It is far from uncommon for companies all over the United States to use both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) strategies to try and bolster their online efforts. Even though many companies view these strategies separately, the truth is that both of these strategies may complement one another.
When you are capable of merging your SEO and PPC strategies, you can get a lot more out of both. Read on to consider some of the ways in which each strategy relates to the other.
Keys to SEO And PPC Marketing Strategies
Test and Identify Your Target Keywords With PPC
Any successful PPC campaign will rely on keyword research, meaning that you choose the best keywords to bid on that will be most likely to lead to clicks and conversions. You can start by brainstorming your own list of potential keywords by examining your existing website content.
Keywords may include brand terms specifically containing your brand name, generic terms that relate to products or services you offer, terms relating to the products or services your users may be searching for, and possibly competitor terms that include brand names of competitors who are offering the same products or services. Then use keyword research tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner or WordStream’s free Keyword Suggestion Tool to get insights into how popular certain keywords are.
Begin sorting and organizing your keywords, measuring the performance of each keyword, possibly cutting or expanding your list, and then creating highly specific and relevant ads. Also, be sure to explore your negative keyword options to help control your costs and keep your ad targeting relevant.
Use Your PPC To Control the SEO Narrative
PPC can be a good way to test the viability of keywords, as you pick a keyword to test and purchase PPC ads for it. When you run the campaign, keep track of the results.
If a PPC campaign does not generate results, then the keyword should not be a part of your SEO strategy. If it does perform well, however, you may want to consider optimizing your campaigns and your website for that keyword.
Both can work together to help to increase your exposure on search engine results pages (SERPs). If one campaign is successful, people will tend to lessen their efforts on the other, but combining the two can allow you to double your exposure and your chances of increasing your web traffic.
If a campaign both rank high on SERPS, PPC may pick up the clicks that SEO misses. The Google AI Blog states that pausing PPC ads can lead to 89 percent of the traffic generated by paid search ads not being replaced by organic clicks.
Identify Your Top Keywords For PPC Bidding
After brainstorming your possible list of keywords, try to choose local search keywords. A local search keyword refers to a term that has a particular location attached to it.
Next think about your relevance, meaning you should ensure that your keyword will actually relate to a user’s intent. Then consider your competition and the cost of the keyword.
Again, there are a number of tools available to you for help. Consider turning to Ubersuggest, which shows historical statistics on keywords, Think With Google which gives you access to a wide range of data to help you predict future trends and turn information into actionable insights, and HubSpot’s Keyword Grader which condenses data into a single number.
Combine Your Tactics To Help Increase Your Website Visibility
When you do combine your tactics, you will increase your chances of ranking better in Google searches. Better organic results will only help improve your clicks.
Keep in mind that running a PPC campaign will mean that you automatically appear at the top of people’s search results. If you can begin ranking highly for a certain keyword, then you can also appear at the top of organic search results, and appearing highly for both represents greater authority and makes you more trustworthy.
Explore PPC and SEO Results To Maximize Your Keyword Success
PPC and SEO can both offer possible benefits for diligent keyword research. Consider using Keyword Hero to gain access to SEO keyword conversion data that can help you avoid poorly converting keywords.
Keep in mind that certain SEO keywords may prove to return considerable volumes of searches but are not as profitable for PPC purposes. Similarly, you may find that a PPC campaign can rely on a keyword that performs poorly organically but generates good results in paid searches.
When PPC Keywords are Expensive, Try to Secure Them Through Organic SEO
A WordStream study found that the most expensive keywords, some of which are not surprising, included with their respective cost per click:
- Insurance — $54.91
- Gas/Electricity — $54.62
- Mortgage — $47.12
- Attorney — $47.07
- Claim — $45.51
- Loans — $44.28
- Lawyer — $42.51
- Conference Call — $42.05
- Recovery — $42.03
- Donate — $42.02
- Degree — $40.61
- Treatment — $37.18
- Credit — $36.06
- Software — $35.29
- Classes — $35.04
- Rehab — $33.59
- Trading — $33.19
- Hosting — $31.91
- Transfer — $29.86
- Cord Blood — $27.80
When you are targeting a high-value keyword in PPC that is also expensive, you may want to try to work on your organic SEO to claim those terms.
Aim For Keyword Symbiosis
Look for the keywords that are specifically returning conversions. This means not focusing only on the ones that generate potential leads.
If you strive to focus on the keywords leading to real conversions, then your PPC and SEO campaigns can also better incorporate the terms so you will rank highly for the keywords that have the best provable returns.
Preserve Your PPC Rankings With an SEO Strategy
When you realize that your PPC campaign is showing results with a specific keyword, you should always make efforts to incorporate it into your SEO strategy. You will lose the PPC bump as soon as you stop the ads, so investing in the SEO strategy can ensure that you are still getting an organic benefit from the same keywords.
If somebody visits your website without buying, you can use a retargeting ad to prompt the same visitors to come back and make a purchase even after they left the website. SEO can again be a solid backup to your PPC campaigns long after they stop running.
Try to Use a Single Strategy Across Various Channels
Even though your company may employ different teams to handle PPC and SEO, the two teams should share a similar strategy. Make sure your PPC and SEO teams are on the same page with the same goals.
Whether you have a weekly, monthly, or quarterly goal, make sure the keywords or ideas are the same for both campaigns. When there is a clear, common objective, you can consolidate your results.
Use Google Search Console To Inform Both Strategies
Google Search Console can help you better target a PPC strategy and ensure the outcomes of SEO strategies. On the Performance tab, you will see what pages and keywords your website is ranking for in Google.
The number of clicks will tell you how often people clicked on your website in the search results of Google, impressions tell you how often your website appears in search results, and click-through rate (CTR) tells you what percentage of people saw your website in the search results and clicked through to your website, and Average position’ tells you what the average ranking of a specific keyword or page was in the time period you select.
Build SEO And Quality Score To Help Lower Your PPC Costs
SEO is typically cheaper than PPC, so benefitting from SEO can help you lower your PPC costs. Understand your key SEO metrics and how well you are performing so you can keep your PPC costs in check.
The Data From PPC or SEO Could Enhance The Quality Of The Other
When you have a solid understanding of either your SEO or PPC performance, it should help you better perform with the other strategy. The data you collect while running a PPC campaign can easily bolster your success with SEO.
Similarly, a strong performance with an SEO campaign can also dictate the best keywords to target for a PPC campaign. You should again make sure to utilize the results of one campaign to help promote strength in the other.
After You Identify Your SEO Keywords, Target Them with PPC
Your SEO campaign should be giving you a strong idea of which keywords and phrases are most beneficial. The same keywords will probably be best suited then for using in a PPC campaign.
Look at SEO Trends To Identify Your PPC Keywords
A solid PPC performance can help you also gain traction for SEO in SERPs. This will require necessary keyword research.
Similarly, your SEO campaign can also help you identify the keywords you should not target for PPC. Certain terms may not be helpful when it comes to paid searches.
Consider Technical SEO for Optimizing And Supporting PPC
Technical SEO optimization can be among the most powerful kinds of optimizations for supporting PPC campaigns. Improving your website speed is not just an SEO tactic to increase ranking, but can also be a huge factor in the quality score and conversion rates for paid campaigns.
Find SEO and PPC help in Houston, TX | SERP Matrix
SERP Matrix is a Houston digital marketing agency that offers both local SEO and PPC advertising services. We also handle web design and development issues.
At SERP Matrix, you will get an entire team of digital marketing experts who know how to incorporate your strategies and get real results. You can call us at (713) 287-1134 or contact us online for a free consultation that will allow us to better examine your case and outline what steps we may be able to take to help you.
