SEO or Social Media – Is SEO needed now that Social Media has arrived?
January 18th, 2010 | by Peter Cullen |There has been a huge increase in ‘noise’ about social media and how it’s changing the way people are experiencing the web.
But is the experience of the web really changing for everybody?
Is social media really changing the way everyone interacts with the web? It’s certainly making it easier to stay in touch with people you connect to or follow. Is it changing the way people find things, new things? I would have to say yes it is, at least for me it is, but am I a typical web user? I’m involved in online marketing, I use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to varying degrees of success. I follow and connect and tweet, I’m a fan and a blogger! But am I you average web user?
What I want to know is, ‘Is my experience of the web seen as leading/bleeding edge, or is everyone like me? Does everyone look at their Twitter client on the way home from work? Does your average web Joe think about integrating their Twitter updates into their Facebook account?
I wondered, how I could get an insight into what was an average users experience of the web??
How do they use it, how would I even define what an average user was. I gave up on this futile exercise and decided another approach was needed1 How can I gain an insight into what people are searching on over time? Answer – Google Trends – of course!
I entered SEO and Social Media and chose the country United States. I reckoned for sure that Social Media would be way out in front as the US is typically ahead of the curve on these things. I was quite surprised at the graph Google produced below.
This graph shows that the gap between the number of people searching for SEO as compared to Social Media has been narrowing since the start of 2009. (If you forget the end of the year when the holiday season warps figures).
I was expecting to see Social Media way out in front when it comes to people looking for information, but when it came to the number of searches executed on Google, the term ‘SEO’ led the way for all of 2009. Conclusion? A lot of average web users are looking for SEO related information.
Now, look at the second part of the graph above – social media in this one is above SEO! This is a graph of the news reference volume during 2009. These sources I would suggest are not your average web user, they are in the news industry, probably the technology news industry mostly. This graph shows that the news volume for SEO related stories remained steady throughout the year, whereas the news volume for ’social media’ has been steadily growing, and has been above SEO for most of the year.
What does the same graph look like for the UK?
This picture is slightly different in the UK. The gaps between the number of searches during 2009 for ’seo’ and ’social media’ are much more pronounced. Again though you can see that the news volume is greater for social media.
At the start of 2009 the news volume for SEO and Social Media were much the same, but as the year went on and social media became more of a buzz , more technology journalists wrote about it, and I guess people like me started to blog about it.
So, what does this mean?
Well, the US is ahead of the curve when it comes to the average users knowledge and understanding of the web. On both sides of the pond though, technology writers and those in the online marketing business seem to be talking up a storm about social media and it’s benefits.
When it comes to business and your average web user, I think they are mostly coming to terms with SEO and it’s benefits in Europe, where as in the US, your average business owner/web user would appear more more aware about social media and are motivated to search and find out more about it.
Another angle this could be looked at is by asking, who’s searching on the keyword term ‘SEO’? Is it business owners? Is social media dominated by individual users, with businesses not quite getting their head around it yet?
What about your experience?
Are you a technology journalist? Is most of your writing, related to doing business online, focused on social media these days?
I’d be especially interested to hear from people who wouldn’t normally use the web as part of their daily work.
Maybe from marketing people in SME’s who are thinking about the best way to use the web for their business.
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43 Responses to “SEO or Social Media – Is SEO needed now that Social Media has arrived?”
By SEO Sheffield on Jan 20, 2010 | Reply
This is a really detailed article. I think that social media really should be used in conjunction with SEO. But in cases where the keywords for SEO are so highly competitive, social media can definitely seem as though it’s having a much higher impact.
By the way, loving the changes that have been made to the Interleado Workbench. Much faster. Thanks again.
By Peter Cullen on Jan 20, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for your kind comments Samantha, do you have any case studies you’d like to share re seo vs social media?
Maybe a guest blog appearance?
