A majority of marketers would agree that in order to be competitive, we do not operate in an either/or environment. It is a requirement that we understand how SEO and PPC work together to impact one another instead of choosing between them.
Brands are still putting all their eggs in the PPC basket rather than adopting strategies that use organic and paid search together, and it can be affecting the website’s ability to stay afloat in the growing search results.
So let’s explore why SEO and PPC should be used in conjunction, and how you can leverage them collectively to inform strategy.
SEO + PPC Working In Tandem;
Clicks
A Google study done in 2012 found that PPC was able to do some heavy lifting for websites dependent upon how strong organic search results were. The study found that 82% of ad clicks are incremental when the associated organic result is ranked between 2 and 4, and 96% of clicks are incremental when the brand’s organic result was 5 or below.
According to Google, those visits would not have occurred without the ad campaigns.
Conversions
It is easy to to see the impact that a combination of SEO and PPC can have on conversions. All you have to do is log into Google Analytics and look at the multi-channel funnels report. Marketers use the data in these reports to explain the importance of a holistic digital marketing plan since the data was first available. The multi-channel funnels report shows that success is not confined to one channel.
SEO + PPC Data Enlighten Strategy;
Both SEO and PPC used to have free-flowing data about keywords making it easier to see which keywords drove conversions in PPC or SEO. The data would then be used to inform optimization of one channel, or the other.
Even though we are severely limited in terms of keyword data, specifically in Web Analytics – this concept can still apply if we shift our perspective a little.
Given the limited paid search keyword data in GA, this is where SEO data can inform PPC strategy. If we have Web Analytics data that shows traffic and conversions, those pages can be mapped.
If you are lucky enough to have organic keyword data, use it. If you have high-converting keywords showing on organic search, bid on those in PPC. In absence of this keyword data, you might still have high-converting web pages which is the type of data a lot of businesses are starting with if they have only focused on organic and not paid search.
Further examining of the top-converting landing pages in organic searches can give insight into how PPC landing pages may be improved.
SEO + PPC Integration;
By integrating your paid and organic search activity, you will have greater results in SERP domination. Content is the glue that binds your SEO and PPC strategies.
It is important to realize how the two channels impact one another and how you can inform your strategy in SEO or PPC based on the data from the other channel.