SEO and SMO are Two Different Techniques

The terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are often confused as being synonymous. It must be for the word 'optimization' which creates the illusion that these terms are interchangeable. This is a false trend, and both these terms are visibly different from each other with regards to their meanings. You can achieve good SEO even if you are not doing so well in the SMO department and vice versa. On the other hand, it is possible that the progress of SMO will be directly linked with the progress of SEO. To clarify things in a better way, let us see what SMO and SEO are and how they differ.

What is SEO?

SEO is the utilization of search engine results page (SERP). It is the calculated placement of frequently searched and commonly used words and phrases in the web content. These frequently searched words and phrases are called keywords and key phrases. SEO is a marketing strategy which is used to amplify site traffic, sales of the product, marketing of brand and reorganization on part of a company or a person. When a user intends to do a search on internet, he inserts the keyword or key phrase into Google, Yahoo! or MSN, which are the commonly used search engines. SERP displays a list of top 10 pages which show the highest relevance with the keyword or key phrase. In other words, the best optimized websites will be displayed as the top 10 pages. In most of the cases, the websites which make it to the top 10 displayed pages have achieved SEO.

Benefits of Achieving SEO:

Websites which achieve SEO will appear more frequently than the others and they will be more popular and better trusted among the users of internet. This is valuable for the PR of a site. The PR of a site is ranked from 1 to 10 on the logarithmic credibility scale. The PR value of a site is directly proportional to its credibility. A site with better credibility will charge more for posting ads.

Now let's take a look at SMO.

What is SMO?

SMO makes full use of all forums of social media for the marketing and publicity of web content, a product or a brand. Bookmarks, news, pictures and video sites also play a role in advertising through SMO. SMO disseminates web content on popular social media sites like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Businesswire and Youtube. The intended use of SMO is to amplify site traffic, product and affiliate product sales and to achieve subscribers.

How to Achieve SMO?

Unlike SEO, SMO is not gained by the strategic placement of keywords and key phrases. Doing so definitely helps, but this is not the key principle for achieving SMO. Rather, it is achieved by producing eye-catching, innovative and influential web content which can grasp the attention of a user. If an audience finds the content interesting, he will share or post it. If the content gains popularity, it will appear on top social media bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.

Cut to the chase: Despite using different strategies and techniques, both SEO and SMO are often applied simultaneously to market the same content. Using these strategies prudently will make your content popular on social media sites and will make it appear on top ranking on search engines.
Image Credit: hywards

Author Bio:

I am Jeniffer, editor at Key Difference. Am passionate about SEO services, Technology, Email Marketing Services, Mobile Application Development, Marketing Consultant, etc. I wish to share my knowledge with others and jump into blogging.