Why Every SEO should know PPC
You can get away without coding. But can you truly optimize your SEO campaigns without using PPC. I don’t think so and here is why:
PPC is the best keyword research tool for SEO
Beyond doubt, the success of any SEO campaign mainly depends upon the keywords you have selected for your website. It can take several months to year to rank for your primary keywords. So if you ended up optimizing your website for keywords which didn’t generate the traffic and conversions as you expected then all of your hard work (along with the client’s money) goes down the drain . SEO mistakes are so costly that it is better to make some relatively cheap PPC mistakes by testing your targeted keywords first.
Lets say you have come up with some 750 keywords for your website after an exhaustive keyword research. Now you would like to know whether these keywords are really worth the time and efforts of attempting to rank for them. By running a PPC campaign for 3 to 6 weeks you can get a fairly accurate estimates of a keyword’s search volume and its potential to convert. No keyword research tool other than PPC can tell you how a particular keyword will perform for your business or the type of product/service you sell. The kind of analytical insight you get about your targeted keywords is unparallel.
PPC opens up a flood gate of Keyword opportunities
Search term reports are gold mine of profitable keywords. Within few hours of running a PPC campaign you can find out what exactly people are typing on search engines to find your website. This eliminates lot of guess work and brain storming sessions. You now know the keywords which are actually generating traffic and conversions. You can determine long tail keywords by bidding on broad match industry keywords.
PPC is an awesome keyword testing platform for SEO
Through PPC campaigns you can test hundreds and thousands of keywords for dozens of clients in few weeks and find out quickly which keywords and keywords variations may work well for your landing pages. Since PPC let you do precise keyword targeting (by letting you select geo-location, language, network & devices to display your ads on) its results are pretty accurate. Much more accurate than other keyword tool out there.
PPC can assess the effectiveness of your branded keywords
Should i optimize my website for branded keywords? Do people choose my client over his competitors? A PPC campaign can tell you that. Within few weeks of running the campaign you can assess the market value of your client’s brand. If non branded terms results in more conversions than the branded terms or if the branded terms resulted in little to no conversions/clicks then the client has serious branding issues. Bid on the competitors’ brand name. Does your client get any business? If not then either your competitors are very strong or your client has branding issues.
You can get fairly accurate traffic and revenue projections
If you have the actual search volume and conversion data for your targeted keywords then you can make better projections of what an increase in traffic/ranking for targeted keywords would look like in ££££ terms. Through traditional tools like ‘Google Keyword Tool’ you can do only very vague traffic estimates and can’t make any type of revenue projections. PPC let you present SEO project as a quantifiable investment to your client at least to a degree if not fully.
You can get instant feedback on landing pages
Through PPC campaigns you can easily find out which landing pages need redesign, which page version can deliver better results and what type of wording works. The cold hard figures (conversions) that you get from PPC reports can help you in justifying the cost associated with improvement in site architecture and usability.
You can assess the effectiveness of your seo strategy in advance
Through conversion data you can get a good idea of which keywords will work and which won’t work. Which landing pages and site issues require urgent attention. All this insight can help you in refining your SEO strategy.
Other SEO benefits of PPC
- PPC campaigns can have direct impact on the website organic traffic. Often people who click on the ads return to a site via organic branded search. I have found a considerable increase in organic brand searches through prolonged PPC campaigns.
- Running both PPC and SEO campaigns side by side can improve the CTR and perceived value of both organic and paid search listings as well as the brand.
- PPC can actually improve your SEO skills by making you more ROI and conversions driven.
If you like this post then you should subscribe to my blog and follow me on twitter
Other Posts you may find useful:
- Excel for SEO – Powerful Cheat Sheet to Boost Productivity
- How to do Site Speed Optimisation
- Ultimate Data Visualization Guide for SEO
- How to write a SEO Contract?
- How to Automate Event Tracking in Google Analytics
- Social interactions tracking through Google Analytics
- Google Analytics Account Setup Checklist
- SEO Contract | Sample SEO Contract Template
- Event Tracking – Google Analytics (Simplified Version)
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You can get away without coding. But can you truly optimize your SEO campaigns without using PPC. I don’t think so and here is why:
PPC is the best keyword research tool for SEO
Beyond doubt, the success of any SEO campaign mainly depends upon the keywords you have selected for your website. It can take several months to year to rank for your primary keywords. So if you ended up optimizing your website for keywords which didn’t generate the traffic and conversions as you expected then all of your hard work (along with the client’s money) goes down the drain . SEO mistakes are so costly that it is better to make some relatively cheap PPC mistakes by testing your targeted keywords first.
