The evergoing question. SEO vs Social Media - What is best for Indie Hackers?
I see a lot of chatter either rating for one of the two.
Most posts come up with pretty good reasons for why SEO is better and why Social Media is better.
But IMO both can be equally powerful and should be taken 100% seriously by any company!
So let me explain how I see the two sides.
Social Media:
I don't have a lot of followers or anything like that but just for my humble efforts, I've seen some pretty awesome results by myself and Tabtimize being active on social media.
You can analyze our engagement and think, well a handful of likes and comments per post isn't what moves the needle.
No, at first glance you're totally right...
But let me share some numbers with you.
Our branded searches and direct traffic have increased by over 600% in the last two months, compared to the previous period.
The numbers of DMs and personal emails with interested (and potential customers) have increased by 456% compared to the previous period.
Our revenue has increased by 295.8% compared to the previous period.
And how can that be you might ask?
Well, I read this really interesting post by Gaetano Nino DiNardi on LinkedIn some weeks ago about "digital lurkers".
Out of the few engagements, I get thousands of views from people who are "lurking".
They will read my posts but never engage.
And 101 in marketing and branding is...
The more people see your brand the more likely they are to remember and engage with it.
That's the power of social media.
The disadvantage however is that you need to be consistent and constantly engage with other people on your platforms.
That leads me to SEO.
SEO:
SEO has this amazing benefit.
Once you have created your content it can potentially keep on getting traffic, leads, and sales for many years.
Another benefit I want to point out with SEO is that it matches an intent.
If people click on your result in SERP it means they are already interested in what you are writing about.
That means they will be more likely to buy from you as they already have an intention in what you are writing about.
Being that intention is only on top-funnel doesn't matter.
Because you can keep them on your site with even more intent-driven content that ultimately leads to some sort of commitment.
Let's talk numbers again.
So the first-ever article posted on Tabtimize was an SEO word count case study posted on 31 July 2020, went after its 3 months sandbox period straight to #1 in Google with multiple featured snippets and broad term matches.
Since then this one article alone has generated over 50k visitors and it has given us 72 user sign-ups.
it's not a transactional intended article at all and pretty top-funnel, so the fact it has given us sign-ups is amazing and really shows the power of SEO.
But are SEO just all benefits?
NO!
It's just a hustle like Social media and needs tweaking and backlinks all the time.
That's my take, what's yours?
Few facts to prove myself before I write a reply.
Earned $3+mil. from SEO (running my own sites)
Having 58K+ followers on Twitter (started building my audience last year)
I would say both have their advantages and can perfectly work together. SEO as well as Twitter is a long term process. You can't get fast results from any of these.
Diversification is the key in every aspect. Doesn't matter if we're talking about income stream or where you get your traffic from.
58K+ Followers in 1 year? That is really amazing. How could you do that?
What was your strategy growing your Twitter Following?
Totally agree with you here. Diversification and understanding the differences in each channel or platform are key. I think both a search engine based channel (Google or YouTube) and a branding channel (IG, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter you name it).
do you think I should focus on SEO at an early stage for https://nolly.io
Do in parallel! Build a blog on the site and do social networking.
Absolutely! Backlinks play a crucial role in the world of SEO and website rankings. When one website links to another with relevant anchor text, it not only helps users discover additional valuable content but also signals search engines about the credibility and authority of the linked website. Backlinks are like pathways that lead users to further information and resources, creating a web of interconnected content across the internet. Popular blog sites often utilize backlinks to provide their readers with more in-depth information or to cite reputable sources, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience. It's fascinating to see how the internet's vast network is interconnected through these valuable backlinks, making information easily accessible and building a solid foundation for quality content dissemination.
I think in order to choose between these two promotion methods, you first need to find out what kind of product you are making, to whom you want to present it and for what purpose. SEO and social media have many pros and cons. I always recommend that first find here some useful argumentative articles and social media essay examples before answering this question definitively. Of course, you can stick to one strategy and say that there is simply no better than search engine promotion or creating a Facebook page. But first, study the market better and understand for yourself what is best for your product.
