SEO vs social media – which is your favorite method to use for generating blogging traffic? Have you ever thought about where you should spend your time getting traffic to your website?
I joked a few years ago with Robert Caruso from Fandola on Twitter as some would say “Social is the New SEO”, but is it really?
Have you thought about the differences between SEO vs. social media to drive traffic to your blog or website?
In the beginning (back around 2010) I focused on SEO only for the retail website I used to manage. Then I got started with tweets and RT’s and social media became the focus as sales were coming from both.
Once the SEO was done, it was done, right?
Well, Google began to work at a much faster pace with changes as time went on. So then the focus shifts to SEO to clean it up to Google’s liking. Then, I wondered, “Should the focus go back to SEO vs social media?”
Knowing when to change lanes is key on any business highway.
Table of Contents
Social Media Or Search = Search Everything Online
When one searches online for something they are ready to purchase or read about something. If they find what they are looking for you are golden, right?
That’s what you want when you build a website or blog. Have people search and find your stuff. That’s the perfect scenario.
The SEO Benefit – SEO vs Social Media
SEO lasts much longer online. Remember the time frames of a tweet or a Facebook post? (24 minutes for a Twitter post and 5 hours for a Facebook post.)
Well, a great post or website will last much longer than those social posts any day hands down. Your website will last as long as you own the domain name and continue to host the website.
Even Google likes to see your domain name registered for 10 years vs just one or two years. They want to be sure you will be a staple online, not just a fly-by-the-night type of website.
When Google recommends you, you will be found!
9 Reasons Why Is SEO Hard!
- It takes a lot of time and patience.
- SEO takes testing and researching, and re-testing, over and over.
- It must be consistent – you have to continue to build quality content and links. You cannot do it once and forget about it. If you do, Google will forget about you too!
- You must read up on the latest SEO techniques and changes via Google and other search engines. What worked last year may not work this year. Check out bloggers’ passion posts about where to learn more about the ever-changing SEO landscape today.
- Then, you need to analyze stats often and re-adjust SEO techniques.
- Once you learn, you must re-learn it and re-do it.
- It’s like housework, it is NEVER done.
- SEO can be a real downer when your stats sink and they can sink fast. You must not get discouraged.
- Finally, SEO can be expensive. If you do PPC ads you will quickly run through hundreds of dollars.
Why Is SEO Great For Your Blog or Website?
SEO improves your blog or website’s visibility in search engine results, driving more organic traffic. By optimizing your content with relevant keywords and high-quality backlinks, you can attract more potential visitors.
However, you must also do internal linking on your blog or website. This helps the user experience and gives them more to read, thus spending more time on your site.
This can lead to increased brand awareness, higher engagement, and ultimately, more conversions.
Additionally, a well-executed SEO strategy can establish your site as an authoritative and trustworthy source in your niche, further boosting your online presence.
Why Do People Love Social vs SEO?
People often prefer social media over SEO because it offers immediate interaction and social connection. Social media platforms allow users to engage with others in real-time, creating a sense of community and belonging.
Additionally, social media provides a more visually engaging and dynamic experience compared to traditional search engine results. Users can easily consume and share content, making it an appealing platform for personal expression and social validation.
The interactive nature of social media fosters a sense of immediate gratification and feedback, which can be more appealing than the sometimes slower and more indirect results of SEO strategies.
Lastly, social media can be an ego boost for those with egos. Psychology Today wrote about this a few years back.
What Is Hard About Doing Social Media?
Managing social media can be challenging due to the need for consistent and engaging content creation, strategic scheduling, and continuous community engagement.
Additionally, staying updated on platform algorithm changes, analyzing performance metrics, and adapting to trends are ongoing tasks that demand time and effort.
Balancing the branding needs of a company with the expectations and preferences of the audience requires a nuanced approach.
SEO vs. Social to Drive Traffic Today
We saw it once with Facebook when they decided which likes on pages were fake and took them away. Then they made the algorithm for Facebook pages go down to 2-3% of your entire audience. Today we have to use their Creator Studio just to post to our pages.
Others have been put in Twitter Jail and lost their Twitter accounts. That’s why I believe we can never put our eggs, social or SEO, in any one basket.
The argument between SEO and social media will continue. Social media experts argue that social is the new SEO, while SEO experts insist that SEO is the primary source of website traffic.
To attract traffic to your blog or website, you should have SEO in place before diving into social media. However, some may find that using social media is necessary to kickstart traffic, as SEO can take up to 9 months or a year.
Ideally, using a combination of both methods would be the best approach for your blog or website.
How to Gain More Traffic: SEO vs Social
- Research keywords – use tools to research your keywords for your updated or new content.
