Many people and businesses are touting the use of social media to increase a company’s search engine optimization (SEO), but at least one expert says the organizations would be better to stick with "traditional SEO."
In a recent interview with Econsultancy, Warren Cowen, CEO of search engine optimization (SEO) company Greenlight, says that although it may be important to use social media these days, companies shouldn’t expect to see any improvement in search engine optimization (SEO).
"[Social media sites] are part of a mix of social and non-social elements that help make up a search strategy – they’re not a search strategy in themselves," Cowen says. "On that basis I suggest social media’s ability to drive SEO should not be a topic of excitement. We should not all down tools and get behind social media as the next best way to achieve killer SEO."
This is not to say that the use of social media and other online marketing techniques are unnecessary, as many organizations have seen their visibility increase using the likes of Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
According to figures last week from comScore, Twitter saw its viewership quadruple in the last two months and now boasts more than 17 million users in the U.S. alone. According to the online analysis company, this means the micro-blogging service has seen a 3,000 percent increase in the last year, with much of that being attributed to businesses.
