Use Social Media but Don’t Leave Out SEO

Some webmasters mistakenly believe that they can choose either social media or SEO to rank their sites and get traffic. This is a false belief because the truth is that profitable sites must be built on SEO that embraces social media as well. The sad part is that there are countless so called “gurus” across the web touting their beliefs that SEO is dead. By embracing their advice and ignoring SEO you’re putting your site at risk. If you think about it for a moment you’ll see that it makes no sense. Following are three valid reasons why social media could never replace SEO.

Your Social Media Profile Is Not Your Property
You might be the one who invested a lot of time and money on your company’s Facebook page or other profile but that does not mean that you’re the one in charge. Just ask the many business owners who’ve and their accounts banned and pages taken down and you’ll know. Just think for moment how you’ll feel if you suddenly found your “property” on social media sites gone. If you build your entire online presence solely on these properties you will be left with naught if your account is closed.

Think about that the next time you’re tempted invest all your resources in these properties. More than that whenever you send all your visitors to these pages there is no guarantee that they will focus on your message since they’ll have other links and people competing for their attention.

Social Networking Sites Don’t Last Forever
It’s hard to imagine that Facebook or Twitter could ever cease to exist but keep in mind that nothing lasts forever. There were other explosive social properties in the past that we all thought would be around forever but where are they now? One that instantly comes to is MySpace. New sites are popping up everyday gradually phasing out the less appealing ones so anything is possible. You’re placing all your eggs in an uncertain basket when you build your business around these properties that have no guarantee of being around forever.

People Don’t Perform Searches In Social Media Sites
Whenever a consumer want reviews, information or in depth details on a product in order to make a buying decision they don’t go to social media sites. They head on over to the search engines. Of course they ask for advice from friends when they need their opinions but they depend on the search engines to do the heavy lifting. You can answer questions and even post details of your products on social media but you’ll still need a website to really showcase your products. A website makes it easier for your prospects to find your offerings and believe me when I say that they would rather go to your site than dig through tons of updates in order to get the information that they need.