The Winning Combo: How SEO and PPC Work Better Together

The endless debate rages on. Should you focus your efforts on paid search marketing or organic search optimization? Many businesses allocate budget to PPC ads for immediate results. But an overreliance on paid campaigns comes with risks. When the budget runs dry, traffic can vanish overnight.

The key is finding the right balance between PPC and SEO. Because leveraging both strategies creates a flywheel effect that lifts your search visibility to new heights.

Setting SEO and PPC Goals

Laying out your overall business goals upfront is key to informing your SEO and PPC strategy. Consider questions like:

• What are your measurable KPIs? Revenue, leads, customer acquisition cost?
• Who is your target customer and where are you aiming to attract them from?
• What is the objective of your site’s search presence and campaigns?

With your goals in mind, establish performance benchmarks to track success, like traffic volume, SEM conversion rates, effective cost-per-acquisition and more.

Local SEO Opportunities

For businesses reliant on local traffic, optimizing your local search presence is critical. Here are actionable tactics to improve local SEO:

Step-by-Step Google My Business Optimization

Google My Business (GMB) profiles power the local business results known as the local 3-pack and map listings. Completely optimizing your GMB listing is crucial for visibility. Follow these steps:

• Sign up for a free GMB account and verify your business locations. This gives you access to edit the listings.
• Fill out your business name, address and phone number accurately. This must match your local citations and listings on other sites.
• Upload high-quality photos of your business exterior, interior, products, services, and staff. Include descriptive captions.
• Thoroughly complete all attributes like business type, payment options, and services offered. More details help Google understand your business.
• Double check accuracy of all information and update anything out of date.

Regularly monitor and update your GMB insights, photos, posts and other dynamic content to engage local searchers.

Top Local Citation Sources

List your business name, address, and phone number consistently across major local data aggregators to reinforce your NAP details. Key platforms include:

• Yelp
• Facebook Local Business Page
• Apple Maps
• Bing Local
• Yellow Pages
• Foursquare
• Tripadvisor
• Citysearch

Register verified listings on any widely-used local platforms relevant for your niche. The more data sources that have your accurate NAP, the stronger your local SEO foundation.

Craft Hyperlocal Content

Create blog and social media content optimized around community-specific keywords that residents are searching. Tactics include:

• Profile key locations within your service area like parks, schools, landmarks
• Mention neighborhood names, streets and geographic areas
• Highlight notable local community events and activities
• Link to local partners and influencers
• Share local imagery and geo-tagged social posts

This hyperlocal content better connects your brand to the surrounding community.

Earn Local Links & Partnerships

Pursue blog placements, sponsorships and directory links from trusted local sites. Reach out to:

• Local chapters of national charities and nonprofits
• Nearby educational institutions
• Relevant local professional associations
• Neighborhood publications and blogs
• Local sports teams and event venues

Getting links from these authoritative community domains signals your prominence locally.

Following comprehensive local SEO best practices tailored to your specific community and audience helps drive more quality traffic from local searchers who are ready to buy.

The Immediate Power of PPC

PPC ads offer instant gratification. As soon as your ads are approved, they can start driving targeted visitors to your site through search engines like Google Ads.

The benefits of pay-per-click advertising include:

• Precision targeting – You control exactly which keywords, and audience segments you want to reach. Targeting can be adjusted in real-time.
• Complete control – Your ads appear prominently at the top of SERPs whenever your keywords are searched. You’re not beholden to organic rankings.
• Fast results – See an instant bump in website traffic as soon as your PPC campaigns launch. Ideal for time-sensitive promotions.
• Testing agility – Compare different ad copies and landing pages to optimize your PPC strategy. Easy to pivot approaches based on performance data.

For lead generation goals with tight deadlines, new product launches, or limited-time sales, focusing ad budget on PPC makes perfect sense. The sheer speed and targeting precision is extremely valuable.

But for long-term, sustainable growth, PPC is only one piece of the puzzle…

Why You Can’t Ignore SEO

Here’s the catch. Buying visits through paid ads is an inherently temporary strategy. The traffic only flows as long as your budget holds out.

This is where SEO comes in. By focusing on long-term organic search rankings, you can earn targeted visits indefinitely.

The advantages of an SEO approach include:

• Cost-effective – Organic traffic is essentially free once you earn those coveted rankings.
• 24/7 exposure – Your pages are visible and accessible by searchers around the clock.
• Trust and authority – High SERP rankings signal to searchers that your content is authoritative and credible.
• Lasting results – Unlike PPC, your rankings and traffic will remain as long as you maintain your site’s optimization.

Relying solely on PPC with no SEO plan is incredibly risky. Just ask the many businesses who poured budget into Google Ads only to see their traffic evaporate when that budget ran dry.