When you are just starting out, prioritize Social as it will get you going faster. When you have healthy cashflow, add SEO efforts for long-term growth.
Both is the correct answer 🚀
Interesting to see comments on SEO being somewhat negative. It's true it's more competitive than it once was but our primary marketing strategy is basic content marketing, primarily focused on bottom of the funnel content and it works for us. I wouldn't be scared away from content in 2022.
Here are a few things about us to give you confidence that you can probably do it too:
Here are a couple of examples of content marketing articles that generated signups for us every week from Google traffic. They aren't magical. Pretty much anyone could make them:
https://www.savio.io/blog/feature-request-software-tools-for-saas/
https://www.savio.io/customer-feedback/how-to-organize-user-feedback
I think people get down on content because it isn't fun or exciting. It takes a lot of plodding and rewards consistency. You also have to accept that Google is a black box.
If you are looking for framework we've found these guys approach (not affiliated) to work:
https://growandconvert.com/top-content-marketing-articles/
Basically:
Things like Ahrefs can be helpful. Don't be scared off by low volume keywords. Looks for keywords that are winnable at your domain authority. Work your way up. It's not fun but it works.
One of the key pluses to content and SEO is that as you build up your content you start with a certain amount of traffic "in the bank" each week vs. Social which is more of a treadmill.
I'm sure Social is also a winning strategy. There is no doubt that having a big following is a great asset. That said we've tried and failed a number of times to make it work in a repeatable way vs. content which feels very much one foot in front of the other. So if you find social isn't working or don't have time for both content can still work great on its own.
Thanks for your input! Great to see that you guys find a successful route!
I would like to add something to your 3-step list.
Build your content strategy around your customer journey (I guess that is what you're trying to say, right?). Don't really stress so much about pumped-up metrics. Ahrefs vol is volatile and should be taken with a grain of salt.
So let's say you're an online therapist. You need to map out the symptoms and the potential symptoms search phrases your customers do. Next, when they found out about the symptoms, what is usually the next step? That might be, where to find a cheap "symptom/cure" in "city". Next could be that the person has found 2-3 different therapists and would like to compare them in price and reviews. etc. etc.
Because the thing is, you can get a ton of traffic with top-funnel content as the example I put in the post, but you'll need to keep them on your site and recommend content that aligns with the customer journey, so you can funnel it down.
Especially with the new "People search next" SERP feature customer journey is gonna be key.
What's you take on that?
I'm negative on SEO and the SEO industry. Lots of scams, lots of peddlers. Lots of bad agencies.
Content is what matters. Whether it is on social or your website or a guest post is not important. What is important, is that you gain visibility and exposure. You want people to know who you are and what you do.
Eventually Google will pick it up. Good content is not SEO. It is being helpful and providing value.
Good content is SEO. That's what Google wants aka Search Engine Optimization, you're optimizing towards search engines, and search engines like good content.
In terms of the industry, yeah there is a lot of noise but there is a lot of killer agencies and freelancers, that will fricking rank you for about anything.
it's difficult as a small team to pump out 30-50 articles per week, which is something that often is required to really gain dominance in a niche.
Not to talk about keeping a great overview over the internal linking structure and making sure the content is getting exposure (being that on social media or email).
Content is king but backlinks are the queen and behind a great king there is an even greater queen.
P.S.
I think IH is anti-SEO in general or at least anti-backlinks (even though that is one of the few public announced and official ranking factors)
My last post on the subject got people hostile against me: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/rant-about-the-link-building-industry-ea68545f2a
So yeah, I tend not to post about SEO on IH.
Short Answer: Both
I would suggest to build an audience on Twitter because even after you sell the project (company gets acquired), you will never lose the distribution you once get from Twitter followers on your personal account. SEO is essential because that drives insane traffic to landing page if done right although it takes months to get results and is difficult.
So constant engagement on Twitter along with some new content daily could be the strategy for short term and consistent work on On-page and backlinks should be done for long term benefits.
Yeah, it's a lot of hard work! - What would you say is the most challenging. Ranking for profitable terms on G or engage and share value on Twitter?
