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The latest buzz online is that Facebook has finally surpassed the traffic of Google. But does that mean they are bigger or more important than Google? Well, that depends on your purposes.

Google is still vital for getting high-quality targeted traffic for free. They have a tremendous amount of traffic available, and the visitors who search for something specific will almost definitely be well-targeted to the subject.

Their AdWords program, however, has been declining in popularity. Users no longer click the ads as often as they once did. They have become “banner blind” to the traditional appearance of those ads, thus CTR has declined considerably across the board.

Competition is still very fierce, however. This results in very high prices, with too little traffic to go around fairly to all advertisers. Not only that, AdWords has added a number of new rules that makes it very difficult to comply. AdWords advertisers are often being banned for little or no reason at all, often for things that are totally out of their control. For example, people who have sold websites are being held responsible for the current content of the site even with proof that the site was sold, and even when the ad has been deactivated for months!

Meanwhile, Facebook has added a great ad platform that has substantial available traffic, lower prices, and better overall quality. Compliance is much easier, and banning is not nearly as commonplace as it is with AdWords.

Facebook also has a great system for interacting with people. You can set up groups and fan pages that make it very simple to network with your target audience, and you can socialize one-on-one with potential customers in a way that Google doesn’t provide.

While Google is still a very important source of traffic, Facebook has surpassed them not only in traffic, but in user-friendliness both for marketers and users. I would suggest using both to attract traffic for your business, because you will get two different types of traffic, and both are important.

Steven Elliott is a professional marketer, specializing in social media. Followers On Facebook