What is the Difference Between SEO and

Social Media Marketing

If you are getting started with digital marketing and wondering if Search Engine Optimization works
better or if it is SMM, tons of articles, videos, and other forms of content on the internet claim one to be
better than the other. However, your business objective should decide if SEO or SMM will work better
for you or whether a strategy involving SEO and Social Media Marketing will be better suited for you. In
this article, we will explain the differences between SEO and Social Media Marketing so that you can
curate your strategy and see for yourself what will be most suitable for the growth of your business.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO involves optimizing web pages so that they rank higher on search engine result pages when specific
queries related to your content are made. The ranking of individual web pages contributes to the
ranking of the entire website and builds domain authority. The ranking also affects the traffic that your
website will receive.

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SMM is publishing various forms of content, including static creatives, and long and short-form videos
on various social media platforms to build relations with the audience, aka a community, and spread
awareness about the brand.

Now that you know what SEO and Social Media Marketing signify, let’s dive right into what differential
factors come into play.

Intent of the Content

When creating content, keeping Search engine optimization in mind, the main agenda is to formulate
informative pieces so that your audience gets all the information in one place, and they don’t need to
hop on to 10 pages. Your articles should be relevant to your heading and cover the different aspects of
it. For example, the how-to articles, explaining differences like the one you are reading right now or
educational/informative ones.

In social media marketing, the main objective is to engage with the audience and produce some sort of
action, which may be in the form of emotional reactions or, your audience producing content on your
prompt or even making a purchase or getting redirected towards some other platform. The content
tailored for social media can be entertaining, informative or a blend of both. However, the content is
meant for instant consumption, so following the current consumption patterns, it must be short and
snacky.

Audience
Analyzing the audience is a prerequisite in developing any marketing strategy. Similarly, you need to
build an audience persona before you start working on either. When SEO is done, the intended audience
is more targeted and niche. At the same time, social media covers a broader range of audiences with
different demographics in the scope of the organic mechanism. If you are utilizing the tools and
targeting a specific set of people via ads, you can also follow through a niche.
Results and Analysis
The metrics that will determine success in SEO and SMM are different. Social Media pertains to the
number of followers gained and the kind of engagement received. It is also a possibility that one piece of
your content may perform exceptionally well, and you may go viral and receive a very high engagement.
However, the concept of virality does not seep through in SEO as SEO is a long-term effort and reaps
benefits for a long time. In the case of SEO, it may take months or even years to reach where you have
sight.

In social media, the shelf life of content is very short; even if one of your pieces goes viral, it will lose its
charm quickly. On the other hand, this is not the case in SEO.

Conclusion
In conclusion, SEO and SMM require particular efforts. Both have their own set of intricacies in terms of
production and distribution of content. Also, the allied benefits and metrics defining success points vary.