Search Engine Optimization | What SEO Does Better Than Social Media

Many small businesses do not boast independent websites these days. Instead, they get the word out via a Facebook page or a Blogger blog and call it done. They're missing out on the opportunities offered by doing search engine optimization on their own website. This mistake could haunt them later.

I first encountered this with a new liquid nitrogen ice cream shop in my area, and ran into it later with a sewing machine sales and repair shop I found in the dead tree edition of my Yellow Pages (stop laughing!). Both of these businesses built only Facebook pages to keep their customers informed of classes and events and such. That's great as far as it goes, but it's not quite enough if they want to build a lasting web presence.

Like Stoney deGeyter , I'm convinced that search engine optimization still matters, even though social media seems to be the dominant force today. There are tons of reasons for this, and if you're thinking about building just a Facebook page or a Blogger blog (or even both) rather than your own website for your business, you may want to rethink that idea. There are certain things you can do with your own website that you just can't do when you're beholden to someone else.

That may sound like a strange way to phrase it, but in fact, if you're using social media exclusively and don't own your own website, it's accurate. Do you remember MySpace? Consider what would have happened if you'd built a presence there, and watched everyone move to Facebook. If you figure you'll just move everything over, well, you might run into some trouble. It's the same kind of trouble Facebook users are running into when they try to move their content and contacts from there to Google Plus. Facebook isn't exactly being helpful about it.

Individual social sites ride a wave of popularity until the next great social site comes along. Google+ may supplant Facebook...or it might not. Or something else might come along that beats them both. It's too early to tell. Who will see your content on a social site that no one is using anymore?

If you've created your own website, you own your content. If you experience problems with your web host, you can take your site elsewhere. (Making sure you back everything up in case you need to do this goes without saying). You're at nobody's mercy but your own. As deGeyter points out, "This means the SEO you do for your site is also yours. All that work, effort and money invested is yours to keep for as long as you keep your site hosted."

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