Experts opine that to obtain maximum benefits, you must judiciously use SEO in conjunction with social media. Arguing which of the two is better is a profane exercise as you need both to reach the broadest possible audience. If however you find time and budget constraints and forced to choose one over the other, you may consider the following.
Recent research studies have indicated 54 percent of website traffic across various sectors came from organic search compared to 5 percent from social media.
Please know Facebook has an average visitor to lead rate of 1.98 percent. SEO has a visitor to lead rate of over 14 percent. (Hubspot)
It is reported that organic Facebook posts only reach an average of 12 percent of your followers. Simply stated, five times as many people will click an organic result as will even see a Facebook post!
Easily available tools such as the Google Keyword Planner enable you to see the average monthly search volume for keywords. Using industry averages, you can take the search traffic and accurately estimate total site traffic for a new campaign.
As you may be aware, YouTube is the second largest search engine. Notwithstanding your argument that YouTube is a social media site, SEO is a powerful method to market videos as well. If you are not familiar with YouTube SEO, it is time you learnt more about that as it would help you generate quick search traffic.
Social media can no doubt be a remarkable addition to a comprehensive online marketing plan but if you are looking to maximize your ROI on every marketing dollar spent, SEO is the place you should be investing.
Both SEO and social media are powerful marketing tools, but prioritizing marketing time on one or the other is indeed a challenge.
It is reported that 44% of online shoppers begin their branded product research by using a search engine, but at the same time, social media usage has increased by 356% in the last six years. Now it is for you to decide which will have a bigger impact.
You must analyze the pros and cons of using either SEO or social media marketing for your business so you can decide which is effective for your business.
Impartially study the strengths and weaknesses of SEO and social media. There may be occasions when SEO and social media complement each other.
Remember — regardless which you prioritize for your company, both SEO, and social media are equally rewarding, and there will also be opportunities for them to work together as well.