By SEO Sheffield on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
I certainly have a case study that shows that SEO isn’t always necessary. One of our clients has a website that gets quite a lot of direct traffic and rank well in search engines. But wanted to connect with people and have discussions with people who might find their site useful. And to generate interest.
We set up accounts with three social networks. They’ve only been up and running for about 6 months maximum, but have had good results already.
I’d be happy to write this case study as a guest blog if you email me a brief
By Mark Gilvey on Jan 27, 2010 | Reply
SEO is still necessary because not all businesses have the resources to participate in it. Take small businesses for example. They don’t have the people or the time to build back links (forget the one’s who don’t build back links even though you tell them how important it is) or chat on the social networks so all they have left is their website and where it appears in the search engine results. Therefore they should at least invest in SEO to help get them higher in the rankings. Chances are if they are doing this, their website is being cared for and adjusted to keep the company looking like they are on top of their game and not a neglected and poorly communicated site? I mean, what you are proposing is that I could launch a really bad website and just rely on my powers to communicate through social media and there would be no problem—does that make sense?
Also, even though the phone companies show how much more coverage they have across the country, their customer base for who is able to afford the luxury of having a device to text on is still relatively small. I for one find it really uncomfortable to text on number keys and I can’t afford to put a whole family on a righteous texting device as much as I’d like to.
It would be interesting to see the influences of certain age groups have on your trend results.
By Peter Cullen on Jan 28, 2010 | Reply
Hi Mark, thanks for your comments and I agree that SEO is still very much necessary.
it was not my intention to suggest that SEO is no longer of benefit, more to highlight the crowing impact of SEO.
By Brian Bluff on Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Very nice job and great use of Google trends. I believe:
social media = branding
seo = sales
Both are important and necessary and there is overlap. However, at the end of the day I want my site to be positioned directly in front of a prospect at the exact moment they have a need. If I’ve done my job with social media, my brand will “stick out” and I improve my chances of earning the prospects business.
By Rick Short on Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Asking, “Is SEO necessary …?” or, “Are you using SEO?” is like asking a person if they are on a diet. Even if the person is eating anything they want, they are on a diet: their diet!
And, everything you do online is your version of affecting your “search” results. Every term must be defined (I sound like Bill Clinton), for example, you may define “search” to mean only Google Alerts while someone else may define it to mean, “when people search for the following keywords …”
Following, what is the definition of “engine”? Is it Google? Or is it an RSS feed that your customer has set up? Or is it your Twitter sending your tweets to your tweeple? The answer is, whatever you want to use!
So, I think the question is flawed. Whether you hope people only experience you in Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, your blog, etc., you are being found by people looking (searching) for you in some way.
By Peter Cullen on Feb 6, 2010 | Reply
@ Rick thanks for dropping by, I agree that every term must be defined as so many people are using the same words but takling about different things. I beleieve the new definition of SEO is any activity that helps to promote your business on a SERP
By Peter Cullen on Feb 6, 2010 | Reply
@ Brian, totally agree but I think sometimes people lose that subtle different in getting attention and getting attention at the right time!
By Joyce Kuras on Feb 7, 2010 | Reply
Hi: I am a freelance writing. Right now, I am actively writing SEO article and blog content for an email campaign software company, along with biotech and hitech firms. I have had to read case studies, articles and blogs to understand the entire circle of life surrounding email and internet campaign marketing, along with Social Media.
As I researched Social Media Marketing as well, I found that both are necessary. I worked for a Google Analytics Manager who understood how to get his company’s SERPs in the first 5 search results. He believed in using everything there was to bring valuable hits and sales to their website, which he does.
I am not as knowledgeable on this subject as most are above with their comments, but common sense dictates to use all the resources that are available to you, especially in this bad economy with the record breaking job losses.
From Guerilla marketing and up, every creative channel should be tried and tested.
