SEO vs PPC and Why They Are Better Together
No matter how big of a brand one has, marketing remains a constant investment. And fortunately, we are blessed with numerous tools and techniques that aid us in promoting our brand online.
But, when a brand is relatively new and has a limited budget, it can be extremely hard to choose what type of digital marketing can assist the business effectively. And even with hours of researching, oftentimes, the last and most common choice slims down to SEO or PPC.
While many people take their chances with either SEO or just PPC campaigns, there are many marketers who mix them both together to experience the best of both worlds. This is because both PPC and SEO have their own unique merits. But when they are combined, they end up supporting each other from all the right aspects.
Well, to understand their unique bond, let us take a look at SEO and PPC separately.
The basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
First let’s start with SEO, Search Engine Optimization works based on various aspects and techniques that work in unison to make a given website more visible on the search engine results.
The main focus of SEO is to garner organic traffic over time. It uses link building, content creation, metadata and keywords to optimize a website or webpage.
In fact, as per HubSpot’s 2018 report, almost 61% of marketers stated that enhancing SEO and organic presence was one of their top inbound priority. So, it is fair to say that SEO is a trustworthy and consistent way of boosting a brand’s web traffic and visibility. But SEO is a long-term solution, meaning it will take time to show impactful results.
So, in simple terms, SEO may not cause an over-night wildfire but you will experience a lasting marketing flame.
The basics of PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing
PPC is nothing but a placed advertisement that directs traffic to your website. But, every time an advertisement gets clicked, your firm will be charged for it, thus, the name Pay Per Click.
Commonly people only prefer Google for PPC campaigns because the trend was started there. But, nowadays even social media sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have their PPC ad systems too.
PPC only works when the campaign is in full swing, that is why it is generated thoughtfully for a more precise audience. If you are looking for fast results, then PPC is the best investment. In fact, it will help you in gaining reliable feedbacks within a short period.
You can even perform long-term PPC campaigns, but if you are functioning in a competitive industry then this campaign can be an expensive affair. Even improper target of right keywords can backfire in terms of expense.
Here are a few ways in which PPC and SEO can indirectly support each other
1- Share performance data and keywords:
Keywords have a vital role in both PPC and SEO. If you fail to perform thorough research on keywords for strategic targeting then both PPC and SEO campaigns will fail miserably. So, remember that Keywords are the primary aspects of both areas.
And most business often forgets that SEO and PPC can effectively share performance data and keywords to amplify each other’s efforts.
Dynamic search and Ads:
- When it comes to dynamic searches and campaigns, ads are arranged in a way that they haul data directly from the website. And that means keywords don’t usually have an explicit role here.
- But if the source pages from the sites are not optimized with SEO then marketers are definitely falling back of creating potent search and ads. For instance, if the appropriate detail isn’t instilled into the web page’s metadata or H1tags, then the chances of the page not performing better are higher.
Site Search Keywords:
- A website that has site-search functionality, it is the work of Google Analytics to seize the keywords searches performed by the users.
- And since the major role of both SEO and PPC is to understand what phrases and words are used by the users or buyers to discover a relevant product or service, site search can help in yielding essential and valuable insights from the minds of your target audience.
High-performance copy and converting keywords:
- One of the cons of SEO is that it fails or rarely is able to trace conversions done by a particular keyword.
- On the other hand, PPC campaigns generate tons of performance data based on converting keywords.
- When you mix SEO and PPC, the information gained from the PPC campaign can inform the SEO campaign on what keywords need to be added. Or, how to reprioritize the PPC campaign’s keywords.
- In fact, a PPC campaign can also assist in analyzing which ad alternative caused more conversions. And this will in turn inform SEO efforts about best titles and description for generating quality content.
- So, in short, even though sharing data may be the best aspect of mixing PPC and SEO but the upstanding relationship between them is far deeper.
2- Boost visibility and SERPs:
No matter if your website drives most traffic from desktop, your ranking will get impacted if you do not have a mobile-friendly website. This is because Mobile-first Indexing is Google’s primary focus while ranking the sites.
So, if you rank lower, then relying just on SEO will not do any better to your website. And even if you have page-one ranking, you will require PPC to attract more search users to click.
In fact, in-depth research performed by a few statisticians at Google stated an important detail:
The paid search ads garner an 89% incremental lift within the organic site visitors, meaning people who view paid ads are more likely to visit your website through organic search. And this traffic would not have been driven without the existence of paid ads in search results.
So, if you have spent and immense amount on Google but suddenly pause the campaigns then the traffic from the other channels will fall. Even though the extent of this situation varies but it happens eventually.
3- Retain consistent branding:
One of the basic principles of branding is that you require generating a consistent brand experience for everyone who comes across your brand. This way your brand manages to create a similar impact, no matter when and where it is seen by the people.
So, if you wish to improve the overall visibility, then you must use SEO and PPC in unison to ensure stability during brand searches.
Using both SEO and PPC will only boost your visibility so that you can control your conversions easily.
If the SEO and PPC efforts aren’t geared in the same direction then it can become hard to retain a stable branding experience.
In fact, with PPC you can offset negative brand sentiment because it offers immediate relief or impacts. So, if there is a negative PR against your brand then you can use PPC to tell your side of the story.
How can you improve SEO performance?
One of the key beliefs of SEO is enhancing a website’s or web page’s relevancy. This can be done either through keywords or by optimizing metadata, keyword usage, page speed, etc. And let’s not forget about the relevancy in paid search.
In fact, many studies have shown that SEO-friendly pages can significantly lower the cost of campaigns and increase the performance by up to 38%, meaning drive more traffic with minimum expenditure.
You read it right, more focus on effective SEO strategy can save a lot on your PPC campaigns.
How can you improve PPC performance?
Well, let us keep in mind the paid ads do not have a direct impact over organic rankings. But they can assist in improving the rankings.
In fact, there are a handful of case studies that stated that search users are more likely to clicking on the organic result when there is a paid ad visible for a similar site. So, that means having both organic and paid ad for the same brand will result in improved recognition and reputation for your brand in the mind of the search user.
Over to you
To be precise, SEO is slow yet steady but PPC can help in driving high traffic but for a short period of time. That is why your PPC management and SEO should work in synchronization.
In short, it is evident from the blog that utilizing both of these strategies together will boost your website’s visibility, feedback and overall performance. So, avoid choosing either one and work with both of them. And don’t forget to take help from professionals who know all the ins and outs of PPC and SEO for a better outcome.
