7 Ways To Integrate PPC And SEO Strategies

Intro

Are you still deciding whether to do PPC or SEO for your online business?

While you can go either way, the best answer is that you do both.

Combining the immediate results of PPC and the compounding effect of SEO gives your website the one-two punch it needs to reach your target customers.

However, since both strategies work on different principles, you need help aligning PPC and SEO into a cohesive strategy and campaign.

Thankfully, this post shows you how to use PPC and SEO in your marketing strategy. Doing so enables you to create a campaign using data provided by both tactics, resulting in higher traffic and revenue.

Let's begin!

#1 - Find Keywords for Your PPC and SEO Campaigns

PPC and SEO require you to identify keywords that you will use in either of your campaigns, if not both.

For PPC, you must bid for keywords you feel your competitors are bidding for. Once you successfully bid for it, your page will appear on top of search results just before the first page on organic research appears.

Following a keyword research checklist for SEO is different. Instead of worrying about how much to bid, you must concern yourself with how high or low the keyword difficulty (KD) is and how many people are searching for it on Google.

There are many tools to help you find what keywords to use in either campaign.

Using Ranktracker, you can see the KD, Volume, and CPC (cost per click) columns to help you decide which keywords to use for your upcoming campaigns.

There’s also a PPC column that helps you identify the ease or difficulty of bidding for a keyword.

For SEO, use the KD and Volume columns to decide which keywords to target first. Ideally, you want to find long-tail keywords, i.e., those with low search volume and KD, to optimize for your brand-new website.

From here, create aligned PPC and SEO strategies.

Determine which keywords to bid on and promote your landing page in the hopes of increasing conversions right now.

SEO lets you play the long game by creating content optimized for long-tail keywords with informational intent.

Let’s say you want people to learn more about your upcoming event. Instead of just creating and optimizing the event’s landing page, create supporting articles telling people why they should join your events and the benefits they’ll get.

From each article, be sure to link to their respective landing pages.

This method generates referral traffic from these articles over time once they rank on Google. Just as important, you provide more information about the event, convincing more people to sign up for it.

#2 - Improve Meta Descriptions and Title Tags Using PPC Ad Copy

PPC ad copy is written in such a way that people click on them since this is the only way that the campaign can make money off it.

Meta titles and descriptions serve the same purpose for pages that rank on SERPs as well.

Therefore, take a cue from the PPC campaigns you’ve launched and emulate how you write your highest-converting ad copy onto the meta tags of your site pages.

For example, if your PPC ad has a strong call-to-action, you can use similar language in your meta description to encourage clicks. Conversely, if your ad includes a specific offer or benefit, you can highlight that in your meta tag to grab users' attention.

Implement the techniques you employed in the winning ad copy variant when writing your meta descriptions and title.

In fact, you can also analyze your competitors’ ad copy to not only help your ad campaigns but also to write your meta tags. Spyfu is an effective tool for this process.

You can also see the different variants of ad copies through the years to help generate ideas on how to create meta tags for each of your pages.

#3 - Refine PPC Ad Targeting with Search Intent

Some brands target keywords that need to be narrower or more general, resulting in low conversions, regardless of how well-crafted the ad is.

To adequately refine keywords, you first want to know the intent of a search term you’re bidding for.

For instance, keywords that ask questions are mostly informational unless they come with the word “best” and the product type, such as “what is the best massage chair for neck and back.”

In this case, the keyword is commercial in nature; people who search using this keyword are looking to buy something or wish to make an informed decision first. In this case, both keyword intents are perfect candidates to bid for your landing pages.

From here, identify the kind of offer you want your landing page to have based on the keyword and bid for it on your PPC campaign.

#4 - Boost Search Rankings Using PPC Data

Let’s say your PPC campaign succeeded. Lots of people clicked on your ad copy and converted into customers.

However, you don’t want to spend another chunk of your marketing budget to run another expensive ad campaign.

If you notice that a specific keyword drives a lot of clicks and conversions in your PPC campaigns, you can create content around that keyword on your website.

To save costs, you can instead optimize the landing page to rank on organic search for the same keywords you used for PPC.

Granted, the page will appear below other paid ads and might not get the conversion rates you enjoyed while running it as a PPC campaign.

Nonetheless, ranking for this keyword at no cost is an appealing prospect. By employing this strategy, you can redistribute the budget on other marketing initiatives and get the most out of your resources. In the meantime, your landing page can rank on organic traffic and rake in traffic even while you sleep!

Analyze your PPC data and choose the best keywords to optimize your landing pages on search results.

Ranktracker’s SERP Checker feature gives you a bird’s eye view of the pages and featured snippets on Google for the search term.

If there are lots of featured snippets and highly competitive pages that appear here, best to stay away from this keyword and choose an easier one.

#5 - Optimize Website Content Using Landing Page Data

While SEO’s bread and butter is generating organic traffic rather than improving conversion rates, it would be a waste not to increase their conversions, assuming your site pages get lots of clicks on SERPs.

First, find ways to make users do something to enrich their visit to your site, even if the intent of the page is to inform rather than convert.

For example, include a form on the page to join your email list. If they enjoyed your content, they might like to read more about your other articles.

Next, get more page visitors to sign up for your list by employing your landing page data.

For example, if a particular landing page has a high conversion rate, it's likely because the copy and design resonate with users.

You can verify this by using your landing page analytics (or Google Analytics) to measure how many visitors the page received compared to how many became your customers.

While blog posts are different from landing pages in terms of design, you can still employ the same principles that made your landing pages a success.

Therefore, use the design and copy principles you used on your landing page on your pages with the subscription form.

Next, measure the performance of your page using tools like HotJar or CrazyEgg. They tell you which part of the page more than half of the visitors left and the page elements they interacted with the most.

Using this info, feature the subscription page just before the cut-off point where more than 50% of visitors exited the page. Also, ensure the CTA stands out from the page by using complementary colors for the button and form.

#6 - Coordinate Retargeting Efforts

Retargeting (not to be confused with remarketing) is an effective strategy for remaining top-of-mind with potential buyers who have already connected with your website or advertisements.

This strategy builds a more consistent and successful user experience by synchronizing your remarketing efforts across PPC and SEO.

For example, you may create retargeting ads that target visitors to your product pages. These visitors will then see an ad on websites they visit reminding them of your page and encouraging them to complete their purchase.

This approach boosts the odds of converting visitors into customers by employing consistent messages and branding throughout both campaigns.

Conclusion

The SEO vs. PPC debate has always been silly because it was never a competition to begin with; the best marketing strategies are born from using both.

Launching ad campaigns allows you to promote your landing pages and get immediate ROI. At the same time, you can develop an informed SEO campaign using data from your PPC ad results.

You can then use the results of your SEO strategy to discover which ad campaigns to launch again.

Using both strategies effectively with help from the tips above develops a continuous process of reaching out to more of your customers and target audience.