Respectfully submitted,
Joyce Kuras
By Kandi M. Humpf on Feb 7, 2010 | Reply
Unfortunately, I am also part of the group that normally uses the web as part of my daily work. However, I work with clients that range from being better than myself when it comes to social media to clients that feel like nobody uses the web for major purchases.
In each case, I can show them the amount of traffic available on search engines and on social media networks.
For my clients, it’s usually split – purchasing agents aren’t looking on social media networks so we target them using seo and engineers/techies are looking on social media networks so we target them using LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (among others when necessary).
I think the strongest argument can be made for being in both places. If you ignore one in favor of the other, then you ARE going to miss part of your target audience. And we never want that to happen.
I like your definition of SEO – “any activity that helps to promote your business on a SERP”. I also agree with Brian that for the most part, social media is branding and seo is sales. Another way to say it is social media is customer support and seo is purchasing. A successful company that retains clients will have both departments manned by experienced, skilled employees.
I also like Rick’s question about definitions. With traditional search results being replaced by personalized, social, geo-targeted search results; the traditional way of seo is being updated to include these newer outlets. And for engine, even YouTube is considered a search engine with it’s own trends, insights and keyword research tools. But like you, when we use the term seo in our office, we mean the traditional search engine result pages.
We choose to use the phrase Internet Marketing because anytime a prospective client opens a browser, we want them to think of us. We’ve even installed custom toolbars so they can always see us. Wherever our audience is, we will be there with our clients.
By Peter Cullen on Feb 8, 2010 | Reply
@Kandi, thanks for the comments. I agree that you have to be in both places, SEO and Social Media attract different people at different stages of the buying cycle.
By Peter Cullen on Feb 8, 2010 | Reply
@Joyce, thanks for dropping by and for the comments. Guerilla marking can be great to laterally promote your business!
By david wesson on Mar 27, 2010 | Reply
i whole heartedly agree SEO & social media attract different people at different stages of the buying cycle and it is essential marketing strategies cover both areas.What the study doesn’t take into account is those people who are not using Google to search for goods and services and are just using social media.Interesting that people in the US that Facebook is now becoming the number website ahead of Google and I would hazard a guess that in the future less money will be spent on SEO and more on engaging with target audiences. Bear in mind this conversation doesn’t factor in mobile and the various locational social networks that have sprung up like bright kite and foursquare whom incidentally have just done a deal with bing to integrate its data.At the end of the day nothing makes a marketing strategy more relevant that knowing your audience where do they find out about your goods and services and why do they act like they do .Are there any general principles that can be applied to their behavior that can produce insights to apply to your marketing strategy along with some hard data .Then and only then can we help answer some of the questions of which channel deserves more of our attention-my opinion is that social media will overtake Google as the main source for goods and services if it hasn’t already http://bit.ly/aWt2JW
By Peter Cullen on Mar 27, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the excellent comment David – I’d love to see a breakdown of the demographics for the divide between Google and Facebook? What’s the average profile of your Facebook user as opposed to your average Google user and is Google more relevant for business?
By Graham Jackson on Mar 29, 2010 | Reply
I thought this recent blog post might interest you on this topic http://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/2010/03/23/search-gets-a-face-with-user-generated-content-ugc/
It has plenty of stats and references for re-use…
By Peter Cullen on Mar 30, 2010 | Reply
Thanks Graham, very interesting article. UGC would appear or be an untapped opportunity
By Rachel Alexander on Mar 30, 2010 | Reply
SEO and Social media overlap in many ways and the comparison is interesting. Among business owners and marketers in NZ, SEO is arguably more tangible – like a petrol fuelled car – whereas Social Media is like the electric car; people know it will be the way of the future but they are hesitant to launch into the new technology until it is mainstream, unless they are new adopters or under 30 and it’s a completely natural way of communication. Perhaps it’s just that SEO is further down the product development cycle in marketer psyches but as it’s the new thing it commands more media noise.
