Which is more important? SEO / Social Media?

Social media of course is the catchphrase of the year. SEO on the other hand, is getting old. Social media sounds hip, SEO sounds like a search engine spammer.

It's common flamebait tactic to degrade SEOs and call them trash, I've done it myself. However I honestly believe that this year we will see search engine optimization die, and be reborn as social media optimization +search.

Social media optimization IS a form of SEO, or at the very basic level there is some SEO going on. Perhaps it's a new transition from the older forms of seo, but face it real-time search is here to stay, and that's powered by social media.

The argument on whether social media is more important than SEO just doesn't make sense. Here's a perfect example: My twitter account has a google pagerank of 6. I google my name and it's one of the first results. This pagerank gets shared and passed along to my many blog posts.

This repeats itself along every other social media network.  I do think SEO as a stand-a-lone industry will either die or adapt to the social web. SEO on the other hand fits perfectly into a social media strategists toolbox. Ultimately it's about building a presence online, albeit mostly through communication. SEOs can help make the content a little more relevant for the search engines. I'll give you an example of a good combo package of services. Say you offered the following:

1. WordPress install / SEO tweak.
2. Setup of social media networks. (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin)
3. Local Search Setup. (Google, Yelp, Urban Spoon, CitySearch, etc).
4. Help establishing self on twitter and facebook and getting a fan page setup.
5. Help creating solid content for search engines.
6. Commenting on blogs for backlinks - not spamming of course, but actually being a real person joining the conversation.
7. etc...

Each one of these services can easily be monetized alone, or together as one huge package. For most of us even a little bit web savvy these should all be easy to run with and develop a business around.

SEO cannot thrive, if it does not incorporate the social web. Social media on the hand is here to stay, and can live with or without seo, this blogger believes that the marriage of the two is the best course forward.

What say you? Is SEO dieing? Will it be replaced by Social Media altogether? Or will it be eaten by Social Media and become a part of the social toolbox?

 

 

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