Are you struggling to get your business noticed online? You’re not alone. Many business owners face the challenge of getting found amidst the crowded digital space.
There are many tactics that you can use to generate more online visibility, but the real secret to marketing success is to build a flywheel where multiple marketing strategies work together to power every other marketing strategy that you use.
Let’s take a look at how you can use search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing together to grow your business and achieve your goals.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google by optimizing its structure, content, and user experience. This tactic is a long-term strategy that looks at the needs of your customers and helps you position your brand based on the journey they take before they buy.
This is a holistic approach to marketing that looks at the technical side of your website, the content you produce, and the keywords that your audience uses when they search for your products or services online.
What is PPC?
PPC advertising is an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ads are clicked. It’s a method of buying visits to your site rather than earning them organically through SEO.
PPC is ideal if you want to reach customers who are close to the purchasing decision or customers who are in urgent need of a product (like a locksmith or other service). This marketing tactic is a great choice to generate lots of data quickly and because it can drive qualified leads to your site in a short period of time.
Key Differences | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Pay-Per-Click (PPC) |
---|---|---|
Time For Results | SEO is a long-term strategy that can take weeks or months to yield significant results, depending on factors such as competition and website optimization. | PPC offers immediate results, with campaigns delivering traffic as soon as they are launched, providing a quick way to generate leads and conversions. |
Cost To Implement | SEO generally has a lower cost to implement, as it focuses on optimizing existing website content and creating new, high-quality content. | PPC requires an ongoing ad spend, with costs varying based on factors such as keyword competition, bid amount, and quality score. |
Visibility | SEO focuses on improving organic search visibility, with website content appearing in search results based on relevance and authority. | Paid ads appear at the top of search results, ensuring high visibility for targeted keywords, and are clearly labeled as sponsored content. |
Control Over Results | SEO results are influenced by search engine algorithms and can be less predictable, requiring ongoing optimization and adaptation. | PPC offers more control over ad placements, targeting, and budgets, allowing for precise adjustments to achieve desired results. |
Where To Use In The Customer Journey | SEO is effective throughout the customer journey, from building awareness and driving engagement to promoting conversions. | PPC is particularly effective in targeting users at the decision-making stage of their journey, with ads tailored to drive specific actions such as purchasing or signing up. |
Return On Investment (ROI) | SEO can deliver a higher ROI over time due to sustained organic traffic, though it requires consistent effort and patience to see results. | PPC can provide a quicker ROI, as campaigns generate immediate traffic and conversions, but the return may be lower due to ongoing ad spend. |
Required Knowledge | SEO requires a solid understanding of search engine algorithms, keyword research, content creation, and technical optimization. | PPC demands expertise in keyword research, ad creation, bidding strategies, and campaign management, as well as an understanding of various advertising platforms and policies. |
Why do you want PPC and SEO to work together?
As we just looked at, SEO and PPC are two sides of the same coin. On one side, SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on the lifespan of your customers before they purchase from you. On the other, PPC focuses on capturing the attention of your audience the moment before they choose to make a purchase.
Each tactic can be used in different ways to reach your audience, but the real magic happens when you wield each channel together to dominate your market.
It might overwhelm you at first as you try to find a way to make SEO and PPC work together, so I want to highlight five of the most significant benefits you will enjoy if you commit to the process and bring these two marketing channels together.
1. Dominate the SERPs
Online visibility is an important factor in helping drive more traffic to your website. Simply put, the only way for you to drive people to your website is if you appear in search results.
Running a fine-tuned SEO and PPC campaign means that you can take up more real estate in search engine results pages (SERPs) and push your competitors out of the top listings. Having the top
When PPC and SEO work in in unison, you can conquer more real estate on search engine results pages. This increases your brand’s visibility, making it harder for competitors to gain attention, and ultimately leads to more clicks and conversions.
