As search engine marketing evolves, so do the strategies applied by online marketers and by now we have all noticed the power of social network sites like Digg, reddit, StumbleUpon etc. But exactly how good is the quality of traffic from social sites compared to the traditional search engine?

Traffic quality factors for searches engines:
1/ User types in what they want and most search engines now are very precise in the SERPs.
2/ Users can be very use very targeted keywords and almost immediately find what they want.
3/ People from young to old can find almost everything from articles, videos, products, services, software, etc.
4/ Search engines are still the first place to go to find what you want.
5/ If you manage to get your site to the top of search engines or at least the first page, traffic will be quite consistent.
6/ The ranking position of your site depends on your efforts with seo.
7/ Generally the quality of traffic is quite good.

Social Networks traffic quality Factors:
1/ Visitors would usually check the “hot stories” or “most popular” posts before doing keyword searches.
2/ Keywords searches might have to be more generalized since there are not as many articles or sites compared to the already indexed pages and sites in search engines.
3/ I suspect there are more savvy internet users and youngster using social networks rather than the older generation. But I’m sure they’ll catch on later as well.
4/ Social networks sites are great for finding the outrageous, funny, up to date stories, articles and videos. Almost like a “buzz” section.
5/ Whether your articles or sites get exposed at social network sites depend on the publics interest and the quality of your stories.
6/ Traffic is not consistent. You might get over 1000 people visiting your site one day then no one the next.
7/ Fantastic for brand or site exposure since you don’t have to wait forever to be found on the first page of social sites. The key comes back to the quality of your post.

At the end of the day, applying both seo and social marketing for your site is essential for maximum exposure. Throw in a bit of PPC work and you’ll have thousands of visitors in no time.