- Writing guest blog posts on other well-read blogs.
- Update old blog posts with more content and updated information.
- Research what the competition is doing and who ranks well.
- Use graphics with alt-image text.
- Insert some videos in your blog posts.
- Write some lengthy informative blog posts that answer questions for your readers.
Conclusion: Seo vs Social Media Wins In The Long Run
SEO wins over social media in the long run. While social media provides short-term boosts, its impact fades quickly. SEO compounds over time, driving consistent traffic growth.
An optimized site captures more organic searches, outperforming viral social posts that burn bright but fizzle fast. Smart businesses invest in SEO for lasting online visibility and lead generation.
You can see my stats below to prove it to you.
Your Input: SEO vs Social Media
Which method do you prefer for driving traffic to your blog or website, SEO vs. social media? Please let me know in the comments below.
SEO vs Social Media – Which Is Better For Your Blog Traffic? Share on X
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 11 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
You can purchase her eBook about Twitter on Amazon.
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Hi Lisa, that’s a debate that keeps running in my circle. I am more inclined towards SEO as it brings in traffic month after month for my content and need not produce bulk content that keeps fading away in the social media dust.
I run multiple blogs getting traffic from SEE. I also teach the Same to my Team. Nice Article, Cheers.
Hi Avinash, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Yes, you are right to be inclined towards SEO. Especially today with so many social sites and the lack of them letting links to your site even be seen on their networks. Thanks for coming by and have a great day.
Hey Lisa,
It has been a while! It’s good to see that you are still blogging! So many have left the blogging community (including myself for a while) from several years ago.
I will put my money on SEO over social anyday. Generating traffic from work you did months ago will always be the route I prefer!
I hope all is well!
Take care
Steve
Hi Steven, welcome back to Inspire To Thrive! Yes, going on 10 years here, can you believe it? I’m now full time with the business too 🙂 Yes, SEO is so important and many don’t realize why or where to begin. Social can help but it takes time too and money. Thanks for coming by and I’ll to see what you are up at your blog 🙂 Have a nice weekend!
Hey Lisa,
I feel good to be reading your article after a long time. Well, to be honest I have never thought of SEO vs Social Media to driving traffic.
Most of the bloggers these days are focussing more into social media in order to gain traffic, Is that right?
Indeed SEO is so hard but it’s worth. Personally, I find social media more fun and easy : ). Except that you need to be available all the time.
I appreciate you for this wonderfully explained article.
Regards,
Jeangam Kahmei
Hi Jeangam, SEO definately drives more targeted traffic and traffic over all if you spend some time on it. Social media drives traffic as well but more if you spend some money on adverting on the channels. Social media can be more fun as it’s much more interactive.
Thanks for coming by and for your input on this one Jeangam. Do have a great day ahead 🙂
“Which method do you prefer for driving traffic to your blog or website, SEO or social media”?
To answer your question Lisa, I prefer SEO because organic traffic is red hot and very interested in what I have to say. As per social, people going to, for example Facebook, are there to be casual and have fun, so even if they click on your link and visit your site, they’ll be cold leads you’ll have to warm up first.
Hi Nikola, I would agree with you, though social helps push it further out. But I like your point about SEO being more targeted 🙂 Thanks for your input and have a great rest of the day there.
Hi Lisa,
We all have the habit of using social media, but the same time we all search for everything on Google or some other search engines. This clearly tells that social media traffic and organic traffic from search engine come in different way.
If you want to reach your target audience in most targeted manner than SEO is for you but if your focus is only on getting traffic then social media can be good for you.
For best results, I recommend that one should use both the social media nd SEO for growth of business in every possible way.
Thanks!
Hi Gaurav, great point about search. I agree it takes both today but seo is very critical for that very targeted traffic still. Most websites generate a little more if not a lot via SEO over social unless they spend a lot on social media ads. Thanks for coming by on this one Gaurav. Have a great weekend ahead : )
Hi Lisa,
Your title entices conversation and debate over SEO vs. Social Media, which one is the best traffic generator? For my blog, social media used to be my primary traffic source – accounting for over half my traffic. However, since I began to apply SEO tactics, using long-tail keywords, SEO has become my primary traffic source. On average, 65% of my traffic comes from organic search. So no matter how one looks at it, SEO will always prevail. With just a little tweak, you can boost your organic web traffic several folds to your blog.
However, if one can apply the best social media strategies (Pinterest for example), you can triple your traffic as well. Pinterest is more like Google, a social media search engine platform with the potential to drive tons of web traffic.
