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Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of optimizing your website so that it takes the highest possible spot on a search engine result page (SERP). So say for example, if you look up “DDA” on Google.ca, you’ll get the “Developmental Disabilities Association” site as the top result on the SERP, and not the Delhi Development Authority or the Danish Design Award websites. Marketers carefully select keywords and optimize their site to receive these top spots on the SERP.

News Feed Optimization

Much like SEO, News Feed Optimization (NFO) is an optimization process to get the first spots on a news feed (such as Facebooks, but will undoubtedly expand to other platforms as social media proliferates). Many marketers believe this will replace SEO, as the world wide web, becomes the world wide social web. Developers and businesses are looking of ways to have their content frequently show in their fans’ news feeds, which is completely outside and irrelevant to Google search rankings. It is an effective way to have your fans organically promote and advertise for you instead of constantly having to “push” content yourself.

SEO versus NFO

As more of the web turns from just a web to a social intertwining web, one would believe that NFO becomes more and more important. I agree on that, but some marketers believe it is more important than SEO. Let’s logically think through the process of where SEO and NFO might be used. Say I’m interested in buying a new computer, what factors would I need to consider in my purchase? Price, brand, speed, all sorts of dimensions. Where would I look to find this computer that fits my requirements? Likely through searching. Would I use Facebook for my computer purchase? Probably not. If somehow some tidbit was optimized on my news feed and immortalized to the time I was about to buy a new computer, that might change things. News feeds are dynamic, and can easily be ignored and forgotten. For example, the average amount of unique comments I receive on my Facebook status updates is 6, and I have approximately 600 “Friends”. That’s 1% of all my “Friends” that are engaged in my on-goings on Facebook. That, coupled with the fact that approximately 0.2% of Facebook fans ever do a repeat visit on a page they’ve “liked”, indicates there’s general under-engagement on Facebook news feeds (or maybe just mine). Optimizing your news feed might get you that extra day of recognition, but who will really remember it one week from now? Of course, different industries that require more marketing impressions before a successful conversion is made will value that extra long-forgotten subconscious impression, but in general, don’t spend so much time on NFO when people will be looking for you on search engines instead.