Unlocking the potential of SEO and PPC or Google Ads to Boost your website as a small business owner in Australia is a superpower.
In a world full of debates and rivalries, from NSYNC vs The Backstreet Boys to Coke vs Pepsi, one classic discussion still persists: F.R.I.E.N.D.S vs Seinfeld. However, the battle of marketing strategies can be just as fierce.
Enter the realm of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Often treated as separate entities, many businesses fall into the trap of choosing just one. But in reality, this is a grave misconception, assuming that there is a single, magical solution that suits every business.
So, why not have both? As the famous Old El Paso girl would say, “Por qué no los dos?”
The truth is, by strategically integrating SEO and PPC, your business’s website can soar to astonishing heights on search engine results pages (SERPs). Buckle up and prepare to delve into the captivating synergy of SEO and PPC, as we explore their significance, how they work individually, and ultimately, how they can supercharge your website’s performance.
Ready to uncover the secrets behind driving organic and paid traffic to your website? Then let’s dive in together.
Acronym Recap: What are SEO and PPC?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a process of optimising aspects of a website to increase organic traffic and enhance its visibility in SERPs.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising involves advertisers paying a predetermined fee each time an individual clicks one of their adverts. This form of advertising carefully targets individuals already searching for relevant terms and generates traffic through top placement in SERPs.
SEO and PPC have several key differences (i.e. one is paid and instantaneous, while the other is a low-cost, long-game initiative) but they ultimately have the same goal: driving traffic to a website and increasing conversions.
These two strategies are also both keyword driven strategies, which makes their reliance on each other of particular importance. More on that later.
Ultimately, SEO and PPC have some form of symbiosis that requires a little more digging to fully comprehend.
Do SEO and PPC Affect Each Other?
The technical answer to this is quite clear cut; PPC ads don’t contribute to your site’s search engine ranking and neither does your organic ranking affect your PPC ads.
But due to the aforementioned symbiosis, the careful collaboration between SEO and PPC strategies can have a marked impact on your overall strategy. While SEO doesn’t benefit directly from PPC, there are lots of moving parts behind the scenes that can contribute to your website’s performance.
How SEO and PPC Can Improve Your Website
By now, you’re familiar with SEO and PPC and how each method works. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of how a strategy that includes both SEO and PPC can help increase your website ranking and drive traffic through your virtual doors.
Here are 9 ways that PPC and SEO work together as a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Keyword testing
One great benefit PPC has for SEO is that it provides a valuable way of testing the power or suitability of a keyword. This allows you to select a relevant keyword, monitor its performance over a shorter period of time and decide whether it’s worthwhile to use in your SEO strategy. If the results are not what you’d hoped, you at least won’t have wasted months waiting to see the organic results of the keyword and can more easily alter your approach. By testing your keywords in your PPC campaigns, you can get a better indication of what works (and what doesn’t) for a reasonably low investment.
Instant insights (well, almost)
With the results of PPC campaigns being relatively quick to see, it’s easier for advertisers and business owners to analyse the performance of things like headlines and descriptions. This information can then inform your SEO efforts, allowing you to base your organic content on the click-through-rate (CTR) and audience engagement data you’ve gained.
Finding the elusive ‘hidden’ keywords
Different buyers have different intentions throughout their purchasing journey and it’s not always obvious that their search terms might change. The three intent categories are transactional, research-oriented and educational. Through PPC insights you can modify your keywords and content to target users at various stages in their buyer journey, which ultimately gives you a finger in every pie and helps maximise conversions.
Audience insights and messaging tweaks
PPC and Google Ads campaigns allow businesses to test their messaging against specific demographics, interests, and behaviours. By analysing data like age groups, gender, locations, and interests, businesses can refine their messaging and gain a deeper understanding of their target audience. This information can then be incorporated into SEO strategies to create more impactful and relevant content.
Conversion data applications
PPC data can provide insights into which keywords, content and even landing pages are the most effective at converting to sales. This valuable information can be used more immediately in your SEO strategy so that your website is optimised based on the data that has proved most successful at turning visitors into customers.
Dominating the SERPs
It can take anywhere between months and years for SEO alone to yield higher organic rankings in SERPs. By using the two-pronged approach of PPC and SEO, you can occupy more digital space and increase your visibility as you wait. Because PPC ads, by nature, appear at the top of the page, you can bridge the gap between the top spot and your actual spot, increasing the chances that potential customers will click on your listings.
Boosting your brand awareness
PPC ads can act as a first introduction for many customers to your website and brand. When they click on your ad and visit the landing page, an image of your brand starts to form in their mind. This first impression (and click) increases the chances of your website turning up in their future related searches and the customer actually recognising your brand and engaging with your organic listing. PPC is a dangling carrot and SEO is the string holding it in the air; one helps grab the attention of potential customers and the other keeps them on the line.
Remarketing and specific targeting
Remarketing involves targeting users who have already visited your website. By drawing potential customers in through PPC campaigns, retaining their information and targeting them with tailored ads to get them back, you can guide them through the sales funnel. Combining PPC remarketing and SEO helps keep your website and brand in the mind of consumers (especially at times when they’re not), increasing the chances of conversions.
Tapping into new and underperforming segments
SEO takes time but that doesn’t mean you have to sit there twiddling your thumbs while you wait. PPC allows you to focus your advertising on underperforming segments (or new) segments of your business in the meantime and up the areas where organic rankings may be lower.
SEO and PPC: Working Together for The Greater Good
It should be evident by now that PPC and SEO are not either/or options but an opportunity to combine powers and cover more digital ground. Using both concurrently naturally results in more clicks, more website visits and more brand visibility overall.
At the end of the day, it’s not PPC versus SEO; it’s about using the best of both worlds to give you a competitive edge across your channels and reaching your audience at a time when they are likely to want what you have to offer.
If you’d like to explore the possibilities of SEO, PPC or some glorious combination of both, apply to work with us.