Hi Moss, yes, thank you 🙂 Mine today is more SEO than social but Twitter is the #1 social for mine. Followed by Facebook. I’ve been using Tailwind for Pinterest and it has helped but not as well as what your site sounds like from it! It’s interesting for sure Moss. Thanks for coming by on this one and have a great rest of the week there 🙂
Hello Lisa,
Very very interesting post and its points – you have opted fabulous sub- titles. SEO is the one that there is the most misinformation about.
Nowadays, only those who employ SEO strategies can hope for result improvement and yet a lot of people are still intimidated by the process. One of the main reasons you should use social media marketing is to increase your website traffic.
This is not something theoretical but if used correctly social media can become a great source of traffic that can help you establish a successful online business or blog.
Eventually, thanks for exploring these amazing facts in simple manner.
With best wishes,
Amar Kumar
Hi Amar, thank you for your comments. It’s a long process and I think that is what intimidates people that most. They don’t want to put in hours and weeks of week and wait months or a year for returns. It’s like planting seeds in a garden 🙂
Social media can become a great source of traffic too as long as one keeps up with the latest algoirthms and such with the networks today. Everything changes so quickly now Amar! Have a great day 🙂
SEO traffic is not easy thus social media’s, both take time. For instance, to achieve social traffic, first we need to build an audience in large number and daily interaction/engagement, designing graphics/content according to the platform needs to be part of it. see, it’s a bit time taking.
Coming to SEO, we don’t have to brainstorm our creativity to engage with the audience like social media, just logical-helpful content does the job. Again it depends on the keyword competition and other ranking factors. We never know what update Google brings next, so it’s always the edge-knife situation to expect traffic via organic. Once we understand the SEO secret (constant learning and optimization), nothing beats it.
Point is, it’s really cool to have multiple traffic sources like organic, social media, email, referrals, etc. Diversity is really important when it comes to user traffic.
I really enjoyed reading this article. Great Job, Lisa. Take care!
Hi Mudassir, thank you 🙂 It sure does take time, months to years to show rewards. And like you mention we must be ready to make changes as Google makes changes all the time as does social media as well.
I like that term “diversity” to drive traffic to our websites Mudassir. Very true! We can’t rely just on one way, because if something happens we still need traffic from other sources today.
Thanks for your input and have a great day and rest of the week ahead 🙂
Hey Lisa,
interesting post and Thanks for share this post with us. Yes, Social media sites really help in blogging these days as it helps to promote our blog and also attracts many readers but for this we require lots of audience as you mentioned above. So, Social media is good way for driving traffic to blog but SEO is very crucial factor which we cannot neglect.
Hi Sudipto, so true, SEO is still something that cannot be neglected no matter how much it has changed over the past even few months now. Thanks for coming by.
A good comparison between traditional SEO and social. The point you made about being available to respond in social media is one many newcomers to social media marketing probably haven’t considered.
Thanks Cole, yes, some do not understand the need for speed on social media. Whereas SEO is slower and not so steady anymore 🙂 Have a wonderful day ahead.
Lisa, Thanks for this wrtieup but sometimes you just get frustrated with some technical part of SEO. Regular changes from Google. SEO traffic is the best but its somehow hard but it pays on a long run if it started working for you. As for Social Media. its a quick result method and i love it.
Olamosh, that’s for sure – frustration it is! But also patience. It doesn’t happen overnight with SEO as it could with social media if something goes viral. Thanks for coming by and for your input on this topic. Have a great weekend ahead.
Hi Lisa,
I have to say, I’m a bit sad right now, I couldn’t read this quicker, I went to my cabin in the mountains. But this is a wonderful piece of article.
I’ve tried SEO myself, I did all the work and I got a few sites up on page #1. But I have to say: I’ve also tried Social Media and I got more visitors from Social Media then from SEO. You can get traffic faster with Social Media if you know what you are doing.
You just have to work hard and never give up.
Don’t be sad Sita, nice to see you here. Social is quicker but SEO can last longer if done right. Either way it’s true you must work hard. Enjoy the rest of your week there!
I am not a fan of SEO, but I do understand its importance. I prefer Social Media (or any other referral traffic – such as through comments or through guest blogging) over SEO. My advice would be to spend some time with SEO, but don’t invest too much time in it. Instead, spend your time with SM and other methods.
The good thing about SM and any other referral traffic is that they almost always comprise of your target audience (don’t have to worry much about that high bounce rate or low average duration).
I used to get most of my traffic through guest posting or through commenting. So, I didn’t worry much about SEO. But, I still got a lot of traffic through Google 😀
Hi Jeevan, you are not alone in that feeling. It is hard SEO and you have no one to chat with while you are doing it most of the time 🙂 Social is way more fun as is commenting, right? It’s good your traffic is comin frgom Google, content must be doing it. Thanks again for coming by today.
