the difference between SEO and SMO, and how you should be doing them.
What are SEO and SMO?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, and refers to the techniques and strategies used to help boost a website’s ranking on the most popular search engines like Google and Bing. All search engines work relatively similarly, and all have the same goals.
SMO is short for Social Media Optimization. This refers to improving your social media profiles to get the most visibility for your organic posts.
They’re two sides of the same coin (getting free, qualified traffic) but they’re performed differently.
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization aims to get your website the highest possible ranking position for the keyword you want. To do that, here is what’s required.
- Keyword Planning: Keywords are specific words or phrases that the search engine looks at to determine whether to show a page or not. To get the most out of SEO, you need to be planning which keywords you want to show. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help you find relevant keywords for your business.
- Content: Your content is key. It’s the content that’s going to determine whether or not someone is satisfied with their search, and Google knows that. High quality content relevant to the keyword you want to rank for is paramount.
- Title Tags: These tags are in the HTML code and indicate what a piece of content is about. Putting important keywords in your title tags as part of a relevant title is important to telling the search engines to show your page.
- Link Building: Quality websites have lots of sites linking back to them. While doing SEO, you want to focus on getting sites to link back to your site. There are many ways to do this.
- User-Friendly Website: If your website is hard to use, Google will take notice when people are backing away from your site and going to other sites instead. You want to have a smooth, user-friendly website that is easy to read and use.
What Is Social Media Optimisation (SMO)?
Social media optimization aims to get as many people on social networks to see your organic posts. To do that, here are some things you should do.
- Create Shareable Content: Make content people WANT to share. To do this, your content has to get attention, pique interest, and inspire a desire to get people to share it.
- Make Sharing Content Easy: By encouraging people to share your content and making it as simple as clicking a button, you can get more eyeballs to your website.
- Value to Users: It’s not enough that your content is interesting, your content actually has to give users a payoff. Do you run a contracting company? Help people learn how to choose a contractor. Do you run a health clinic? Give them important health tips. The sky is the limit here.
Do SEO and SMO help one another?
Absolutely. SMO helps boost rankings in SEO, and good SEO helps drive more traffic to your site and social media pages. You want to do both, as they help each other tremendously. Be present on the Internet, and be everywhere you can!
