Organic vs. paid advertising. Improving your ranking vs. improving your click-through rate. Appealing to customers vs. appealing to search engines. Many arguments exist over the debate between which is more effective – SEO or PPC. But is one really better than the other?
In reality, neither are better than the other. Think about it in this way: if you invest all your time into SEO, you run the risk for slow advancement in terms of ranking. But if you focus only on PPC, then you might face the issues of an underdeveloped organic ranking as well as an exhausted budget. So, what’s the alternative?
Well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t fuse the two methods together. In fact, doing so might help you to create a more significant online presence and bring about spectacular results. As such, to show you how inseparable the two concepts are, we’ve decided to show you how PPC can turn our SEO strategy around and boost your organic ranking.
Why PPC Campaigns?
PPC advertising holds many opportunities for reaching people that you otherwise couldn’t. It drives sales of your products and service in an incredible way. Have you ever wondered why PPC does this and how? Well, the main reason (that is often forgotten) is that paid results always show up first. When an ad shows up first on the first page of Google, it has much more potential to gain conversions and revenue.
And yes, local ads may appear from time to time, but there are usually less organic search results appearing right at the top. So, the main argument for using PPC is that the position of those ads helps businesses to reach out to more people.
Another perk is the detailed targeting functions of PPC – you can choose to target people using keywords, age, time, location, and experience. Basically, everything goes when it comes to PPC. The degree of target consumer customization that paid advertising provides makes SEO look pale in comparison.
Last but not least, extensions are an aspect of digital marketing that is extremely useful. While organic search listings only allow for a title and description, PPC ads display callouts, location, double-descriptors, working hours, and contact info, among others. Simply put, PPC ads allow more information to be put at the forefront whereas organic search urges searchers to look for what they want on their own.
But as amazing as these perks are, they’re not a reason to disregard SEO either.
Why SEO Campaigns?
Despite its disadvantages, organic search remains relevant in the industry of digital marketing. That’s because it makes up 64% of all website traffic whereas only 6% goes to paid search. When it comes to driving traffic and clicks, SEO is definitely more effective than PPC. And that’s not the only thing that SEO has an edge over PPC on.
When it comes to click-through rate (CTR), another important parameter, Google AdWords ads only have a 2% rate. What does this mean? Well, basically only 2% of the people searching for something may click on your ad. Even though they appear at the top of the page, PPC results aren’t always trusted because of the belief that anyone can pay to be at the top. On the other hand, SEO has a more trustworthy image as a plethora of algorithms are in motion when it comes to placing a site on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Most importantly, using SEO is free and it can help you to attract an infinite number of visitors. Hence, despite the fact that it requires a lot of time and effort, utilising SEO is crucial for that reason alone.
Boosting your SEO through PPC: the How
Now that we’ve seen the advantages and disadvantages of PPC and SEO, let’s take a look at how they can work together to amplify the advantages of each.
- Reclaim your traffic
Before you spend more money on PPC, you need to make sure that your traffic isn’t consumed by other channels. That means that it’s important to have a clear overview of where your traffic is going, and that can be achieved through the use of Google Analytics’ Acquisition function.
Using that feature will help you to determine if your direct traffic comes only from people that type your URL into the address bar. If that isn’t the case, then you should fix it ASAP. Using the Google URL builder will allow you to fix the UTM codes and customize tags as well.
- Make sure to crowd the SERPs on branded searches
Improving your SEO efforts with PPC can be achieved by crowding a SERP with your own content. Covering more “ground” on a SERP will get you more clicks than you would usually get because it creates a more significant online presence for your brand. Having your site show up on the first page also gives you a good reputation and imparts the impression that your brand is a respectable one.
- Move expensive PPC keywords to the SEO segment
The most sought out keywords can be quite a nuisance. Although you know they will garner tons of clicks because of high search volume, they’re also expensive. So, instead of pumping more money into those keywords for PPC purposes, allocate them to the SEO part of your campaign. Not only will you achieve a higher ranking, but you’ll also save lots of money as well.
- Match search results with PPC
People that search for your selected keywords will be able to see both your SEO result and the ad you’ve posted. This is why it’s important to match the content of both. By recognizing that they look alike, customers would then be more likely to click your organic search result because having ads gives the impression that your company is more legitimate.