Social media is important part of SEO 2013.
No doubt SEO will bring traffic in future but with social media we can build audience(loayl audience) for our blog and you can do business while just hanging with social media. Social media promotion is very necessary , if we don’t promote our blog then how people will know us that we are existing in market.
If we get shares and likes on articles that will affect in search engine ranking.Google love those things which people loves.
Rajesh, it almost sounds like a catch 22. Though some businesses do not use social they still show up in search – but I think it’s because they have a unique product or service. Those that have competition must use social. Thanks for coming by with your input and have a great day.
I agree with everyone else writing before me. While Social Media is good at bringing visitors right now, SEO will keep bringing you visitors in the future. However, the best is both of them combined, not forgetting that working social media will have a positive effect on your search engine rankings!
Hi Sigbjorn, great point about SEO bringing visitors in the future. Thanks for coming by and taking the time to share your input with us here. Have a great weekend.
Great post. I think you need both, but like you said, it is work. SEO is still work in progress for me I swear its like you just finished, when you still have more work to go. After reading this post, I think you can’t have one without the other. They both have their benefits, but if everything is geared towards social, I feel its short-lived.
Social can be so sporadic when something is hot, but the moment it wears off, you’re back to square one again. SEO benefits come from sprucing up your blog so it can be found, but with with many changes from Google, it keeps you on your toes. And then there are so many tools to use that you end up overwhelmed on what works and what doesn’t. I think SEO will always keep us guessing.
Hi Sonia, Thanks. I must agree about SEO, it does keep you guessing at times especially when the new changes are happening. It’s a constant checking over everything and re-doing things. It’s a never ending cycle and with social you have to be active too and add continuous updates. Thanks for coming by Sonia and taking time to comment. Hope we can chat soon 🙂
Lisa
In our case it is both and a whole lot more. What is bringing in the most traffic? Giving our staff business cards and make them meet real people and do real networking.
DocLou
Louis, you can’t beat the power of personal touch 🙂 Thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts on this one 🙂
Hi Lisa!
This post really helped me out as I was beginning to kind of want to disregard social media. It is a lot easier and more enjoyable, but you’re right about it being so temporary. A tweet quickly goes out of scope in one’s news feed as is the case anywhere else, but SEO does last with the proper maintenance. You’ve helped me realize that there is a ton of lasting value in SEO that social media just can’ t beat.
Of course, the debate won’t end, but there doesn’t need to be a clear winner. Both tools need to work in conjunction. I guess even SEO can be fun because it’s like playing a game with Google (and other search engines). We can always make things enjoyable if we decide to 🙂
Thanks again!
Best regards,
Kalina
Hi Kalina, you are welcome. Glad to know this post helped you out. SEO can be a frustrating game at times especially when you work hard and cannot rank well and traffic goes South. Then it becomes fun when you can compete on page one and get traffic coming and making sales. Thanks for taking the time to comment on this one, have a great day Kalina!
Awesome post Lisa. Sounds like you’ve been there, done that and learned from it and I’m so glad you shared this with us. I constantly have issues with all I have to remember in order to do this online work and SEO is a bear! Thanks for posting all the details that I need. Great job!
Regards,
Barbara
Thanks Barbara, glad it was helpful and I would agree SEO is a bear more than ever before. You are welcome and I appreciate you taking the time to comment as well. I hope you have a wonderful day there.
I prefer the traffic source from search engine because they really look so natural. You can stay at the comfort of your homes without making any advertisement, and you let search engine do the work for you. Although it all depends on the blogger. But to me, i have found comfort in the place of search engines. Social medias only bring traffic from persons who may just feel like clicking your link and are not ready to consume the information provided there. Is a good thing you had to make this post. But i will say that organice traffic is simply the best 😆
Hi Robinson, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Yes, they are more natural and if done right can generate a lot of traffic. It’s been harder with the changes over at Google and the changes are happening so rapdily now. Thanks for coming by and for your thoughts on this one. Have a wonderful day.
Hey Lisa,
I feel that SEO takes patience and it’s a skill set that a blogger needs to learn, and get good at. On the other hand, social media… it’s so easy. You just take your link, copy and then paste it via your social media outlets. As we all know that SEO is good for long term results, and social media is great for short-term and it’s faster to get traffic to your site. I wouldn’t leave one without the other but at the same time, if it was me, I prefer social media over SEO.
Hi Nate, yes SEO sure does take PATIENCE. Since it is easier and more fun I can see why most including myself prefer the social media over SEO. Nothing good is easy, right? Thanks for your input Nate!