By synergizing these two powerful strategies, you’ll not only improve your online visibility but also ensure consistent website traffic and conversion. Here are a few ways that you benefit as you claim more visibility in organic and paid results:
- Cost-effective marketing: Combining the long-term benefits of SEO with the immediate results of PPC creates a well-rounded, budget-friendly approach that maximizes your return on investment.
- Improved Click-Through Rates (CTR): Dominating search results with a strong SEO and PPC presence increases the likelihood of users clicking on your links, driving more qualified traffic to your website.
- Competitive advantage: By leveraging both SEO and PPC, you can outperform your competitors in search results, creating a formidable online presence that sets your business apart from the rest. When your customers will begin to trust you more as they see your business listed in organic and paid search results.
It can be difficult to get your SEO and PPC strategy working together, but once you do you will see many benefits as you begin to dominate SERPs!
2. Improve the user experience
Marketing comes down to delivering the right message to the right people at the right time. Everything you do in marketing needs to be focused on the overall experience of your customers.
Your customers are more likely to purchase from you if they have a great experience. The good news is that you can use your PPC and SEO strategies together to create a streamlined user experience for your audience to boost conversions for your business.
Here are a few ways that your SEO and PPC work together to improve the overall user experience:
- Unified messaging: By aligning your SEO and PPC strategies, you’ll create consistent and compelling messages, reinforcing your brand’s identity and making it easier for users to understand your offerings.
- Seamless navigation: Coordinating SEO and PPC efforts ensures a smooth journey from search results to your website, reducing friction and guiding users effortlessly toward conversion.
- Continuous improvement: With SEO and PPC working together, you can regularly test, measure, and refine your approach, ensuring a continuously improved experience that keeps users coming back for more.
By optimizing both PPC and SEO strategies, you’ll create a seamless and cohesive user experience. This not only increases the likelihood of users clicking on your content but also ensures they have a positive experience once they arrive at your site.
3. Keyword data and research
Your customers use specific keywords as they search for products and services online. You can research what terms your audience uses when they try to find a solution for their problems, and then you can create content and ads to present your brand.
When PPC and SEO work together, you are able to gain a deeper understanding of customer intent and search behavior. This information can help you in a number of ways, including:
- Comprehensive keyword insights: Combining SEO and PPC efforts allows you to gather valuable keyword data from both organic and paid search results, offering a more holistic understanding of your audience’s search behavior.
- Discover untapped opportunities: Cross-referencing SEO and PPC data can reveal overlooked keyword niches or emerging trends, enabling you to capitalize on these opportunities ahead of your competitors.
- Enhanced content strategy: Utilizing the customer needs to be identified through PPC and SEO research, you can create more engaging and relevant content, improving your site’s organic search performance and driving higher-quality leads.
PPC campaigns provide valuable keyword data, which can inform your SEO strategy. It should be noted that many small business owners turn to outsource Google Ads to an expert PPC advertising agency to avoid difficulties and get the best results possible without the headaches of running their campaigns in-house.
By analyzing this information, you can identify high-converting keywords and optimize your content accordingly, ensuring better organic results in search engines.
4. Remarketing
Sometimes your customers won’t buy from you the first time they visit your website. While this is not ideal, the good news is that you can engage your audience after they leave with remarketing strategies.
This type of marketing is a great way to remind customers about your products or services, and having PPC and SEO working together can drive better results. Here are a few ways that PPC and SEO work together to improve your remarketing efforts:
- Strengthen brand recognition: Combining SEO and PPC efforts enhances your online presence, helping your brand appear more frequently and consistently in search results. This increased visibility reinforces your brand’s image in the minds of potential customers, amplifying remarketing efforts.
- Improved audience targeting: SEO and PPC data can be combined to create highly targeted remarketing lists, ensuring your message reaches the right people at the right time, and increasing the likelihood of conversions.
- Leverage high-performing content: By identifying content that performs well in organic search, you can incorporate it into your PPC campaigns, boosting the effectiveness of your remarketing efforts and driving more engagement.
Combining PPC with SEO allows you to create powerful remarketing campaigns. By targeting users who have already visited your site or engaged with your content, you increase the chances of converting them into customers.