SEO takes patience, but the long-term gains are well worth the effort.

SEO and PPC: The Perfect Partnership

Once you understand the unique benefits of both paid and organic search, it becomes clear. SEO and PPC work better together in perfect harmony.

Some key advantages of aligning PPC and SEO efforts include:

• Data-fueled PPC – SEO keyword research uncovers high-potential terms to maximize PPC ad relevance. Ongoing optimization based on organic performance makes paid campaigns more efficient.
• Budget boost – Earning SEO rankings means paying less for PPC clicks on those terms. More visibility from organic listings means your budget goes further.
• Depth and breadth – SEO and PPC combined equal complete visibility across both organic and paid results. You capture more qualified searchers in aggregate.
• Optimal user experience – Shared focus on relevance, intent matching, and quality content improves satisfaction across multiple touchpoints.

Thousands of brands can attest to the power of SEO and PPC working synergistically to drive growth. For example:

Case os success: 💹 Traffic Growth from Aligned Efforts

A national retailer of outdoor gear saw a 26% increase in organic site traffic within 6 months of consolidating their SEO and PPC efforts under our management. We aligned keyword targeting across paid and organic channels which lifted paid search clicks by 11% and improved cost efficiency.

Case of success: 💹 Lower Cost-Per-Conversion

A nonprofit organization aiming to increase donations reduced their cost-per-donation by 89% over a 5 month period by leveraging our SEO keyword data to inform their PPC keyword bids and campaign targeting. Focusing paid budget on commercial terms with emerging organic visibility proved a winning strategy.

Case of success: 💹 Higher Quality Leads

A SaaS technology company increased inbound lead quality by 46% by emphasizing long-tail informational keywords aligned to top-funnel content with both SEO and PPC campaigns. The additional context and relevance drove more sales-ready leads.

Case of success: 💹 Revenue Growth from United Strategy

An ecommerce retailer selling home goods saw a 20% increase in online revenue within a year of adopting our integrated approach to SEO and PPC. The compounding benefits of increased organic visibility and optimized paid ads working together had an exponential impact on bottom line sales.

Clearly, blending SEO and PPC amplifies results exponentially. Now let’s break down some best practices for implementation.

Laying the SEO Groundwork

Start by optimizing key technical elements on-site to create a solid SEO foundation.

Target Page Speeds Under 2.2 Seconds

Leverage tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom to assess current page load times. Identify any slow-loading elements.

Optimize images, enable compression, and leverage browser caching to accelerate speeds. CDNs like Cloudflare also improve performance.

Eliminate Render-Blocking JavaScript

Render-blocking JS can delay page load and impact user experience. Defer non-essential JS by adding async tags and moving scripts to the end of pages when possible.

Compress Text Resources

Compressing text-based elements like HTML, CSS, JS and JSON through gzip or Brotli compression streamlines file sizes. Most modern CMSs handle compression automatically.

Mobile-First Indexing

With mobile usage dominating, Google indexes the mobile version of sites by default. Ensure the mobile experience is free of interstitials, pop-ups or other frictions.

Optimize Image File Sizes

Large image files slow down load times. Use tools like Compress-or-Die, TinyPNG or Squoosh to compress images without sacrificing quality.

Fix Crawl-Wasting Redirects

Review server logs and test tool reports to identify any unnecessary redirects wasting crawl budget. Eliminate these to improve crawler efficiency.

Tackling these technical optimizations builds a speedy, search-ready foundation for both users and bots, bolstering SEO.

Master Keyword Research

Thorough keyword research provides the fuel for an integrated SEO and PPC strategy. Follow these steps:

Brainstorm Keyword Ideas

Use free association tools like UberSuggest to generate related keywords and phrases around your products, services and content topics.

Think expansively about different word variations and long-tail keyword opportunities. Cast a wide initial net.

Assess Volume and Competition

Next, take your extensive keyword list and run it through Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Or import into paid keyword research tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush.

This allows you to assess monthly search volume and keyword difficulty scores for each term. Look for hidden gems with good volume but lower competition.

Organize into Buckets

Sort keywords into groups based on search volume and difficulty:

• Head terms – High volume, highly competitive keywords like “email marketing”
• Torso terms – Medium difficulty keywords with decent search volume like “small business email marketing”
• Long-tail keywords – More niche low competition terms like “email marketing templates for startups”

Align to Business Goals

Take into account your target customer profiles, funnel stages, and conversion goals.

Prioritize keyword groups that align to your objectives, like informational keywords for top-funnel education or more commercial terms for bottom-funnel purchases.

Select Target Keywords

Based on the data, choose your target keyword list balancing volume, competitiveness, search intent, and business goals.

This becomes your master list to integrate into content, campaigns, and tracking.