Let me say this so maybe you can help me understand things a little better Lisa. The way I understand it is
1.The more posts you have sitting on social media that are shared the higher your ranking is in the SERP’s. TW FB and G+ (besides the extra bonus of G+) (Google just started indexing Facebook Comments..*sighs*)
2. SEO changes all the time..so I can’t write future proof articles and I’m not going to rewrite 1,000’s of post every time Google squeezes a new update my way, sound impossible and overwhelming unless your Matt Cutts.
3. Before I was a webmaster I was your average user. I would type into Google search what I wanted….find it…look at it..close out. I never clicked ads because well..porno sites taught me it’s bad to click on ads. 🙂 <Truth and I never press any sharing buttons I just hightlighted URL and pasted on social media.
4. So in the end…it's not even worth worrying about google at all. Index them get them all setup and ignore them and go on sharing. You can't help what happens with google…so why worry.
– Scott Craighead
Hi Scott, to a point I agree with that but I think it is still important to do keyword research and make sure those keywords are in your title and used throughout the post but not overdone and images should be optimized too. I would not write 1000’s of posts every time Google has a new update either. But we could revise some old ones to be sure we don’t get penalized. I definately agree on sharing though – that’s an added plus along the way. Thanks for your input on this one Scott.
I think SEO still wins on the long run. although, a website with viral social presence could drive in some massive traffic but it only lasts for a while like you pointed out. SEO keeps the content alive and going for a longer period.
Well, I’m new to your blog and landed here from one of my fav in ’emfastincome’. It’s great to know you Lisa. I’d try to visit more often.
Hi Ivan, yes, it does last longer when SEO works right. Google has been making so many changes of late that it hasn’t been working for many which leads to frustration. And spending time on social is more fun and can produce some traffic as well. It’s about finding the right mix to work well for you. Welcome to Inspire to Thrive, hope to see you again! Thanks for taking the time to comment here.
Hey Lisa,
SEO is still important and that dead thing people keep screaming… Well as I asked the question over on Google+ last week the majority of people responded that because the rules do change so often it’s hard to keep up therefore most people don’t get the desired results.
Because it’s constantly changing you don’t have to have as many keywords in a post as you use to in order for it to be found. Okay, that’s what they say at least so why not just do both if possible. I think my main issue with SEO was finding the right keywords you could actually rank for and then making them flow naturally in your posts. To me that’s the hardest part of this process.
I need to get back to more of that. I keep reminding myself but I’ve yet to do it. Shame on me but thanks for this post. It’s just important.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne – that is true, the desired results are not what is happening of late with Google. It has gptten really harder the past year. Social is great to fill in the holes when SEO is lacking but it takes as much time as SEO, it’s just that social is much more fun Adrienne, right? Thanks for coming by with your views on this one.
Hi Liza,
No matter what we do it’s always a good idea not to put all our eggs in the same basket as you mentioned, because there isn’t anything more uncertain then the online social media and even Google.
My 3 biggest traffic sources come from search engines, facebook and my list., but that could change tomorrow. We need to not rely on one source, but has many as we can.
Thanks for all those real pros and cons about SEO and Social Media.
Have a great week!
Hi Sylviane, yes you are right- the things that bring you traffic today may not be the ones that do tomorrow. I have a new one in my top 10 called Listly. Odd how that works sometimes. You are welcome and have a great week too.
Great topic Lisa!
I know most folks would prefer social media but I’m in this for the long haul so my main focus is SEO yet I do rely on social media to drive traffic to my site so I try to keep a balance. That’s why I think you’re right in that we should know when to “change lanes”.
Thanks for laying out the differences between the two. And yes, SEO is a lot like housework, you never get done doing it, loved that one!
Have a great day and productive new week Lisa! See you in the Twitterverse 🙂
Thanks Corina, yes changing lanes can be tricky too online. SEO is great for the long haul and social is great to fill in for the short term. When I lost Google traffic on the retail site, Pinterest was a godsend. So keep plugging away on all lanes my friend. I hope you have a great week ahead and yes – see you back in the Twitterverse.
I feel good to see people visiting my blog on discovering the content they required through search engines .I get very little traffic from social media sites and i’m trying hard to get some more visitors to my blog from social media sites.I agree with you Lisa ,SEO is a hard thing to learn , bloggers can’t complain much about this as if they want to survive in blogosphere and see growth ,they should be well equipped with SEO knowledge.Thanks for sharing the infroamtion
-Pramod
Pramod, yes it is great to see traffic organically. It is also at times quicker to generate traffic via social once you have an engaged audience there. One tweet by someoe with a massive following can make a difference but it is short lived. Had it happen on retail site one day and it was just a one day occurance. SEO would last much longer. Thanks for coming by and for your input on this one.