Of course links from blogs on social media are an excellent way of increasing page rank in SEO as well and this is how we are having success at selling in SOcial Media to skeptics.
By Randy Duermyer on Apr 1, 2010 | Reply
As a professional blogger, online marketer and SEO I can tell you that over just the past 6-9 months I am seeing more demand for social media marketing than SEO and I have even begun to backpedal on marketing my SEO services.
I think the trends graphs indicate that SEO has been around a lot longer and more people are starting to understand what it is. As demand continues to grow for social media marketing, I suspect it will overtake SEO eventually.
I think you need both – you need to make sure your site or blog is search engine friendly and you need to understand what keywords hold the most potential, but with the way the search engine algorithms have changed to emphasize social media mentions in the rankings, in order to cover your bases and maximize traffic you need an approach that integrates both SEO and social marketing. Social media works better for some companies than other, true, but I think if you want traffic you have to be out there where your audience hangs out.
Social media (include blogs, some people don’t think of blogs when you refer to social media) is a great adjunct for any SEO effort as it results in natural link building and enhanced crawling along with gains in traffic over time.
By Eric Goldman on Apr 1, 2010 | Reply
Peter;
Excellent post – thanks for sharing it and sparking this discussion. SEO and Social Media Marketing or SMM should be, as some of the comments and you pointed out in rebuttal, are just two parts of one’s marketing strategy and they do serve different purposes.
We find that SEO is by far and away the most cost effective investment in terms of driving traffic. It’s more or less a one time upfront cost (yes, one has to tune it every now and then, but these are small investments), whereas SMM is an ongoing cost in people time, forever. Still have to do both, imho, but I do think SEO should always be done, even if the SMM appears to be working.
Given our focus on Inbound Marketing Automation, and as a complete aside, I would add that to me the SMM portion of what we do is about as “Outbound” as we get. I don’t mean it’s really an outbound form of marketing per se, but it is the one aspect of Inbound where one gets out in front of some people and starts talking, instead of sitting back and listening to their digital footsteps around the site.
By bert shlensky on Apr 4, 2010 | Reply
We use both . However , I have seen numerous studies on how SEO is profitable . I have seen very few on profitable social marketing examples particularly for small companies .In addition I am concerned that all these fan requests I am starting to get will become like spam after a while . We must remember that the good and bad news about both SEO and paid is that the person is requesting the data and clicking in . By the way the bad news is you don’t reach people who don’t know what you are are trying to get them to search . In contrast, we sometimes falsely believe that our message is so great that we can generate viral communication like the IPAD .
By Peter Cullen on Apr 6, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for comment Bert. The ROI for social media is unproven, particularly for small businesses as you rightly point out. Viral message as we all know happen, trying to force a message to be viral tends to end up with egg on your face!
By Peter Cullen on Apr 6, 2010 | Reply
@ Randy – Social Media Marketing – what does this really mean? Do website owners need to take charge of this themselves rather than outsource it?
By Sara on Apr 6, 2010 | Reply
I am not sure why you and everyone here are all focusing on SEO in COMPARISON with Social media.
Good SEO means you search optimize the content that you have to reach the goals you have. So basically, what ever Google ranks and what people click on is what search marketers have to focus on. SEO is not only about your website. It is about your Facebook fan page, your tweets and blogs that gives you valuable links.
Most people start their journey with a search no matter what the click later end up on. It might be an image search, a video or a facebook fanpage and that has nothing to do with how well you optimised your own website.
Guys! Lets integrate and not isolate!
By Peter Cullen on Apr 6, 2010 | Reply
@ Sara – Well said, I think most of the comments agree with you – the focus should be on optimising your business for the search engines, that means all digital assets, not just the content on your website! Interesting to see a you’re from Sweden, I haven’t seen many comments from that part of the world! I used to visit Kista a lot in my Ericsson days! COLD in winter!!
