Many e-commerce retailers often treat their PPC and SEO marketing strategies as separate entities. Sometimes, they even see them as alternatives, choosing to invest in only one at a time.
However, treating them as independent strategies is a mistake, as integrating PPC and SEO can help a site reach its full potential in search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO enhances a site’s organic traffic by improving its visibility and authority. In contrast, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising aims to generate traffic through carefully crafted and targeted ads on search engines, social media, and other online platforms.
Although they are distinct approaches, both aim to achieve similar goals. Furthermore, SEO and PPC strategies frequently support each other, sharing vital information that enhances the performance of both.
To truly comprehend the symbiotic relationship between these two marketing methodologies, let’s delve into their differences, similarities, and how they mutually benefit each other’s outcomes.
SEO and PPC: The differences
Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on increasing a website’s quality and quantity of traffic from search engines like Google or Bing. SEO techniques include content creation, technical optimization, link building, and other activities to improve rankings.
On the other hand, PPC advertising is a digital marketing model where advertisers pay a specified amount each time someone clicks on one of their ads.
While both tactics fall under the search engine marketing (SEM) umbrella, there are key distinctions between them.
Firstly, paid ads typically appear at the top of search engine listings, above the organic rankings, which are influenced by SEO implementations.
Secondly, advertisers must pay for the traffic generated by their ads, whereas organic listings obtain clicks through enhanced visibility achieved by applying SEO best practices.
Thirdly, PPC campaigns generate immediate results, be it awareness, traffic, or conversions. However, once the campaign ends, a site’s metrics often revert to pre-campaign levels.
In contrast, SEO strategies take time to build momentum, with businesses possibly waiting months or even years to see a return on investment. However, when a company’s search optimization begins producing results, the changes tend to be long-lasting and highly beneficial.
SEO and PPC: The similarities
Despite their differences, PPC and SEO share some commonalities.
Both strategies aim to drive traffic to a website and often focus on generating conversions. While one relies on paid means and the other on climbing the SERPs organically, their end goals remain the same.
Secondly, both SEO and PPC are driven by keyword strategies. Advertisers conduct keyword research to identify lucrative phrases for bidding and exclude irrelevant ones through negative keyword lists. Similarly, SEOs analyze relevant terms to optimize titles, content, technical elements, and other crucial on-site aspects.
With the differences and similarities outlined, let’s explore how using SEO and PPC together can lead to search engine success.
How PPC and SEO help each other
SEO and PPC often pursue the same outcomes, and each strategy supports the other, yielding gains in both campaigns. PPC aids SEO efforts by:
Maximizing SERP coverage
When a site uses PPC advertising, its ads appear at the top of search results, making them the first thing searchers see.
By combining this approach with SEO efforts, a brand can potentially capture a significant portion of the SERPs, with ads at the top and organic listings below. Thus, if a searcher skips over the ad section and goes to the organic rankings, they will still find the business.
This dual presence increases a site’s exposure, enhancing the likelihood of user engagement.
Furthermore, having a strong SERP presence instills consumer confidence that the business is reputable, offering quality products or services.
By integrating PPC and SEO, organizations can guide prospects to their site more effectively, encouraging engagement.
Keyword symbiosis
Both PPC and SEO depend heavily on keyword optimization. To appear in the SERPs, businesses must target the right words and phrases.
Brands that have optimized their sites for search possess keyword data that can inform their PPC campaigns, improving outcomes.
For those new to SEO, gauging effectiveness is challenging due to delayed results. However, since PPC campaigns yield immediate results, advertisers can identify profitable keywords and share that information with SEO teams to enhance visibility and traffic.
Utilizing keyword data from PPC campaigns helps SEOs understand which terms users search to find a company’s pages. Instead of waiting for SEO data, marketers can use PPC insights to adjust SEO strategies.
Once SEO results materialize, that information feeds back to PPC advertisers, elevating their promotional effectiveness.
Elevated brand awareness
When a consumer clicks a PPC ad, they are directed to a landing page where they learn about the business and its offerings. From there, they may explore the site further or get distracted and leave.
While this might seem disappointing, the consumer has become aware of the business through the PPC ad. In future searches for similar products or services, they are likely to recall their interaction with the company’s website and click on its organic listings.
As prospective customers become more familiar with a brand, they are more likely to engage with its organic content, potentially increasing traffic and conversions.
Ultimately, PPC advertising helps generate awareness, even if prospects don’t convert immediately, leading to more organic traffic later.
These are just a few ways SEO and PPC complement each other.
However, if business owners don’t know how to track and measure this information, the explanation is pointless.
How to track and measure performance
Different businesses have diverse objectives, and the KPIs for measuring these goals vary. Here, we focus on two common targets of online businesses: traffic and conversions.
A business’s SEM goals should cover details such as:
- The desired amount of traffic to generate
- The budget allocated for such leads
- The timeline to achieve the traffic goal
There are several critical PPC KPIs to measure, but click-through rates and conversions are the most important in this context.
By analyzing click-throughs and conversions from specific keywords, advertisers can determine which terms effectively drive desired actions and generate revenue. Keywords that prove most beneficial can be shared with the SEO department for on-site optimization and content creation.
From the SEO perspective, Google Analytics serves as the primary resource for measuring optimization efforts. Key KPIs to analyze include:
- Keyword rankings
- Time spent on page
- Organic traffic
- Organic conversions
Tracking these metrics via Google Analytics helps site owners determine if they are targeting the right keywords, if consumers are finding the site through those terms, if users find the on-site experience engaging, and if visitors are converting.
By measuring and tracking this information, PPC and SEO teams can collaborate to enhance the performance and profitability of each strategy.
SEO and PPC have much in common, primarily in driving business goals.
Since these two tactics are interconnected, retailers must learn to share information between their SEO and PPC teams. This exchange is key to dominating the competition in the SERPs.