There is no comparison between SEO or social media. Today both of these are necessary to run an online business smoothly. And that is why marketers are investing both on social media advertisement and search engine advertisement. It is also true that it is quite difficult to measure the ROI on social media advertising but, it is necessary for branding businesses online.
So, SEO or social media are the right hand and left hand of your website or blog 😀
Hi Majharul, thanks for coming by and for your input. Good comparison having them each on one side. I think there are more programs now that can measure the ROI a little better on social but it’s still not an EXACT science. Have a great week.
Hi Lisa
I much prefer social to SEO but as you say the benefits of getting SEO right are long term, whereas social can be very fleeting.
I try my best with both. I’m no expert on either though. SEO seems to be more of an unknown as Google push through so many updates whereas with social you can control things a little more.
I don’t think you can have one without the other nowadays though because you really need to be diverse and be everywhere!
Hi Tim, I agree most of the time with that one too. Social is a little easier and fun. SEO can be tricky and no immediate results seen. But it is a more long-term way to generate traffic. Thanks for coming by and you were busy today with your own post and guest post! Have a great week and thanks for coming by.
Hi Lisa
I love this topic. I recently did a webinar with someone who was teaching on this subject. He called it Social Search and was using appropriate key words on the Social sites.
I do basic SEO only as I do not want to keep up with every last thing but as you say it lasts longer than social. I think to do both makes sense.
It is a great topic so excellent your wrote this post.
Thanks Lisa
Sue
Thanks Sue, funny how some are trying to combine the two already. It may the way of the future. It sure is hard to keep up with the latest on SEO Sue. Thank you for coming and sharing that with us. Have a great week ahead.
Hi Lisa,
You have done an excellent job of weighing the pros and cons on both sides of the fence.
I can’t see using one without the other for my blog but I think social is way more interesting and certainly much more fun 😀
Thank you Ileane, nice to see you. Yes, you are right, social can be way more fun except when you post and get no response. LOL – it’s like being in a black hole. Of course once you build an audience that goes away and then you really start to have some fun 🙂 Have a great day Ileane!
I would Definitely go with SEO as it gives you a large amount of traffic once you get comfortable with its use. Though things take time when you go with SEO but for long term effect on your blog. Social Media traffic comes in a bulk when you promote your post in social network but its effect will be short lived as once your post get disappeared from the page, your traffic will get down. All in all you need to be active on these social network as long as possible to keep your reader busy & generate traffic from here. On the other hand For long term Plans one should surely go with SEO as it needs hard work only for sometime/some days when you publish your post on website. You need to apply all the basics & SEO tricks you have learned from your experience at the time of optimization of your post. Once you have done everything you could have done with your post, you can get relaxed & hope for some long term positive results. I get most (approx 90%) of my website traffic through SEO so can’t even think of an alternate for now. Anyways thanks for sharing this article with us Lisa.
Raj, I’m with you on that one. Except when Google changes the “rules” and then you get not so comfortable. Social is usually short lived – that is true except for maybe some viral pins. Good to know you are getting 90% from SEO. That is awesome! Thanks for sharing with us and have a great day Raj.
The one line of yours “Except when Google changes the rules” have already been applied upon me Lisa. But I am still sticking up with SEO rather than targeting social media even when I have more than 50K followers on Facebook, which is the largest social network of the world. Hope to get out of Google’s wrath soon.
Raj, that’s a great following on Facebook – Do you find it very helpful? That Google wrath can be brutual. I hope you have a good day ahead. Thanks for coming by and for your input on this one too.
Interesting post Lisa! I keep looking at SEO but there’s just too much to it and I just don’t have the time. I’m a hobby blogger so I’ll rely on social media to get traffic my way. Just so much time can be spent into social media and blogger. Where does one find time for the SEO? Crazy imo….. ya’ll are the people that don’t get much sleep!
Hi Brenda, you are right – don’t get much sleep 🙁 I just did some SEO on my retail site and it’s quite time consuming. I’m glad I have this blog to keep me having fun online. I think many hobby bloggers like yourself are relying more on social than ever before. It is easier, they are more social sites than ever and if you hit it right you can have a post or two go viral. Thanks for coming by my friend. I hope you are sleeping in today 🙂
Great read – I believe both are necessary. SEO is about the numbers and visibility but Social Media is about building relationships first, traffic second.
Hi Marquita, thank you. Yes, social is about those relationships but some think it’s just a means to go viral and don’t really intereact on social. They tend to share their own stuff and not so much others. Have you noticed that? Thank you for coming by and commenting. Have a great day.
