Just because you have a website doesn’t mean people will find it. That’s because right now, there are over 1 billion websites out there. That’s a lot of competition.
But that doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel. It just means you have to make sure that you have the right tools to help get your website noticed.
In the past, it was always SEO vs PPC. You chose one or the other. But now we’re pairing those enemies together on the same team because when they work together, they can pack a powerful punch to help your website get noticed. Here’s how.
SEO vs PPC – What’s the Difference?
SEO or search engine optimization is the process of gathering traffic on the web using natural or organic methods. Basically, if you use SEO yourself, it’s free. It’s all about using the right keywords, links, and making it easy for search engines and customers to find and use your site.
While it sounds easy and hey, who doesn’t love the word “free,” SEO done properly is a bit more complicated and takes some time to learn the basics and perfect.
PPC or pay-per-click is what it sounds like. You’re paying search engines to increase the traffic being sent to your website. This works by placing an ad on their sites to increase visibility. When done correctly, pay-per-click can lead to a lot of traffic and business, making the fees small in comparison.
Why It Shouldn’t be SEO vs PPC Any Longer
With so much competition these days, it makes sense to no longer think of SEO vs PPC but rather SEO and PPC as team players because the more traffic you receive, the better chance your business has of being successful.
It’s no longer enough to just rely on one method, but rather, to incorporate as many methods into your marketing strategy as possible. What’s exciting is that there are many ways in which SEO and PPC actually compliment one another. Let’s take a look how.
Why PPC’s Keyword Data Is Instrumental for Great Success with SEO
If you’re just relying on SEO to figure out what your keywords are, you might be leaving a lot of money on the table. The problem started when Google removed keyword level data in its analytics. All of a sudden, no one knew which organic keywords were working and which weren’t.
Which is why SEO vs PPC no longer works. You need PPC to be able to view which keywords are driving the most revenue to your site. You can also use PPC to target keywords that aren’t ranking organically…yet.
Also, if you pause your PPC in order to use those same keywords organically, approximately 89% of the traffic generated from PPC won’t be replaced organically. Using them in tandem just ensures you’re going to get plenty of traffic from both sources.
SEO vs PPC Works Against You When Engaging with Search Engines
Search engines can be both a blessing and a major frustration for business owners. On the one hand, you need search engines to help your customers find you. Other the other hand, they keep changing their rules and it’s difficult to keep up with them.
Which is why it makes sense to use keywords both organically and as a pay-per-click option. But why would you want to pay for something you’re already getting for free?
If you use the same keyword with a bid that’s high enough, it will only mean your ad is sure to appear near the top of the page when a potential customer searches for that keyword.
Since about 91% of people searching won’t venture to page 2 on a search engine site and approximately 50% won’t venture towards page 3, you want to do everything you possibly can to ensure your site comes up at the top of the first page of search engine results each and every time.
Using PPC and SEO together merely doubly ensures your keywords are working 100% of the time.
PPC Helps Reconnect You with Previous Shoppers
Not everyone who finds your site online makes a purchase that same day. Sometimes, people start shopping, place items in their cart and then mysteriously disappear.
If you choose to use an SEO v PPC approach, there’s little to nothing you can do to entice those potential leads to come back. We all know that out of sight often means out of mind. Which means you’ve lost out on business.
However, when you use PPC in tandem with SEO, there are opportunities to reach those customers and convert them into shoppers. With PPC you can purchase an ad from a website in Google’s network.
The ad will actually show those shoppers the exact same items they were thinking of purchasing but had abandoned in their cart. It allows you a great way to send an easy reminder for them to continue shopping on your site.
More Data Means More Information and Smarter Decisions
When you’re doing business online, it’s much more difficult to figure out what your customer is thinking. You can’t see them, which means you can’t engage with them face to face.
At a brick-and-mortar business, if you saw a customer becoming upset, you could approach them and ask them directly what was wrong. Now, you may not even realize a customer had a bad experience, you’ll just never hear from them again.
Also, because you’ll never see or meet them, it’s more difficult to ascertain and understand their shopping behaviors. However, when you no longer are adopting the old SEO vs PPC approach, there are plenty of easy ways to get a ton of helpful information on your customers.
You can gather a ton of data by using both SEO and PPC’s data and comparing them together. Data such as:
- Click through rates
- Bounce and exit rates
- Time spent on site
- Conversion rates
When you compare both sets of analytics together, you’ll have a much more accurate idea of what is working on your site and what isn’t. Which allows you to make smarter decisions regarding your business.
Since the results from your SEO campaigns take time to start generating statistics, it’s extremely helpful to utilize the instantaneous information that your PPC campaign will generate for you.
E-Commerce, SEO, and PPC
Most e-commerce sites are set up using SEO strategies. If you have a product to sell, you have to find the right keywords that will attract a customer to your site and entice them enough to buy the product.
However, Google now allows you to link specific product pages to PPC ads. What’s even more amazing is that the PPC ad will not only feature the product but often it allows the products reviews to be posted as well.
As if that’s not awesome enough, it also takes the customer directly to the product page meaning you’re more than likely to end up with the customer making an immediate purchase. Staying with the old SEO vs PPC model won’t allow you to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
Fight Negative Reviews
If you’re lucky, you have set up a great company that sells fabulous products and provides amazing customer service. But even when you do that, more than likely you’ll get some negative feedback.
If you stick with an SEO vs PPC approach, you only have one option in combatting negative feedback. Since people put a lot of faith in online reviews, you want to ensure you have every opportunity to do damage control when, and if, that happens.
If you’re smart enough to control both SEO and PPC then you have an opportunity to control your company’s visibility. Using PPC will actually allow you to control the conversation in the direction you want it to go.
Remember the Gulf oil spill? Everyone was horrified and angry at BP. If BP had relied solely on SEO, then they would have had little control in how their company was viewed.
Instead, they wisely invested in an SEO and PPC approach by linking the keywords “oil spill” to a page on their website that talked about their efforts to clean up the mess.
By ignoring the SEO vs PPC approach commonly used at the time, they helped control the conversation rather than allowing the court of public opinion to dictate their company’s future.
Social Media Visibility
Every company with a website also needs to be on social media. Your social media strategy should never just take an SEO vs PPC approach.
That’s because it’s now incredibly easy to use social media to find specific groups of people whom you feel are most likely to want and use your products and services.
Even better, the data that social media PPC offers can help you discover even more details about your customers. The more you know and understand your customers, the greater ability you’ll have to refine your SEO strategy.
Benefits of a Digital Strategy
Without a SEO Agency, you’re really just throwing money out the window. Throwing out the old SEO vs PPC approach is just the beginning.
Hiring the right team of marketing professionals will help you save time, money, and a lot of frustration. Contact us to see how we can help you develop a great digital strategy.