5. Save money
You need to be a good steward of your resources and make every dollar in your marketing budget count. Individually, you can see growth with just SEO or PPC, but when used together, you can save your business money as you amplify your brand’s online visibility.
Here are just a few benefits along with cost-savings when you are able to get PPC and SEO to work together in your business:
- Maximized ROI: Combining SEO and PPC efforts allows you to allocate your marketing budget more efficiently, ensuring every dollar is well-spent on high-performing strategies, ultimately increasing your return on investment.
- Cost-effective keyword targeting: By analyzing PPC keyword data, you can optimize your SEO strategy to target high-converting, less competitive keywords, ultimately reducing your overall ad spend.
- Improved Quality Score: A strong SEO strategy helps improve your website’s relevance and user experience, leading to a higher Quality Score in PPC campaigns, thus lowering your cost-per-click (CPC).
When PPC and SEO work together, you can reduce your overall marketing spend by leveraging their strengths. You’ll achieve better results at a lower cost, improving your return on investment and ultimately saving money.
So How Can PPC and SEO Work Together?
It can be difficult to get PPC and SEO to work together, but if you can get it to work correctly, you can see some big gains in your business. In the previous section, we discussed the top benefits of bringing PPC and SEO together.
But you might be wondering, “What steps do I need to take to actually make this strategy work?”
Well, fear not! We will go over nine of our favorite “pro tips” to help you bring the best of both worlds from SEO and PPC together to help amplify your marketing efforts.
1. Use PPC data for conversion testing
One of the biggest benefits of using PPC in your marketing campaigns is that PPC marketing gives you access to a lot of data that Google typically doesn’t provide through SEO.
You can use PPC reporting tools to understand what ad copy and landing pages generate the most clicks and drive the most conversions to your website. This information is invaluable as you can apply the findings to improve your content marketing efforts, blog posts, and even the meta titles and meta descriptions of your individual web pages.
Here are five actionable ways that you can use PPC data to improve your SEO content:
- Identify high-performing keywords: Use PPC data to pinpoint the most effective keywords driving conversions. Incorporate these into your SEO strategy to enhance organic search performance and attract targeted website traffic.
- Analyze ad copy effectiveness: Review PPC ad copy to determine which messages resonate with your audience. Apply these insights to create compelling meta titles and descriptions that improve organic click-through rates.
- Optimize landing pages: Compare conversion rates of different PPC landing pages to identify the best-performing elements. Implement these features on your website to improve user experience and boost organic rankings.
- Test content variations: Utilize PPC campaigns to quickly test different headlines, CTAs, and content styles. Apply your learnings to refine your SEO content strategy and enhance audience engagement.
- Leverage geographic insights: Analyze location data from PPC campaigns to identify key regions with higher conversion rates. Tailor your SEO strategy to target these areas and capitalize on local search opportunities.
You pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad, and you can use this wealth of data to help inform other areas of your marketing strategy.
Look at PPC conversion data to see what keywords drive the most conversions. Write SEO content around those search terms, and optimize case studies. Compare to other end-of-journey actions by users, since PPC is close to the purchase decision.
2. Use PPC ad title and description data
You have lots of control over what your PPC ads say, and you can test lots of messaging options through Google responsive ads. You can use a mix of RSA titles and descriptions to see what combinations Google and your users like the most.
This type of testing can take some time and requires Google Ads expertise to implement the best tips for Google ads, but when done correctly, you get a better sense of what your target audience is searching for and what language resonates with them.
Here are a few ways that tests with responsive ads can help your SEO strategy:
- Test ad copy variations: Utilize PPC ad testing to determine which messaging resonates best with your audience. Apply the winning headlines and descriptions to your website’s metadata for improved SEO click-through rates.
- Identify what keywords to use: Use PPC ads to discover the most effective keywords for your target audience. These insights can then be applied to your SEO strategy, optimizing your website content for better organic search performance.