In my opinion, SEO is hard like you said above and social media is as easy as just hitting a button. But SEO is the best, just that it takes some time but social media is so effective that you’ll go viral in minutes and generate referral traffic but it’ happens in a limited period of time because other social media shares and feed will overcrowd this. I can believe my latest post have something in common :). I’m glad i came accross this quality post on bizsugar.
Thanks for sharing Lisa.
Hi Gilbert, welcome to Inspire to Thrive! I think many think social because it is easier and it CAN go viral, where the SEO takes a lot of time both in implementation and getting results. I will have to check yours out, it looks very interesting too Gilbert. Thanks for coming by and have a great day.
Hi Lisa!
For me SEO and Social Media is like a recipe. A dash of SEO…because we don’t want to overload it….and a presence on many social media platforms.
Is it difficult to do? Hmmm only if you spend too much time on it I think. If you use time management skills effectively, then you can be on all the social platforms a few minutes a day at different intervals.
I never could understand SEO. All I know that if I’m reading something that is filled with SEO words, I cannot understand what I am reading. To me SEO is like a strong spice in a recipe. A little dash will do ya!
-Donna
I love that Donna, great analogy! I wish I could do a few minutes a day 🙂 Working on that one….as long as keywords range in 2% of your total copy. So if you post is 300 words it should not have the keyword more than 6x. Of course you have to know which keywords to use too and that takes a little researching. It sure is not easy Donna. I hope you have a nice weekend and that you are all moved in?
Hello Lisa
SEO and Social media both have their own importance.
SEO- Search engine optimization is really important if you are looking for free traffic. It will help other users to find your blog regarding to their queries. If you are getting sufficient traffic from the search engines. You will eventually earn more. Google appreciate organic traffic more then referral traffic.
On other hand social media is also great way to target audience
you will get instant traffic if you have good social media following. They are permanent users of your blog/site
Thanks for the nice update, Keep up the good work . Would love to read more from you/
Regards 🙂
Hi Ashi, nice to see you again on this post. Interesting point about organic vs referral traffic in Google’s eyes. I wish we could look through those eyes as well. Either way will take time though some may think social is quicker. Thanks for coming by again 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
For me, social share is the new SEO which many people would want to disagree with it. It is not widely practised yet but it will go down soon when Page Rank goes out of the picture. And we are talking like 6 months or now or so.
But until then, basic SEO still plays a huge role.
And here’s another ‘but’. Even thought social share could/would/might take over the major ranking factor, this doesn’t rule out that SEO is still important.
So like what you say, practise both would be the best method for this 😉 At least, that’s what I think.
Have a great weekend!
You are welcome Reginald. I am fascinated to see how that will work in the near future as some are predicting. It must be even harder for those SEO professionals that have been doing this for 10 years, it must really be shaking up their industry too like so many other industries out there. Thanks for coming by with your insights today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Hi Lisa,
lol 😀 How true! Social experts claim social is the best, while SEO experts claims it’s not true at all. Now that’s debatable.
I believe a mix of both is MUST if we need more exposure online Lisa. As I find, people like the social aspect as SEO can be kinda boring if you are not much into it. Integrating Google+ into Google search is not a mistake at all. Isn’t it? 🙂 SEO + Social Media is really powerful. Anyway If we don’t make use of both, someone else would do 🙂 However it’s amazing how some reputed businesses make profits even without a social presence ~ mashable.com/2013/01/01/social-media-not-required 🙂
For me, without search and social media traffic, there will be no considerable amount of traffic Lisa 🙂 I believe it’s the same for most bloggers out there too. However search engines drive me most of the traffic and I think it’s ’cause of they are mostly How-tos. Anyway, as content search integrates into social media, I think social traffic will be booster sooner too.
You have a lovely weekend dear 🙂
Cheers…
Hi Mayura, I think SEO has a little more over social especially after reading that piece on Mashable. Amazing. They must spend a lot of $$$ on SEO and advertising. They are also very unique types of businesses – probably not a lot of competition. It will be interesting to how fast social will catch up with the SEO in the near future. Thanks for coming by Mayura and I hope you have a FUN weekend as I know you’ve been busy working 🙂
i think social media is best.. In social media so many unknown people visit your blog and also sometimes frnds of frnds like and share your article or blog, this advantage is not available in SEO.. and must imp thing is they never know as a spamming activity..
Hi Mike, interesting take you have on it. But I can see why too. There are advantages of both but I think SEO still has the highest vantage at the moment. It can change anytime though with Google+ and the other social sites. Have you thought about getting a gravatar? You could use your photo like at your blog 🙂 (this comment almost ended in spam folder) Thanks for coming by and sharing your imput too.
