Increasing Blog Traffic: Search Engine Vs Social Media?

Have you ever wondered how your blog would do without the search engine or social media when going through stats of Traffic Analytics Tool?

The explosion of social media and its domination on the net has brought a viral effect. This has led to almost all major brands associating themselves with social media and benefiting from its popular usage.

In order to cash in and get a share of the blogosphere we tend to spend hours and hours making accounts on networks such as Facebook, Twitter etc. There is an endless list of blogs relying on social media to increase their overall traffic and unique visitors and these sites would not have existed otherwise. However, most bloggers are unaware of whether traffic directed from social media is better or from search engines.

In light of this, I have separated this post for listing the pros and cons of search engine traffic and social media traffic to help you understand your targeted markets.

Pros of Social Media Traffic

• Social media directs traffic in a comparatively short time as your posts become viral
• It allows your blog to be exposed to different unique visitors and potential clients as well as early readers who will find this attention more appealing.
• Your blog is likely to receive more advertisement offers
• A popular social media site with a single post giving you exposure gets your blog a high ranking on search engines.
• You can share direct messages with people within the same industry through social media
• Social media has always proven to be a strong medium for branding and communication.

Cons of Social Media Traffic

• Making a simple social network account into a power account requires lot of time and effort
• Traffic from social media websites is precarious leading to an uneven number of unique visitors or readers.
• The traffic you receive will not be the sort to impulsively click on ads and even when they do they are unlikely to make a purchase.
• Such traffic consists of webmasters and geeks. Social traffic does not necessarily convert into sales or easy cash.
• The abrupt increase in blog traffic will use up much of bandwidth without any return.
• Even though, social media provides a powerful and valuable opportunity but the time and effort it requires makes it not worth it.

Pros of Search Engine Traffic:

• A blog ranking in popular search engines such as Google/Yahoo/MSN will likely lead to high rankings in other search engines.
• The traffic is likely to convert into potential purchasers and buyers or regular readers
• The traffic may be converting to buyers and ad clickers but they will be in less numbers
• Your overall blog traffic directed from search engines will be targeted.
• Social engine traffic is predictable and unwavering unlike the traffic directed from social media.
• Search engine traffic will likely spend more time on your blog and explore it. They will stay to analyze your company’s worth giving you more time to convince your deal.
• The blog’s bounce rate will be low as visitors tend to stay longer.
• Smaller and predictable traffic numbers will help in increasing subscribers.

Cons of Search Engine Traffic:

• If your blog does not show up on first three pages of a search engine then, it’s unlikely to be found by visitors.
• Your traffic will build up slowly and results will only be noticeable in at least three to four months
• Your ranking on any search engine page is also unpredictable as search engines have the authority to decide your stay on a particular page.

A single huge post exposing your blog through social media will breathe life quickly into your blog, whereas, Search Engine traffic is a long term strategy.

Yet, I cannot jut end this post without bring another aspect of social media and engines under the lime light. Most individuals hold the view that both of these are separate entities that cannot be interlined regardless of Internet being an intermediary medium.

And so, here are the main questions:

• Are both social media and search engine separately powerful?
• Can they be combined to achieve a significant increase in blog traffic?