We are talking about SMO – a relatively fresh direction in website promotion.
What is SMO and how is SMO different from SEO?
The acronym stands for Social Media Optimization, and SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. From the names it is clear that these are two types of website optimization for different traffic sources.
The meaning of SEO is to adapt pages for Google and Yandex search robots, and SMO is in structuring and optimizing content for users who come not from search engines, but from social networks.
The task of an SMO specialist is to make the site attractive to visitors from Instagram, Twitter, VKontakte and other social networks that bring traffic.
Features of Social Media Optimization
Social networks are just as useful and necessary traffic source as search engines. But the audience coming from Twitter can be significantly different from the one coming from Yandex. They are different people with unique interests and perspectives on how your site should look and function.
And although the amount of traffic from social networks is growing, it is difficult to keep the newly arriving audience on the main resource. You need a person who can optimize the site as a whole so that a user who wanders from social networks lingers on it and shares content with other people.
The SMO procedure means filling the resource with materials that will interest the target audience, allow you to establish closer contact with it, inspire confidence in page visitors from social networks, increase the overall level of loyalty and increase the amount of traffic.
Basic principles of working with content
First, let s talk about what kind of materials should appear on the site in order to interest users and favorably affect incoming traffic.
Content should be interesting and easy to understand
It is important to note two different aspects here:
quality of content,
quality of content design.
In the first case, we are talking directly about the materials published on the resource. They should appear on the site regularly so that visitors have something to read or watch. Content should be based on the preferences of the target audience.
Articles should be understandable for your users. It is important to post on the resource relevant content that is really of interest to the target audience. At the same time, it is important that the style of presenting texts is similar to that of social networks. After all, people come from there with formed expectations. The task of an SMO specialist is to meet and predict these expectations.
Also, we must not forget about the high-quality representation of data. Arrange polls, record and publish podcasts on the site, post links to thematic videos and publish photos. Add to the home page the formats that are in social networks, and at the same time do not forget about the exclusive content for which you would like to switch from social network to browser.
Yes, and everything needs to be done beautifully. Laconic design, suitable fonts, consistent style. The user should have no complaints about the visual component of the resource.
Users should have an easy way to share content
Quality content is half the battle. It is necessary not only to convince site visitors to share your materials with other people, but also to provide each user with the appropriate opportunity. Simply put, add technical means to the page for distributing the materials posted there.
It s worth starting with the “Share” buttons, so that each reader can send the content they like to their favorite messenger or social network in one click.
Followed by the “Subscribe” buttons. This is a quick way to grow your followers from people who come from other social networks or search engines. Here you can attach a subscription to an e-mail newsletter.
You can add a brand feed from Twitter or the best photos from Instagram to the home page so that a visitor who comes from the social network does not lose touch with it and can instantly go back to the conditional Instagram.
Well, add some interactivity so that the site visitor can like the article or leave a comment under the video. People are much more willing to share Liked Content than everyone else. And the presence of comments under the article encourages people to participate in the discussion.
Website content should look good on social media
This applies to pages from which there is an automatic publication in the social network. To make a link posted on Facebook look good, you need:
beautiful and attractive high-resolution cover,
a heading that briefly conveys the essence of the material,
an introductory phrase that does not cut off too abruptly and lures a potential visitor.
All this should be pulled up to the social network automatically and look decent. And this “decently” will have to be implemented for every social network and every messenger used, so that your articles / videos look great in any of the sources.
Basic principles of working with resource structure
It is important to correctly organize the information on the site. Make sure that the user does not leave him as long as possible. More CTA elements, popular materials in a prominent place, visual content gradation, etc.
Linking works well (linking articles with hyperlinks). If you use it with relevant content, it will noticeably increase the number of transitions between existing materials and the amount of time that a person spends on your site.
Instead of a conclusion
That s all. We figured out the basic principles of SMO work and in general terms answered the question “What does it mean to be a good SMO specialist”. It remains to practice and gain experience in order to attract new traffic from social networks and increase conversions.