Many business owners often wonder if they can make their website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns work together. Is there a way to link the two, or are they completely unrelated? And would they benefit from combining their purposes to attract more visitors and leads to boost revenue?
We assume that you already knew about SEO and PPC, as well as their best practices. So we will jump to understanding how you can use these two marketing methods in combination with each other to improve results for your business. Many business owners often wonder whether the two affect each other or not.
Technically speaking, PPC ads do not directly affect your website’s ranking on search engines, nor does your SEO affect your PPC ads. However, there are some ways in which your PPC ads can affect your search engine ranking indirectly. We will discuss four benefits of making SEO and PPC work together to increase your search engine marketing effectiveness.
Combining SEO and PPC Can Increase Your Search Engine Presence
As you are already aware, boosting your SEO can give you better chances at ranking on the first search engine result pages for one or more of the targeted keywords. Additionally, if you purchase PPC ads for the same keywords by placing adequate bids, your ad can also appear on the top of the page when a person uses the keyword in the query.
Targeting a particular keyword using both SEO and PPC can ensure that your brand will dominate the search queries for that keyword. Combining both these methods is especially useful in targeting and increasing your click-through rates for local customers.
For example, you might be trying to make your online sunglass store popular among local customers in the Sunshine Coast area. You can target Sunshine Coast SEO keywords for PPC ads as well to attract the attention of local clients and invite them to visit your store or buy from you.
PPC Can Help Recover Missed Search Engine Opportunities
It is easy to assume that if your website is already appearing at the number one position for a particular keyword organically, there is no point in purchasing a PPC ad for the same keyword. After all, you may wonder why you should spend money to appear on the same search page twice?
Studies have found that if the search ads for a particular ad are removed, almost 89% of web traffic generated by these ads does not get replaced by search engine rankings. It means that even if your site is ranking at the number one position on search engine result pages, the absence of a PPC ad for the same keyword could have a negative impact on your organic traffic.
The truth is PPC helps in recovering interest and opportunities from users that your website might have missed. If your website does not appear in the number one position organically, a PPC ad can also boost its ranking by drawing traffic from users looking for your products or services.
PPC Ad Campaigns Can Help You Reach Old Customers
Let us assume that your website is ranking quite high on the search engine result pages due to optimum SEO efforts. That means you are probably drawing in many visitors to your site. However, most of them would be new customers who might take some time to make up their minds before they purchase from or subscribe to your website.
In the meantime, your PPC ads can help you reach out to your old customers and bring them back to your brand. PPC ads are also helpful to remarket to those who may have visited your website but did not complete their purchase or subscription.
For example, some people might have visited your website looking for sunglasses but could not make up their minds to complete the purchase. They did not even leave their contact details so you could follow up with an email.
However, if they come across your PPC ad while searching for sunglasses on Google, it can remind them of their last visit, and they might complete their purchase.
You Can Use PPC Ads to Test Out New Keywords for SEO
Keyword research for SEO can take up a significant amount of time and even prove costly to implement. Business owners often wonder about targeting a specific keyword using SEO techniques but are not entirely sure if their efforts will pay off. PPC ads can be a great way to test out the viability and productivity of a keyword for SEO.
You can choose a keyword related to your products or services that you think would prove useful to boost your search engine ranking and purchase PPC ads for it. You can then monitor the results generated by that keyword for some time and judge how beneficial it is for your website.
If the ad performs well, it can be an indication that it can boost your website SEO as well. However, if the PPC ad campaign fails for that keyword, there is no point in spending any more money on using it for SEO.
Since PPC ads pay for themselves, it can be an inexpensive way to test the waters before you invest a significant amount of time and money optimizing your website content for that keyword.
PPC and SEO offer several other benefits for search engine marketing strategies. They can give you a lot of data to monitor various metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, time on site, and conversion rates.
Combining both the strategies can help you determine the best possible keywords to rank higher and generate more leads. It also enables you to make smarter decisions regarding the future of your business and digital marketing strategies.
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