By SEO aryakumara on Jun 19, 2010 | Reply
I agree with Sara. Why do we make comparison between SEO and Social Media. If we can combine both of them, it will be a good impact for our internet business. SEO is necessary, and Social Media too. It’s just a different way to get our target audience. And in internet marketing, we do so many way to get audience, SEO or Social Media is one of that way.
By Ian on Jun 26, 2010 | Reply
I wonder if social media will be a must-do when trying to achieve a high pr. Thoughts?
By brian mcfarlane on Jul 24, 2010 | Reply
SEO is a resources game and social media is a bigger resources game;
It comes down 5 things;
Market Research & Understanding
Traffic
Conversion
Product creation and offer
Time and organization
If you are not willing to due all of these things together then you should just write the cheques. Becauses SEO, Search Marketing and Social Media consume time and their are only 168 hours in the week. How you use those hours are up to you.
By Peter Cullen on Jul 26, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for your input Brian. Do you find your clients are willing to put much effort into ‘conversion’?
By JamesInDigital on Jul 26, 2010 | Reply
Nothing is “necessary” with regards to internet marketing, whether for yourself or a business. What does make sense is to use all the tools available to reach as many people as possible. So use social media and SEO, and both in moderation as others have suggested.
By James the Marketing Consultant on Jul 27, 2010 | Reply
I think a great point has been tackled in this article, and at some point, SEO and Social Media should be used at the same time. I agree with most of the replies. In order to deliver best result when promoting, social media is a great thing but what if you want that product be advertise to to get noticed from search engines, you would need SEO to gain a high Page Rank, thus increasing your chances to market that product. Research > Product > Social Media > SEO > Traffic > Delivery.
By SEO in Swansea on Jul 27, 2010 | Reply
Interesting article. I definitely agree you need both SEO and social media, but I get a totally different graph for both the UK – http://trends.google.com/trends?q=social+media%2Cseo&ctab=0&geo=gb&geor=all&date=ytd&sort=0 and all regions – http://trends.google.com/trends?q=social+media%2Cseo&ctab=0&geo=all&geor=all&date=ytd&sort=0
This shows that there really is no narrowing in terms of search volume – SEO is way ahead!
By Grace Lee - SEO Newbie on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
Social Media and SEO can coexist. Lots of internet users are still not into social media in terms of looking for products. On the other hand Social Media can attract a large traffic base for their users. I think they can be both effective for advertising.
By Seo hulp on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
Google will display Social media more and more I think, but the main factor in this is the Activity it’s creates.
By Peter Cullen on Jul 29, 2010 | Reply
@ seo hulp how do you think Google is display the Social Media element?
By Peter Cullen on Jul 29, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for dropping by Grace. How do you balance the effort you put into a clients SEO and Social Media tasks?
By Peter Cullen on Jul 29, 2010 | Reply
@ SEO in Swansea – Interesting that the News Reference Volume is always more more for Social Media than SEO, I wonder why that is?
By Jerry, local business SEO consultant on Jul 30, 2010 | Reply
I don’t see that Social media detracts from the need for SEO. It simply provides another avenue to accomplish the goals that SEO sets forward. I simply look for where I can get the most bang for my buck when I’m doing Social. I steer towards the sites which carry the most weight and try to keep a presence there for my clients.
By Mark the Video Seo Dude on Jul 31, 2010 | Reply
The key from our experience is to weave everything together, great seo and web 2.0 strategically reinforcing and aiding each other. When you examine the projected forecasts for video, you may consider, as we have, that video is the safest investment of your time to learn… or is that just me biased?!
By Alex on Aug 4, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for this great info
Seo Köln
SEO
By Chris the Stop Sweating Guy on Aug 15, 2010 | Reply
I think both compliment each other just in different ways. On page and off page seo are still critically important. Social marketing in most all it’s forms is more directed towards the tribe you’re trying to build loyalty towards. Both can generate traffic, both compliment each other and I feel both long term are critical to stay on top of.