SEO Is Important
Chris Brogan posed the question a few moments ago on Twitter “Is SEO *AS* important”. I completely understand the not so subtle emphasis on “as”. The implication Chris is making here, is that it’s probably still important but not as much as it used to be. With the rise of social media (whatever that is defined as this week) I have had conversations like this before with clients. I would argue that it is now more important than ever.
Trust agents, trusted networks etc are of course monumentally important but if one of my mates starts asking me questions and wants recommendations about a product or service BEFORE they’ve done their own homework, I’ll explain I am not their Google bitch. Google it yourself first, get some information, then if you still want my opinion, let’s talk. Search engines drive the bulk of traffic on the web. Consider Google Social Search. If you are not keyword optimising your social media presence you are not going to turn up when I search my network for a particular phrase.
SEO is about discovery. If I can’t find what I want in Google I’ll then go to my social networks, as I did earlier in the year when I vlogged Twitter is bigger than Google
Have a look at these numbers from Google on the amount of searches for the phrase “Social Media”
More people than ever are searching for that phrase. If you are selling Social Media services of course you want word of mouth recommendations but what about those people looking for a solution, right now that you can provide.
Think of SEO as having the best shelf space in the supermarket. Who doesn’t like discovering something new & sharing (or in my case bragging about) that discovery with their friends? It’s human nature.
Here’s the kicker though. We can accurately measure the return on investment of SEO activities. How do I do that with Social Media? We can tell you what a word is worth in $ terms to your business. Once you have setup SEO publishing KPIs for your online properties, the search engines will continue to send you new visitors OUTSIDE your current social circles. This is incredibly important as detailed in the doco “How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer”. The most important & valuable connections are the ones on the fringe of your networks. As they will help you connect to other networks you would not have otherwise been exposed to. The old “you tell 10 people and they tell 10 people, then they tell 10 people” promotion technique doesn’t work. The reason being is that there is a lot of cross over in those networks. Basically the same people get told the same message a number of times.
SEO is one way to open up your message to people who otherwise didn’t know you existed AND if you havegood social media strategy in place perhaps you will become one of their trust agents that they introduce to their networks.
>What do you think? Can social media become insular? How do you measure the return to your business on social media activities?
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
