As Internet Marketers, we all have basically the same goals in mind…to drive quality traffic to a website… and I recommend doing it the way Google wants you to do it.

Why Fight Google?

So many "SEO Companies" are spending way to much effort in trying to trick Google for SEO results. May work for a while, but why fight Google and not simply concentrate on what Google wants? In other words, do what will work today and still work years from now and have no fear of ever getting penalized by Google.

Yes, Social Media has changed everything in regards to SEO, in fact, I believe SEO is a result of what you do, not what you do and Social Media Marketing must be part of your strategy, but not all of it. (See "Is SEO Dead?". Link opens in a new window.)

Where Does Online Traffic Come From?

I can go through a 100 of the websites I have either created for myself or for my clients, and I always see a consistent number when it comes to traffic to any of those websites. 70% or more of the traffic comes from online searches, not Social Media Sites!

Google Analytics of Search Engines vs. Social Media Traffic Sources

From the stats in the above image, don't think that our Social Media traffic is less because we are not utilizing Social Media, because we certainly are. What I am trying to get across is that sharing quality, unique content is King!

When done correctly, you will get SEO juice by osmosis, thus driving more traffic via Search Engines rather from Social Sites, though Social Media is definitely a part of our strategy, it is not all of it.

Example of Mixing Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing

Let's take a YouTube video and how you can get more Search Engine and Social Media "juice".

There is more to it than just posting a video, though that's a good start. When applicable, use that video in an article that is on your website to get the maximum Search Engine Optimization vs. Social Media Marketing Juice.

Regardless of whether I search for the Title of the video or the title of the article, the YouTube Video and the article BOTH show up on the first page of Google.

Typically, when you get indexed by Google for the same article on two different sites with the Same Title and Description they will get indexed on the same Search Engine Results Page (SERP). What will end up happening is Google will wipe them both (all) out, because in Google's eyes it is spam. Let me explain that a little further.

Bookmarking, sharing on Social Media sites etc. is what almost every internet marketer will do with any article/post/video. For example we post the article and then share to several Bookmarking and Social Media sites.

Warning: If you use the same Title and same Description everywhere, there is a good chance they will all get indexed by Google, thus when doing a search for the article title, you will see the same article appear several times on the same page of the Search Results Page. BIG NO-NO!!

When Google recognizes that, (and they will) each one of those indexed results will eventually be removed from Google Search…  because it is spam.

They key here is when you share/bookmark that article is to take the time to give every reference to that article a different TITLE and DESCRIPTION. (Though they will be a different Title and Description, you still want to be accurate as to what the article/post is about.)

In summary to the Search Engine Marketing part of it, by doing a YouTube video and embedding that video in an article describing the video, you can get 2 legitimate results out of 10 on the first page of Google. 2 chances for people to click your stuff!

The Social Media Marketing Part

I believe what most people do with a YouTube video is not the best use of their time or marketing efforts. In most cases, what I hear people doing is posting the YouTube video to Facebook and that is it. The best you can hope to happen is they will either go to the offer in the video or click the link in the YouTube video description. (First you have to hope they view the video in YouTube to see the link in YouTube description in the first place.)

Here is what I feel is a better plan. Embed that video on an article that describes what the video is about. It can be as short as a paragraph or two or as long as you like, as long as the video is on that post and the post has 100% relevance to the video and vice-versa. (Be sure to also have the link to the article the beginning of the YouTube video description.)

Share the article containing the video, not just the video!

By writing a short, unique, relative post about your YouTube video, embedding that video on the post and then sharing that post to Social Media and Bookmarking sites (using a different Title and Description for each share), you will get all the benefits of Social Media and Search Engine Marketing.

When done correctly, you will discover more traffic than ever coming to your website from Searches than from Social Media. Thus, the SEO part (to a degree) is done by osmosis because of good relevant content in reference to your YouTube video.