Any internet marketing professional might know that Pay- per – click (PPC) campaigns and Search Engine Optimization is two different techniques used for successful lead generation.
But, both these techniques are placed pretty far away from one another in the advertising spectrum. SEO generates organic traffic whereas PPC involves paying for the ads to be placed on different search engines.
Generally, these two techniques are used separately. However, it should be realized that all the while when an organization focuses on only one of these strategies, potential traffic that could have come in through the other strategy is being lost.
This article discusses how the many ways of integrating these two very different techniques which will serve to improve the competitiveness of any website over the longer term.
1. More Conversions with SEO & PPC
The basic SEO + PPC will increase chances of your website dominating search results. Basically, improving the website by applying the SEO technique will better the chances of it making it appear at the top of search engine results for at least one or even more keywords.
Additionally, if you decide to buy PPC ads for that same keyword, then this ad will appear at the top of the page every time someone else searches for the keyword. This is done to make sure that your website/brand dominates search engine listings. This will, in the long run, create more traffic and subsequent conversions.
2. SEO & PPC Helps Lower Ranking Websites To Perform Better
You may be thinking that if your website is already at the top of the search engine listings (organic ranking) for a specific keyword, then it is not necessary to purchase PPC ads for the same keyword..
However, certain studies have pointed to the fact that when the search ads for a specific keyword were paused, almost 90 per cent of the traffic that was generated by such ads was not replaced by the SEO-based rankings.
This actually meant that if you stopped PPC ads in between, there was a good chance that the traffic had a negative impact even with high-ranking sites.
Therefore, PPC helps to retain the clicks and interest from prospects that may have been missed if they were not there. This is of more significance to those websites that are not ranking #1.
In such cases, PPC will help to draw the interest of those who are looking for your specific product/services for the small amount of money that you pay for these ads instead of losing them.
3. SEO + PPC Help to Check Volume of AdWords
Some Internet data experts have observed that PPC is effective when it is used to target those keywords that do not have a high organic ranking through SEO.
Thus, it is possible to collect data on many keywords and provide it to the SEO campaign. This exercise will bring out more keywords that actually drive the revenue through organic searches.
On the other hand, organic impressions and click data can both be used to check the monthly volume figures of AdWords. This will result in more clarity as far as keyword priorities are concerned.
4. Helps the Business To Stay Ahead in the Race
It is a well-known fact that recently, long-tailed keywords have been given a lot of attention in SEO campaigns. Internet analysts believe that about 40 per cent of all the searches come from the many long-tailed keywords that have even less than 50 searches in a single month. Thus it is clear that most people search the Internet for information using only long-tailed keywords.
Contrarily, PPC campaigns typically use 1 or 2 or 3 keywords that are supposed to bring in heavy traffic. Combining both PPC and SEO strategies thus ensures that those keywords ignored in the PPC campaigns can be used to stay ahead of the competition.
At the same time, the long-tailed keywords are already bringing in a sufficient amount of quality organic traffic through the SEO campaign. Both these together can work to your advantage.
5. Businesses Can Get the Bang for Their Buck
In many industries, it is not worthwhile to have a PPC running for expensive keywords. In case such keywords are picked out and handed over to the SEO team, they can set work priorities to make your website rank high for these keywords. The budget that has been set aside for PPC campaigns can be used more cost-effectively.
6. SEO & PPC Work to Improve Keyword Clarity
SEO takes up more time, research and money. When you want to target a specific keyword and want to use it for SEO purposes, you may not be sure whether it will worth the time and money. The best way to test such a keyword’s viability is through PPC.
Running a PPC campaign is the best way to determine what works on the test pages and what does not. This is because the results are instantaneous.
If the performance is good, it means that the website should be optimized for the keyword. If it is the other way around, it is a good idea to avoid SEO efforts for that specific keyword.
All these subsequently lead to the information as to which ad copy results in the maximum number of conversions. This helps to provide information on the different page attributes and their mix that forms the winning combination: title tags, meta descriptions, content in the page, etc., that will help the website to rank high in organic searches.
PPC is not expensive and is the best way in which you can test the waters by spending the least amount of time and money.
7. Content-Driven SEO & PPC Work TO Enhance Conversions
It is necessary to publish top-of-the-line quality content to be visible amongst the millions of pieces of content that is being put out on the Internet every day.
This is a challenging task as well as an overwhelming one. If the content is ineffective it leads to the fact that there would be no traffic and hence no conversions.
A small budget that is directed for AdWords helps in promotion of your content. Now with the right type of content, which helps the audience to increase their knowledge about a specific topic, it is guaranteed that conversion rate can be upped resulting in higher sales.
8. SEO & PPC Provides Effective Retargeting
SEO is important in the context that it produces organic traffic some of which converts. According to statistics, conversions among those who used e-commerce sites dipped slightly in the recent past.
However, if you draw a retargeting campaign, it is possible to draw the organic traffic back the second time to the website in order for the sales to increase.
Visitors may take a while to make up their minds to purchase from your site. Retargeting campaigns helps to spot last-time/past visitors to the website and show them ads at a later point of time in such a way to remind them to come back to your website and buy.
9. SEO & PPC Data Collection Can Be Put to Good Use
Both SEO and PPC are sources for a large amount of data. The data from PPC and SEO are obtained separately. This amount of data that is collected becomes helpful when decision-making situations arise.
Some of the metrics that you can get hold of and analyse both from SEO and PPC campaigns are click-through rate, bounce rates, exit rates, time spent by the prospect on the website, and conversion rate.
These figures give an idea as to which keyword leads to the most number of conversions and which keywords lead to the least. This can help you to redirect your marketing efforts in the right direction. It will also guide you to make the correct changes to your website in the future.
10. SEO & PPC Serve Selectively To Increase Traffic
SEO and PPC campaigns collect data on the audience and then serve what they want. The difference between the two campaigns is only about what is served. A social media PPC campaign can give all demographic insights about your audience.
The Audience Insights tool of Facebook provides details such as the location, income levels, interests, browsing history, etc., to the PPC campaign.
All this data becomes useful to tweak the content marketing strategies and serve content specific to the demographic. This increases the chances that they will share the content with like-minded friends.
When the content circulates more across the Internet, there will be more people that would visit your website. Naturally, your SEO potential starts to improve.
11. SEO & PPC Gets More To View Content
The diversity of PPC campaigns is very interesting. PPC campaigns can target a broad base of customers over social media, SERPs, etc. PPC campaigns need not be restricted to landing pages alone but can be directed to infographics, written content, etc.
This eventually helps to boost your SEO because more people are getting to view your content. Social media backlinks lead the viewers to your web pages. Analysis has shown that PPC campaigns used for content promotion give very high ROI.
The Bottom Line
The above points have shown how PPC works and it is true that it shares many similarities with SEO: both rely on keywords, SERP visibility and demographics to bring in more conversions.
Combining PPC and SEO campaigns can be turned into one entity to save money and time. Building your brand using digital marketing means is a very important aspect for the future of your online endeavour.