Lets say you have come up with some 750 keywords for your website after an exhaustive keyword research. Now you would like to know whether these keywords are really worth the time and efforts of attempting to rank for them. By running a PPC campaign for 3 to 6 weeks you can get a fairly accurate estimates of a keyword’s search volume and its potential to convert. No keyword research tool other than PPC can tell you how a particular keyword will perform for your business or the type of product/service you sell. The kind of analytical insight you get about your targeted keywords is unparallel.
PPC opens up a flood gate of Keyword opportunities
Search term reports are gold mine of profitable keywords. Within few hours of running a PPC campaign you can find out what exactly people are typing on search engines to find your website. This eliminates lot of guess work and brain storming sessions. You now know the keywords which are actually generating traffic and conversions. You can determine long tail keywords by bidding on broad match industry keywords.
PPC is an awesome keyword testing platform for SEO
Through PPC campaigns you can test hundreds and thousands of keywords for dozens of clients in few weeks and find out quickly which keywords and keywords variations may work well for your landing pages. Since PPC let you do precise keyword targeting (by letting you select geo-location, language, network & devices to display your ads on) its results are pretty accurate. Much more accurate than other keyword tool out there.
PPC can assess the effectiveness of your branded keywords
Should i optimize my website for branded keywords? Do people choose my client over his competitors? A PPC campaign can tell you that. Within few weeks of running the campaign you can assess the market value of your client’s brand. If non branded terms results in more conversions than the branded terms or if the branded terms resulted in little to no conversions/clicks then the client has serious branding issues. Bid on the competitors’ brand name. Does your client get any business? If not then either your competitors are very strong or your client has branding issues.
You can get fairly accurate traffic and revenue projections
If you have the actual search volume and conversion data for your targeted keywords then you can make better projections of what an increase in traffic/ranking for targeted keywords would look like in ££££ terms. Through traditional tools like ‘Google Keyword Tool’ you can do only very vague traffic estimates and can’t make any type of revenue projections. PPC let you present SEO project as a quantifiable investment to your client at least to a degree if not fully.
You can get instant feedback on landing pages
Through PPC campaigns you can easily find out which landing pages need redesign, which page version can deliver better results and what type of wording works. The cold hard figures (conversions) that you get from PPC reports can help you in justifying the cost associated with improvement in site architecture and usability.
You can assess the effectiveness of your seo strategy in advance
Through conversion data you can get a good idea of which keywords will work and which won’t work. Which landing pages and site issues require urgent attention. All this insight can help you in refining your SEO strategy.
Other SEO benefits of PPC
- PPC campaigns can have direct impact on the website organic traffic. Often people who click on the ads return to a site via organic branded search. I have found a considerable increase in organic brand searches through prolonged PPC campaigns.
- Running both PPC and SEO campaigns side by side can improve the CTR and perceived value of both organic and paid search listings as well as the brand.
- PPC can actually improve your SEO skills by making you more ROI and conversions driven.
If you like this post then you should subscribe to my blog and follow me on twitter
Other Posts you may find useful:
- Excel for SEO – Powerful Cheat Sheet to Boost Productivity
- How to do Site Speed Optimisation
- Ultimate Data Visualization Guide for SEO
- How to write a SEO Contract?
- How to Automate Event Tracking in Google Analytics
- Social interactions tracking through Google Analytics
- Google Analytics Account Setup Checklist
- SEO Contract | Sample SEO Contract Template
- Event Tracking – Google Analytics (Simplified Version)
About the Author: Himanshu Sharma is the founder of seotakeaways.com which provides SEO Consulting, PPC Management and Analytics Consulting services to medium and large size businesses. He holds a bachelors degree in ‘Internet Science’, is a member of 'Digital Analytics Association', a Google Analytics Certified Individual and a Certified Web Analyst. He is also the founder of EventEducation.com and EventPlanningForum.net.
My business thrives on referrals, so I really appreciate recommendations to people who would benefit from my help. Please feel free to endorse/forward my LinkedIn Profile to your clients, colleagues, friends and others you feel would benefit from SEO, PPC or Web Analytics.
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