HI Lisa,
I think both are important. However, as you said: SEO lasts longer than Social media. This is decisive for me.
Now, about SEO …. . Let’s say you want to do SEO. Where do you start? Do you have a book or a course about SEO? Maybe there is an important site where you can learn. Maybe you know some experts in the field.
For the moment, my best traffic source is neither SEO nor social media. It is blog commenting.
Have a nice day
Hi Silviu, there are so many places I read for SEO – the biggest being Matt Cutts as he is at Google – he is the spokesperson for their SEO guidelines, etc. Google has their own webmaster blog too. Blog commenting is a part of SEO Silviu as it generates backlinks in most cases. It is a great way to introduce yourself to other bloggers and get to know one another. That makes is social as well. It’s a combo you can’t beat! Have a great weekend there Silviu.
Hi Lisa! I was recently introduced about you on Enstine’s blog and no doubt you are a gem to new and experienced bloggers. Your experience itself defines your professionalism. The comparison between social media and seo is eating my mind. My blog is just one month old. I’ve been working on building back links and audience. The difference between these two in mind is very clear because 70% of my blog’s traffic comes from organic sources. whereas hardly anything from twitter,Facebook gives some though. Creating quality content keeping every aspect of seo technique in mind would be crucial. As you’ve nicely explained the concept behind getting a good flow of traffic from social network is to build the audience. I’m greatly inspired from this blog to understand its working. I’ll try to work on it keeping both seo and social media at equal importance. Thanks again for the cool info!! Happy blogging Lisa! Rupak
Rupak, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. 70% organic is good Rupak and the social takes longer as you build an audience there too. I like the name of your blog, I will have to check it out soon. Thank you for coming by and inspiring me to continue on 🙂 Have a great weekend.
Hi Lisa, good post and one I’ve often wondered about before – which is better for driving traffic. As both the social media & SEO landscapes continue to evolve I think there is go to be a real merging of the two. Social signals are now being weighted a lot higher than before in search algorithms so I think the best route is a hybrid of the two. When pages/posts are posted they should he optimised on site and then boosted with social backlinking so that the Googlebots can track them down quickly. For this to be successful you do need to build an audience, and for them to want to share it the quality of the post has to be good, so in a way we’re back to square one..The more things change the more they stay the same. Good stuff that people like to share will always survive and thrive – from both an SEO & SMM point of view. Thanks for the read..Rob
Thank you Robert, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. I like how you put that, the more things change, the more they stay the same. A hybrid is a must know to gain traffic and readers and buyers if you are selling online. Quality + audience = success online. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.
I shall do my best to have a good one..you too Lisa, cheers..
Hi Lisa,
This is surely going to be a great topic of discussion, something that can never end 🙂
I loved the SEO red car in the above picture as you pointed out in the post – apt…we are stuck in the SEO game half the time. Just when we feel we know it all or that our posts are getting ranked, suddenly the updates show up and wash away our efforts, and we learn we need to re-do things or change our way of working. I still haven’t been able to really decipher what really works any more!
While there are so many of my posts that I just wrote randomly, for trial purposes, and those ranked much better without any SEO in them – how does that work – I wonder! So, one really can’t say any more about SEO.
While social media you are sure of at least, though that is a temporary victory so as to say, and something you need to keep working on, a little every day, if you want to maintain your rank as such. Speaking of myself, for me presently it’s a little more of social media than SEO that’s working, though they are nearly at par, and I think that’s because I’ve changed my SEO way of working by just going with the flow instead of really trying to target any specific words, perhaps that’s what’s working. But that also means a lot of time, patience, efforts, and hard work is involved in building your audience, connecting with people, making your posts reach the masses, and having a strong social presence, without which social media doesn’t work. A combination is what works best if you ask me.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend 🙂
Thank you Harleena, you are right – it is hard to know what works anymore. I think you are wise to write for your readers then worry about all the SEO involved for each post. Though I would say to have keywords in titles at the least and some headers too. (which I see you do use). Social is temporary for the most part unless one of your posts or tweets get picked up by a giant. It all sure does take a lot of time and patience. Enjoy the rest of your weekend Harleena.
Lisa,
I have to admit that it’s hard for me to figure out the SEO and the formula for driving authentic traffic to my blog. Right now, I get a traffic vampirestat.com. What’s that? 😥
Hi Regina, that’s an interesting site. It mostly tells you your alexa rank and dollar worth of websites. Mine is still processing. I can see from my SEO extension you need more backlinks. Those do take time to get. It looks like your blog is fairly new? You are doing great with comments and I love the photo’s. Have a great weekend Regina.