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- Joining Forces
- How Does SEO Affect PPC?
- SEO Teams Can Utilize Paid Search Keyword Data
- The Importance Of URLs
- Bid Increases Should Be Reported On
- You Have Better Data Insight
- PPC Will Help To Recover Missed Opportunities
- You Can Test New Keywords With Less Risk
- Both Channels Are Needed For A Successful Digital Marketing Strategy
Many businesses and agencies have their own approach when it comes to digital marketing strategies. In recent years, business has changed significantly and with the rise in freelancing and coworking space, modern life has influenced business and digital marketing hugely.
Businesses who have, or want to have, an online presence always want to increase their ranking positions and get more traffic to their website. In order to do so, these businesses tend to invest in either SEO or PPC campaigns. These campaigns work in attracting additional visitors, increasing the number of inquiries or sales and boosting overall revenue, but what many businesses don’t realize is that by combining the two, you can further increase your online presence.
Joining Forces
Often, SEO and PPC work against one another, both believing that they offer the best service when it comes to increasing rankings and revenue, however, many agencies are now choosing to merge these campaigns together to get the best of both worlds. For example, both use keywords as the main focus for the performance of their campaigns, so it isn’t surprising that the two can be used together to get even better results.
It is important that, if you do decide to merge both your SEO and PPC campaigns, you learn to treat each element of digital marketing as a whole entity, rather than separate pieces, as this can be incredibly valuable for your campaigns.
If your business has decided to tandem both SEO and PPC for your digital marketing campaigns and you are currently wondering how to make the two work seamlessly together, then here are some things to consider and to be aware of once your campaigns start moving forward.
How Does SEO Affect PPC?
One of the first questions asked by those who are new to SEO or PPC is “can my PPC ads affect my website’s SEO?” or “does my SEO impact on my PPC ads?”. In technical terms, the answer is no - your site’s ranking doesn’t impact your ads and having PPC ads running doesn’t affect your site’s performance or ranking.
But, having said that, there are ways in which you can make your SEO and PPC work together to make your overall marketing better. Whilst there are no SEO benefits to running PPC ads, and vice versa, there are other benefits which indirectly affect the way in which your website performs.
SEO Teams Can Utilize Paid Search Keyword Data
The team working on PPC will have a lot of up to date and current keyword data and research. What they have is real data, rather than the guesstimates often provided by tools used by SEO teams. For example, when working on B2B businesses, often much lower keyword volumes are found during keyword research, if any at all. At times such as this, the SEO team can then use the keyword data from PPC teams to make important optimization decisions.
When SEO teams optimize on-page content with PPC data, this can often lead to lower cost-per-click results, which is because Quality Score, a Google metric used to decide an ad’s ranking, can be influenced directly by the relevance of on-page content.
Therefore, if you are choosing to run both campaigns, you need to ensure that your SEO and PPC team are communicating effectively. You don’t want to miss out on some excellent opportunities where your rankings could improve, or your ads can perform better.
The Importance Of URLs
Again, this is where communication between the teams is key. If your PPC team has decided to implement new tracking URLs for certain pages, or wish to create a new landing page for campaigns, then this may have irreversible damage to your SEO campaigns.
Generating duplicate pages, solely for tracking purposes, can cause a decrease in rankings for both SEO and PPC. Duplication is something which needs to be dealt with appropriately and strictly on a case-by-case basis - what works for one campaign will not always work for another.
Also, new pages created for similar topics may still obstruct success, even if they are not duplicated. This is because multiple pages shouldn’t rank for the same keyword, also known as cannibalization. This can occur when either the SEO or PPC team create new pages without speaking or consulting with the organic team on the other side. Any changes made to your website should be done so by communication.
Bid Increases Should Be Reported On
It isn’t unusual for a decrease in organic visits to occur when there is an increase in paid activity, but if this isn’t pre-warned, then these fluctuations can cause the SEO team to panic, particularly if they need to report on the decrease to a client. Of course, the same scenario can occur vice versa, so both teams should be watching their ranking increases and decreases and reporting these back to the other.
As well as this, any changes in search volumes or bids should also be reported. Both teams work with keywords and these can change frequently, whether due to seasonality factors or a decrease in user search intent. As both campaigns run and rely on keyword volumes, these decreases should be frequently monitored, with findings recorded.
You Have Better Data Insight
SEO and PPC teams tend to use different tools and data channels, meaning that whilst their results differ, they are both highly invaluable. By combining the two, you then have access to a larger data source, which can be used for decision-making purposes. You can also examine any similar metrics from both the SEO and PPC campaigns, such as conversion rate, click through rate, bounce rates and time spent on your website.
From this, you can then determine which keywords are going to be the most effective in generating traffic, inquiries or sales, or which keywords are sending visitors to your website which are unlikely to result in conversions. This will then enable you to make smarter decisions about your marketing strategies and changes to your site.
Whilst it is true that you can get this data separately from your PPC and SEO campaigns, by using both together, you can double the data and insights, thus enabling you to make smarter decisions.
PPC Will Help To Recover Missed Opportunities
Many businesses assume that if they are already ranking in that coveted #1 position on Google with a coveted keyword, then they don’t need to invest in a PPC ad which uses the same keyword. Why would you want to appear on the same page twice?
But, a Google study found that when search ads for a keyword were put on pause, around 89% of the traffic which was generated by these ads were not replaced with organic rankings. This means that pausing PPC ads could actually have a negative impact on your traffic, even if your website is ranking naturally and organically in #1 position.
When you rely on PPC, you are recovering interest and clicks from traffic which you otherwise may have missed. Even if your website doesn’t hold a natural #1 position, PPC can help you to attract traffic from those people who are looking for your services and products, often using a smaller budget.
You Can Test New Keywords With Less Risk
SEO often takes a significant length of time and research to get right, with a recommended minimum timeframe of 3 months before you start seeing results. Often, when SEO companies are approached by clients who want to change or target a specific keyword, this can unravel a lot of hard work for something which may not even work. One way in which you can test the longevity and viability of a keyword for SEO campaigns is with PPC.
One way in which businesses can do this is by choosing a keyword they would like to rank for, or believe they should be ranking for, and use this in their PPC advertising. The paid team will then monitor the results of this keyword and its performance and see the impacts on your website. If it performs well, then this indicates to the SEO team that it may be beneficial to optimize the website using this keyword. If it doesn’t work, then this is something that the SEO team will likely avoid.
As PPC tends to be inexpensive, this is a great way to test out new keywords and ideas, without the need of the SEO team investing large amounts of time and effort in modifying a website, for it only to not work.
Both Channels Are Needed For A Successful Digital Marketing Strategy
SEO and PPC teams should work together as they are both integral and necessary parts of online marketing campaigns. Both teams should work together in sharing their knowledge as they share the same advertising space: SERPs.
A lack of communication between the teams can lead to below-average results for both channels, which should be avoided at all costs. If joint strategies can have channels complementing one another, rather than competing, then this will always provide the best results for businesses.
If you are currently running separate SEO and PPC campaigns for your business, then it may be worth asking the two to work together. If this doesn’t seem possible, then it may be worth getting in touch with a local PPC and SEO agency who do both.
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