- Analyze competitor performance: PPC reporting can reveal your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to fine-tune your own SEO tactics and gain a competitive edge in search rankings.
- Evaluate user engagement: Monitor how users interact with your PPC ads and landing pages, such as bounce rate and time spent on site. Use this data to optimize your website content for SEO, ensuring a seamless user experience that keeps visitors engaged.
- Improve site speed and mobile-friendliness: PPC ads require fast-loading and mobile-optimized landing pages for better performance. Apply these same principles to your entire website to boost SEO rankings and user satisfaction.
Incorporate these winning elements into your SEO strategies, such as meta titles and descriptions, to boost your organic search performance. Actionable Tip: Split-test different ad titles and descriptions in your PPC campaigns to find the best performers. Then, update your meta tags and on-page content to reflect these winning elements.
3. Use PPC to test landing pages quickly
Testing landing page content is one of the hardest things to do in SEO. This is because you need to isolate specific variables through careful PPC management to test each landing page and you need to drive lots of traffic to the website to determine what changes make the biggest impact for your business.
It can be difficult to do this with SEO since that marketing strategy focuses on long-term strategies to drive traffic. But the good news is that you can drive lots of traffic to your landing page with PPC to test copy and messaging.
Here are a few ways that PPC ads can quickly test landing pages to boost your SEO strategy:
- Landing page A/B testing: Run simultaneous PPC campaigns with different landing page variations to identify the most effective content and design elements for your audience.
- Keyword research: Use PPC ads to test and discover high-converting keywords. Apply these insights to optimize your SEO content and drive organic traffic.
- User Engagement Metrics: Analyze PPC data on bounce rates, time spent on site, and conversion rates to understand user behavior and improve your landing pages accordingly.
- Ad copy insights: Identify the most successful ad copy from your PPC campaigns and use it to inform your SEO title tags, meta descriptions, and headings for better organic click-through rates.
- Speed optimization: Test various landing page load times with PPC ads, and optimize your site speed for a seamless user experience, positively influencing your SEO performance.
Once you have your landing pages set up, you can install Hotjar to see even more user data. You can layer this information on the insights gained through your PPC data to understand what keywords people clicked on, what ads performed the best, and what variations of your landing pages lead to the most conversions!
4. Use PPC data to inform your SEO strategy
It can be difficult to build an SEO strategy if you are not familiar with how marketing works in your industry and market. The good news is that you can use PPC campaigns to identify trends in the market and craft better content for your landing pages, blog posts, and brand strategy.
Google Ads offers a wealth of data that you can implement in your SEO campaigns, like:
- Discover long-tail keyword opportunities: PPC data can reveal untapped long-tail keywords that may be less competitive but equally valuable. Incorporate these long-tail keywords into your content, meta tags, and URL structures for improved organic search visibility.
- Enhance your ad copy: PPC ads provide invaluable insights into which headlines, descriptions, and call-to-actions are most effective. Apply these learnings to your SEO titles, meta descriptions, and headers to boost your click-through rates and user engagement.
- Optimize landing pages: Use PPC data to identify the highest converting landing pages and analyze their elements, such as headlines, layout, and calls-to-action. Replicate these best practices across your website to improve the overall user experience and, in turn, your SEO performance.
- Discover content gaps: By analyzing the keywords that are driving the most traffic and conversions in your PPC campaigns, you can identify new opportunities for SEO optimization.
- Use Auction Insights: you can use Google Ads Auction Insights to understand your competitors and find where they are spending their marketing dollars. This information can help inform you on where to invest your PPC budget and guide your SEO strategy at the same time.
5. Use PPC to avoid SEO keyword traps
SEO keyword research is a vital component of any digital marketing strategy. However, sometimes even the most promising keywords can lead to low conversion rates or unqualified leads. To dodge these pitfalls, leverage your PPC data to refine your SEO strategy.
Begin by identifying the keywords that drive the most conversions and click-through rates (CTR) in your PPC campaigns. These are the terms that resonate with your audience and deliver tangible results. By focusing your SEO efforts on these high-performing keywords, you can optimize your website content and minimize wasted resources on less effective terms.
