Both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) are excellent tools on their own, but when combined they really complement and even enhance each other’s strategy.

 First let’s define SEO and PPC. SEO is the process of improving your website's ranking in the unpaid search results, known as organic listings, on search engines like Google. PPC are paid ads that appear in the paid results on search engines. Typically, the first few paid ads appear above the organic listings. By having both a paid and organic strategy, your chances of appearing several times in search engine results increase.

Another advantage of having both SEO and PPC as part of your marketing plan is that paid delivers instant results. As long as you are willing to pay the price, your results can appear toward the top of the page fairly immediately. On the flip side, SEO takes time. Think of PPC as instant gratification and SEO as the long game.

However, long term SEO is incredibly valuable and ultimately a free listing, whereas you will always have to pay to play in the paid ads space.

Another benefit of using both paid and organic in tandem is with key terms. While key term research for SEO is a moving target and often driven by what your competition is doing, key terms in Google Ads are easy to review with data from cost-per-click, impressions, and clicks. Essentially you can use your results from the paid channel to help direct your SEO strategy. If you rank well for a term organically you can also choose to bid less in your PPC strategy for that key term since you know it will appear toward the top of the organic listings. The same is true with the reverse. If you know a term is valuable but your organic results are not that strong yet, you may be willing to bid a little more on that paid term.

At the end of the day, be sure you are evaluating the data along the way. It’s important to not set it and forget it with either your PPC or SEO. Both need to be cared for and tweaked on an ongoing basis. The challenge with both is that they change regularly based on the market, the competition, the season, and other factors.

If you need help with your search marketing strategy, give Addison Clark a call.