Bacon and eggs. Batman and Robin. Beyonce and Jay-Z.
When you think about some of the best dynamic duos of all time, certainly those come to mind. And plenty of others. But if you haven’t yet combined SEO and Google search ads, you’re missing out on one of marketing’s best duos of all time.
Think of them as the Watson and Holmes of the marketing world. This duo is one of the most successful methods of helping your audience discover your website.
This blog will give you the scoop on the basics of SEO and Google advertising individually and how they can complement each other to help your company reach your website goals and overall marketing strategy.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing tactic we use to help our clients’ websites rank higher in online search results. It’s a great long-term solution to grow organic website traffic and increase exposure for the search terms most valuable to your industry.
SEO strategy can include quality content creation, optimizing your website for specific keywords, increasing domain authority and creating backlinking opportunities. A website with great SEO will load quickly, include engaging and valuable content, be easy to understand and navigate and provide a great customer experience.
This tactic has both benefits and limitations. That’s why it’s important to understand that undertaking only an SEO plan may not help you meet all your goals. SEO should be used as part of an overall plan and in conjunction with other tactics – like Google search ads.
Google hasn’t always been the king of search engines. Before it was created in 1998, other search engines pioneered the way. But it didn’t take long for “Google it” to become a thing and reign as the biggest powerhouse in search engines.
Google search ads are considered “paid search,” also known as Pay Per Click (PPC). You (the company acting as an advertiser) pay for placement on Google’s search engine. So unlike SEO, which is referred to as “organic search,” Google search ads are “paid search.” And that means you’re paying for your results.
Even with ads, Google uses its algorithm to deliver web visitors the best content no matter what. The best ads and content win over less relevant ads.
Like with SEO, a Google search ad plan isn’t as effective by itself. It should also be deployed as part of a broader strategy and be used to complement tactics such as SEO.
On their own, SEO and Google search ads can produce impressive marketing results. But your goal shouldn’t be merely remarkable. Wouldn’t extraordinary or “so much better than I expected” be even better?
While SEO is a sound long-term tactic, Google search ads can provide a quick, short-term boost toward meeting your goals and increasing leads that could be converted into sales.
Brands that accurately and regularly track their rankings and organic traffic can strategically use Google search ads to increase visibility for important keywords, which can drive paid traffic to where they do not have strong organic ranking.
When used properly, SEO and Google search ads can work well together. Here are a couple ways.
Specifically, when creating a new website, SEO and Google search ads can be used together to achieve short and long-term visibility goals. For example, the new site obviously doesn’t appear high in search results at launch. So, we could run Google search ads and optimize the website for SEO from the jump to get the site up on its feet.
Over time, we can create content to get the site to appear higher organically (SEO) and then decrease the ad spend (Google search ads) gradually because now the site is appearing higher in organic searches. It’s an effective 1-2 marketing punch.
Google search ads can also be used to test consumer responses to particular keywords used in an online search. For example, we can create ads for keywords that we think may be good to use while optimizing for SEO. Before investing the time in creating new content with these keywords or updating old content, we can see how these words perform in paid searches.
We can track the customers who click on the ad and see how well they respond to the landing page and the rest of the site. We can also try to determine their intent to buy. Are they just starting their research or are they further down the sales funnel and ready to make a purchase? We can determine that based on the words they are typing when searching.
Keywords that demonstrate a higher conversion rate and engagement will become a higher priority for SEO optimization.
But this “keyword testing” can work both ways.
Keyword data from SEO efforts can be used to find the right Google search ad opportunities. Keywords with high search rates from an SEO perspective and increased competition – meaning they appear on many other websites – can be challenging to rank for organically. But those words may be good candidates for Google search ad campaigns.
When considering a sound digital marketing strategy, it’s essential to understand the advantages and limitations of individual tactics and how each fits into the entire plan. That’s our team’s approach.
Increasing website traffic isn’t just an SEO thing. Or a Google search ad thing. It’s both. Here’s a better way to put it: Peanut butter sandwiches are great. Jelly sandwiches taste yummy. But you can’t have a PBJ without them both. And that’s definitely the goal.
Contact us here to learn more about some PBJ marketing - and how SEO and Google search ads can help you.