Here are a few ways to use PPC data to avoid SEO keyword traps that will lead to unqualified leads and lower conversions:
- Identify high-performing keywords: Google Ads provides valuable insights into which keywords are driving conversions and high-quality traffic. Use this data to refine your SEO strategy for better results.
- Test long-tail keywords: Google Ads allows you to experiment with long-tail keywords, revealing untapped opportunities that could be more effective in your SEO campaigns. Check out your Search Terms Report to find long-tail keywords that you can use in your SEO content and other campaigns.
- Discover negative keywords: Google Ads can help you identify irrelevant keywords that aren’t worth targeting, allowing you to focus your SEO efforts on the ones that truly matter. This can help refine your keyword lists and focus your content around terms that matter for your audience.
- Optimize ad copy: By analyzing successful ad copy in Google Ads, you can improve your SEO content, meta titles, and descriptions for higher organic rankings.
- Competitive analysis: Google Ads offers insights into your competitors’ keyword strategies, enabling you to adjust your SEO approach accordingly to stay ahead of the game.
It takes lots of time and resources to build great content for your website. You can avoid going down the wrong path for your SEO content by using PPC data to understand what terms matter for your audience.
6. Use PPC audience data to improve messaging
Since content is a central part of SEO, you need to know who your audience is to make your investment into content make the biggest impact on your business. The good news is that PPC campaigns offer valuable insights into your target audience’s behavior, preferences, and demographics.
You can use this detailed information to fine-tune your messaging across all SEO campaigns to connect with your audience. Here are a few ways that you can use PPC audience data to improve your SEO content messaging:
- Location-based targeting: Analyze the geographical data from your Google Ads to identify high-performing locations. Tailor your SEO content to address the needs and preferences of these specific regions, boosting your local search rankings.
- Demographic insights: Use age, gender, and other demographic data from your Google Ads reports crafting content that resonates with your key audience segments. This personalized approach can improve engagement and conversions.
- Interests and affinities: Understand your audience’s interests and affinities as revealed in your Google Ads data. Create SEO content that appeals to these passions, capturing their attention and improving your organic reach.
- In-market segments: Leverage the in-market segments data to identify potential customers actively researching or planning to buy products or services like yours. Develop content that addresses their specific needs, enhancing your chances of attracting and converting them.
- Device usage: Review device usage data to optimize your content for the devices most used by your audience. This ensures a seamless user experience, ultimately boosting your SEO performance and increasing the likelihood of conversions.
One of the best things about PPC campaigns in Google Ads is the amount of data the platform offers to you. Be sure to review demographics, locations, and in-market segments of your PPC campaigns and apply those findings to help refine your content and SEO campaigns.
7. Use SEO data trends to find new PPC keyword opportunities
As we discussed, Google Ads is a great way to gather lots of data about your audience to inform your SEO strategy. The good news is that Google offers lots of tools to SEO that you can use to improve your PPC campaigns.
For example, you can use Google Search Console to gain insights about search queries that your audience uses when searching for products or services online. You can use this information to understand how to improve your PPC ads, and here are a few benefits that you can uncover to improve your PPC campaigns:
- Analyze high-traffic keywords: Identity keywords driving organic traffic and conversions, then incorporate them into your PPC campaigns for added exposure.
- Discover long-tail opportunities: Mine SEO data for long-tail keywords that are less competitive but have high conversion potential to target in your PPC campaigns.\
- Monitor competitors’ organic rankings: Identify gaps in your competitors’ SEO strategy, and capitalize on these opportunities by targeting relevant keywords with your PPC ads.
- Keep up with seasonal trends: Use SEO data to identify popular keywords during specific seasons or events and adjust your PPC campaigns accordingly to capture seasonal demand.
- Use content insights for ad copy: Leverage the top-performing organic content on your site to create compelling ad copy, ensuring a consistent message across SEO and PPC channels.
