Marketers understand that they need both paid and organic search marketing strategies in today’s world and age. With the right approach, these strategies can work together to amplify results. In this article, you’ll discover tips to combine paid and organic search marketing strategies.
We’ll explore best practices for aligning keywords, utilizing ads to support SEO and more. You’ll receive practical advice to develop a combined approach to paid and organic search marketing that suits your business goals and target audience. The guidance provided will enable you to create a customized plan for your business. Follow along to learn proven methods to combine paid and organic search marketing strategies for maximum impact.
What is Paid Search (PPC)?
Paid search, also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a model of Internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Search engines like Google and Bing offer paid search advertising programs that allow businesses to display ads at the top of the search results page.
When a query matches your keyword or product, your ad may appear at the top of the search results as a sponsored ad. Users then have the option to click your ad, which will direct them to your website. As an advertiser, you are charged only when a user actually clicks your ad. The price you pay per click depends on the competitiveness of your keywords and the quality of your ads.
PPC advertising is an efficient way for companies to drive targeted traffic to their website. Since ads are displayed based on a user’s search query, businesses can reach audiences that are actively searching for their products or services. The pay-per-click model also allows companies to set daily budgets to keep costs under control. With some optimization, PPC can deliver a high return on investment by generating qualified leads and sales.
Paid search or PPC advertising refers to a model of Internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad. It allows businesses to display targeted ads to audiences that are searching for their products and services. When implemented properly, PPC advertising can be an affordable and effective way to increase traffic, leads, and revenue.
What is Organic Search (SEO)?
Organic search, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), refers to the unpaid results on search engine results pages (SERPs). By optimizing your website content and technical elements, you can improve your ranking in organic search results. Higher rankings lead to more visibility and traffic from search engines like Google.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization focuses on your actual web content. This includes optimizing page titles, URLs, headings, content, and image alt text. Your page titles and URLs should contain relevant keywords, as should your content headings. The content itself should discuss topics that are important to your key audience. Images should have alt text that describes the image and also contains keywords.
Off-Page Optimization
Off-page optimization builds authority and credibility through external links and references. Link building, social shares, and brand mention all contribute to your domain authority. The more high-quality links and references your site earns from authoritative domains, the more search engines will trust your content.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can easily crawl and index your website. Fast load times, secure hosting, mobile-friendliness, and clean code all make your site more accessible to search bots. File names, image tags, and internal linking structures should also be optimised for SEO.
By optimizing on-page content, building authority through off-page optimization, and ensuring technical SEO best practices, you can improve your organic rankings and increase traffic from search engines. Organic search is an important channel for discovering and engaging new customers.
How do PPC and SEO Boost your Business Together?
Combining PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) creates a powerful synergy for business growth.
More Traffic
Utilizing both PPC and SEO strategies creates a powerful combination that drives more traffic to your website. PPC generates instant traffic through paid ads, while SEO builds organic traffic over time through search engine rankings. By deploying both techniques, you gain short-term traffic boosts from PPC and long-term, sustainable traffic from SEO.
Higher Conversions
With increased traffic from utilizing PPC and SEO together, your business gains more opportunities for conversions. Visitors from PPC ads tend to convert at a higher rate, as they are actively searching for your products or services. SEO traffic also converts well because visitors arrive at your site with intent. The combination of motivated visitors from PPC and SEO leads to a higher overall conversion rate.
Greater Visibility
Using PPC and SEO in tandem expands your visibility across search engines and social platforms. PPC ads appear at the top of search results and on social networks, while SEO helps rank your website organically on search engine results pages. With visibility in both paid and organic search, your business gains exposure to more potential customers. A multi-channel presence also strengthens your brand authority, as visitors see your business in more places.
Lower Costs
While PPC does come at a cost, combining it with an SEO strategy can lower your overall marketing spend. As your SEO efforts improve your organic rankings over time, your reliance on PPC ads to drive traffic decreases. You can then reallocate some of your PPC budget to other initiatives. SEO also provides long-term results at a lower cost than ongoing PPC spend. Using both approaches together allows you to maximize results while optimizing your budget.
Utilizing PPC and SEO together provides a range of benefits for your business from increased traffic and higher conversions to greater visibility and lower costs. An integrated search marketing strategy that combines paid and organic techniques is the most effective approach.
Tips for Integrating Paid and Organic Search Marketing Strategies
Combining paid and organic search marketing strategies allows businesses to maximize visibility, increase website traffic, and enhance overall search engine performance.
Repurpose, Refresh, and Reuse
To maximize your search marketing efforts, repurpose and reuse content across platforms. Create paid search ads using keywords and phrases from your top-performing organic content. Refresh outdated content by updating statistics, examples, and references to keep it relevant.
Focus on Search Intent
Understand why people are searching to determine the best way to reach them. Those with commercial intent may respond best to paid ads, while informational searches often prefer organic results. Align your content and campaigns to match the searcher’s intent.
Take Charge of your Paid Search Campaign
Review your paid campaigns to ensure ads are reaching the right audiences at the optimal cost. Look for keywords with high traffic and low cost-per-click, as well as low- performing ads you can improve or remove. Make adjustments to improve your quality score and increase traffic.
Optimize your Technical SEO
Technical SEO establishes a solid foundation for your organic rankings and paid ads. Ensure your site has a user-friendly URL structure, fast load times, and mobile responsiveness, and is free of broken links or redirects. Strong technical SEO will maximize the impact of your search marketing efforts.
By following these tips to combine paid and organic search marketing strategies, you can reach more potential customers and build a cohesive brand presence across search engines. Repurpose and refresh your best content, focus on search intent, optimize your technical SEO, and audit paid campaigns for the best results. With a strategic approach, paid and organic search can work together to drive more high-quality traffic to your site.
FAQ: Paid and Organic Search Marketing Strategy Questions Answered
What is paid search marketing?
Paid search marketing, also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. PPC ads are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) and other websites. The major search engines that offer PPC advertising are Google Ads (formerly AdWords) and Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads).
What is organic search marketing?
Organic search marketing, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), involves optimizing your website to rank higher in the unpaid search engine results. The goal is to increase the quantity and quality of organic traffic to your website from search engines like Google and Bing. Organic rankings are determined by search engine algorithms that evaluate factors like keywords, content, links, user experience and site performance.
Should I focus on paid or organic search marketing?
For the best results, you should leverage both paid and organic search marketing. PPC ads allow you to reach new potential customers quickly, while SEO builds sustainable traffic and brand awareness over time. An integrated search strategy that combines PPC and SEO can maximize your presence in search engine results pages, drive more relevant traffic to your website, and boost conversions and sales.
Conclusion
By implementing a combination of paid and organic search strategies, you can maximize your online visibility and drive qualified traffic to your site. Focus on optimizing your pages for keywords that align with your goals, produce engaging content that provides value for searchers, and leverage paid ads to supplement organic efforts.
Measure results across channels to identify what is working and continue refining your approach. With a thoughtful integrated strategy, you can get your brand found online by both search engines and searchers. Continuously experiment and learn more about your audience to develop an effective search marketing program that delivers ROI.