Ranking on Google for a particular keyword is certainly more difficult. Twitter seems to be a give and take thing. If you engage and add value to the conversation, people tend to follow you back if your profile is optimized. I got follow backs from Dan Martell and other big accounts this month doing that.
Spaces is an underrated mechanism to grow your followers. Try to speak in a couple of spaces daily and host spaces in your niche. We at sociomata.com (social media content scheduler) are hosting weekly spaces on Thursday and invite big accounts to talk about Twitter audience building. This is helping us grow on the platform by leveraging influencer's reach. One thing to keep in mind is being consistent with engagement and original quality content.
Great stuff! So engagement > tweeting you'll say?
Btw. Are you talking about your personal account or sociomata's account?
Original tweeting matters only after crossing a certain threshold say 250 followers. Before that, your tweets won't get impressions. Best is to engage with other creators by replying to them and leveraging their reach. Avoid generic replies like "good", "amazing" and try to make insightful reply or a question which would make the conversation go further.
For Sociomata, we are hosting spaces weekly from that account and inviting Twitter micro influencers so that people notice the account. We talk about audience building in these spaces.
I also run a Discord community where we discuss audience building. I will share the invite link in case you are interested in joining.
SEO is a FANTASTIC growth engine...
when you have the time to build a comprehensive strategy.
Blogging here and there is not SEO. It might have worked in 2005 but it just does not cut it any more. You need to think strategically about your website and content and how you will create a unique resource that serves your ideal customer and supports them through the buyers journey.
This takes time and resources to really pay off, so it depends on where you are in your indie hacking journey.
Are you at day 1? Focus more on becoming a domain expert in your product area. Interact with other domain experts and potential customers on Twitter and LinkedIn. Run experiments and make sure there is a market willing to pay for your product.
Already achieved product market fit (or close to it)? SEO will be one of your best friends in building a growth engine for your funnel. I've seen firsthand the power of an effective SEO strategy in generating sustainable growth to the next stage.
While I definitely agree with you about social media, I'm not so sure, I would wait out to hit pmf before working on my SEO. It's usually a 6-12 months nut to crack, so better start as early as possible, IMO.
If it's day 1, someone would be MUCH better served by spending all their time talking to users than creating content.
I say this being someone who coaches founders and marketers on how to build SEO strategies.
If you want real results in SEO, it takes work and dedication. Not blogging once per week.
If someone comes to me and they are just starting out, I can't in good conscience take them on as a client if they haven't figured their product out yet.
Sure you need to have a valuable product. Blogging once per week adds up. That's 52 articles in your first year. Should be enough to get you a couple of K's worth of traffic, backlinks, and a bit of authority.
It's not that simple.
Blogging does not magically net thousands of visits and backlinks. That worked in 2005, it does not work in 2022.
I see many people invest in all sorts of complicated marketing strategies when they do not have a product to sell, or one that people even want.
I get it. You built a backlinks tool, but I also am financially invested in people caring about SEO but there is a difference between someone in a good spot to seriously invest in SEO, and someone who would be better served talking to users and focusing on ensuring they have a product that they can sell.
Well, I will have to disagree about putting content on your site doesn't work.
You can write about your findings and learnings as an example, stuff that is original, put it in the context of your field. It's really that simple, you don't need to overcomplicate it.
Yes, I'm a part of an outreach tool (a pretty good one), but our first couple of articles had 0 backlinks and were beating SEJ, Yoast, and such in SERP. Only on content.
All this while we were trying to figure out how to build our product. Took me some hours over a series of days but totally worth it.
However, I do agree that you can't expect that you'll rank #1 for all your keywords if you're not fully invested in SEO but as soon as you can get something great out there the sooner big G knows you exist and what you are about.
This is how I see it as well. SEO has its place but initial focus should go to social to build a network. This network will refer you people and give you exposure.
You can gain lots of backlinks from people who know you if you share your content with them ( in a non spammy way).
At the end of the day, your contacts can give you an edge over competition by opening doors for you that would normally be closed. Social will give you opportunities that SEO won't.
Yeah, that's right, social will defiantly be a lead-gen machine. But SEO is a lot more intent-based, so people are in general more willing to buy when we are mid to down funnel.