Leveraging SEO data trends to find new PPC keyword opportunities is a powerful strategy for business owners. By making PPC and SEO work together, you’ll be able to maximize your online presence and drive even more targeted traffic and conversions to your business.
8. Use SEO customer journey to direct PPC strategy
SEO and content marketing focus on building a relationship with your audience to understand their needs and deliver content at the right time throughout the customer journey. You can use different tools like Google Analytics to understand how customers use your website and then interpret that data to optimize your Google Ads campaigns.
Here are a few steps that you can take to direct your PPC campaigns based on your SEO research and findings:
- Identify high-performing keywords: Analyze organic search data to find the most effective keywords for your business. Incorporate these into your PPC campaigns to boost relevance and visibility.
- Utilize user behavior data: Dive into Google Analytics to understand how users interact with your website. Use these insights to optimize your PPC ad copy, landing pages, and overall campaign structure.
- Monitor conversion paths: Identify the most common paths users take before converting. Align your PPC efforts with these paths to better target your audience and improve conversion rates.
- Optimize for mobile: Analyze mobile user data to ensure your PPC ads and landing pages are optimized for mobile devices, providing a seamless user experience.
- Leverage competitor insights: Use SEO tools to uncover competitor strategies and identify potential gaps in the market. This information can help you create more targeted and effective PPC campaigns that outperform the competition.
By following these actionable tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a powerful, symbiotic relationship between your PPC and SEO efforts, resulting in a more successful online presence for your business.
9. Use SEO data to find new angles for PPC campaigns
If you run a Google Ads campaign then you already know how expensive this tactic can be if not managed properly. The most important thing that you can do as a small business owner is to squeeze as much value out of your PPC campaigns as possible, and one way to do this is by using SEO data to find new angles for your PPC campaigns.
Sure, you can use Auction Insights and other reports to get a sneak peek into what your competitors are doing in their Google Ads accounts, but did you know that you can go a few steps further with SEO data to inform your campaigns?
Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you look at SEO data to improve your SEO campaigns:
- Use Google Analytics: Analyze your top-performing organic keywords and landing pages to identify topics and themes that resonate with your audience. Incorporate these insights into your PPC ads for higher click-through rates and engagement.
- Spy on competitors: Utilize tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to research your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies. Identify gaps in their approach and capitalize on those opportunities in your own campaigns.
- Seasonal trends: Utilize Google Trends to identify search patterns and seasonality in your industry. Adjust your PPC campaigns accordingly to maximize ROI during peak periods.
- Leverage local SEO: Use local SEO insights to identify popular geo-specific keywords and target them in your PPC campaigns. This can help you reach a more relevant local audience and improve your ad performance.
You can uncover new angles for your PPC campaigns by looking at your SEO data. Together, this information can make your PPC campaigns more efficient and more profitable at the same time!
Combine SEO & PPC data to maximize results
As an entrepreneur of a petite establishment, comprehending the interdependent liaison amidst search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is vital. By harnessing the competencies of both approaches, you can devise a robust and coherent online marketing strategy.
It’s important to scrutinize your SEO information, track tendencies, and fine-tune your campaigns to ensure optimal impact.
Continuously refining your tactics will not only augment your online presence but also stimulate more focused traffic, amplify conversions, and in the end, enlarge your enterprise. Welcome the synergy between SEO and PPC, and observe your virtual triumph skyrocket.
Are you ready to take your online marketing game to the next level? If so, then it’s time to chat with the experts at StrategyBeam! We have the experience and knowledge you need when it comes to optimizing your SEO and PPC for maximum impact.
So, if you want to boost your online presence, drive targeted traffic, and grow your business, then don’t wait another minute! Our team is standing by and ready to help you today!
How SEO & PPC Work Together FAQs
An SEO agency conducts an audit to analyze your website and then offers solutions to improve your site’s search engine ranking.
No, there are many dangers to hiring a cheap SEO company.
PPC management oversees an entire company’s PPC ad strategy, as well as the budget.