SEO and PPC are both digital marketing tools intended to draw more traffic to a business’ site. SEO, or search engine optimisations, refers to the process of increasing a site’s ranking in a search engine like Google. This is done primarily through link building and using keywords in content creation. PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, refers to targeted ads placed in search engines, social media platforms, and websites.
These two digital marketing strategies are often treated separately, but a marketing strategy that combines them will improve your search engine marketing results.
Instead of engaging in a debate about which is better - SEO or PPC - they can be used together to optimise search engine marketing in the following ways:
Oftentimes, companies only track the number of PPC ads that convert a potential customer to a buyer. By ignoring the clicks that result in a webpage visit but no purchase, companies are discrediting the impact of that brief visit on brand awareness. To track this information, you’ll need to measure not just conversions, but also website traffic.
Even if the customer doesn’t make a purchase on that visit, if they search for those same products or services in the future, well-crafted SEO will lead to a listing on the company’s site. That potential customer will remember visiting the site in the past and be more likely to click on it and make a purchase that time around.
In addition to looking at the amount of traffic and conversions resulting from PPC advertising campaigns, you can also measure the demographics of traffic and conversions. This will allow you to find out if your target audience is matching up with the age, gender, and interests of the audience who are interacting with PPC ads.
This strategy can also help you find out which demographic you’re missing out on, allowing you to modify your keywords in your SEO strategy to target the untapped potential of this demographic.
If you’re currently working on improving your SEO or starting from scratch, you know it takes some time for SEO data to accumulate. Unlike SEO, data from PPC advertising are generated immediately, giving you instant insight into which keywords are driving the most traffic and conversions.
With this information, you can modify the keywords used in your SEO strategy without waiting weeks and months to see which keywords are performing the best. Likewise, a solid SEO framework can be used to inform future PPC strategies.
SEO and PPC appear in different ways on search engine results pages. PPC advertisements appear at the very top of the page with photographs of the product, making it the first thing a potential customer sees.
On the other hand, SEO efforts that lead to first-page ranking will appear below the PPC ad. This means your business will take up a large portion of the search engine results page, thereby increasing brand awareness. Customers who see a brand listed twice are also more likely to feel confident that the company is trustworthy.