Conduct keyword research on a quarterly basis to catch new opportunities and align to evolving business priorities. Refine and expand your targets continually.

Content Creates the Cornerstone

Your website content fuels organic search success. To attract searchers and search engines:

• Optimize existing assets – Refresh old content with keywords. Improve page speed and navigation.
• Produce new content – Create fresh blog posts, guides, and videos aligned to target keywords.
• Promote off-site – Distribute and syndicate content across social media, influencers and digital publications to earn links.

Keep producing high-quality, in-depth content optimized for human readers and search spiders. Which brings us to links…

Earning Links Builds Authority

The more high-quality sites that link back to your content, the more authority you gain in Google’s eyes.

• Identify prospect sites – Use SEO tools to find relevant sites acceptance guest posts or community content.
• Conduct outreach – Build relationships with creators and webmasters through helpfulness over time.
• Create linkable assets – Offer guest posts, data studies, infographics and other valuable resources.
• Promote brand mentions – Respond to references with useful info and links back to your site.

Patience and persistence pay off. A diversified portfolio of reputable backlinks takes time to cultivate, but elevates your rankings immensely.

Optimizing User Experience for SEO and PPC

As you build organic rankings and fine-tune your PPC strategy, never lose sight of the end user experience. Their satisfaction is the biggest driver of success for both approaches.

To convert visitors into customers and boost engagement metrics:

• Obsess over speed – Faster load times reduce bounce rates while pleasing both search engines and visitors.
• Mobile mastery – With over 60% of search happening on phones, an intuitive mobile experience is mandatory. Avoid interstitials and friction.
• Seamless navigation – Allow users to flow easily through site content with logical menus and internal link structures.
• Laser landing pages – When coming from PPC ads, visitors should see a tailored landing page aligned with the ad’s promised value.

When your content delivers real value matched to user intent, your money-making metrics will soar.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Driving conversions from your SEO and PPC traffic requires drilling down on your website’s on-site experience and conversion funnel.

Key CRO factors to optimize include:

• Page speed: Faster load times reduce bounce rates while pleasing both search engines and visitors.
• Trust signals: Feature customer testimonials, security badges, contact info prominently to increase credibility.
• Clear CTAs: Using action-driven language and contrasting colors, guide visitors to convert.
• Mobile optimization: With over 60% of search happening on phones, ensure a seamless mobile experience.
• Form simplification: Avoid overly long forms. Only collect essential info. Offer guest checkout.

Tracking the SEO-PPC Flywheel

To assess the impact of your combined organic and paid search efforts, you need the right analytics toolkit:

• Google Analytics – Track core metrics like traffic volume, audience segmentation, conversions and goal completions.
• Google Search Console – Monitor search rankings, clicks and impressions for target keywords.
• Ad platforms – Review PPC metrics like cost per click (CPC), clickthrough rate (CTR), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
• SEO tools – Services like Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz and Sistrix provide keyword rankings, competitor analyses, backlink audits and site diagnostics.

Analyze this data frequently to identify optimization opportunities and celebrate wins. Now let’s drive home the key lessons.

Top SEO and PPC Tools

With so many tools promising to move the needle for SEO and PPC, it helps to focus on proven solutions. Here are some of the top resources across key categories:

• Keyword Research: Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, UberSuggest
• Rank Tracking: SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Serpstat
• Backlink Analysis: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic
• Website Audit: Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, Screaming Frog
• PPC Management: Google Ads, WordStream

Take time to thoroughly evaluate tools and select those that best align to your program’s maturity and scale. Often, less is more when first starting out.

The Sky’s the Limit with SEO and PPC United

If your business depends on search to connect with customers, the proven approach is clear. An integrated strategy blending the unique benefits of SEO and PPC is far more powerful than either discipline alone.

Will paid search retain advantages for precision targeting and fast results? Absolutely. But a sole reliance on PPC is incredibly risky long-term.

The sustainable path is leveraging SEO’s lasting organic visibility to complement PPC and build brand authority over time.

As search behaviors shift and new formats like featured snippets emerge, the lines between organic and paid results will continue to blur. But for now, a tight partnership between SEO and PPC is your best bet for search marketing success.

Key points made:

• Set goals to shape strategy
• Local SEO tactics boost local presence
• PPC offers fast, targeted results
• SEO delivers organic growth long-term
• United they amplify reach and conversions
• Research uncovers best keywords
• Content fuels organic rankings
• Links build authority
• Optimize user experience
• Track data to optimize efforts

Don’t leave potential on the table. Audit your current search strategy and shore up any gaps in organic or paid capabilities. With the right execution, you can dominate the SERPs, no matter which results searchers click on.

The data doesn’t lie. To thrive in the ultra-competitive world of search, you need SEO and PPC working synergistically as a dream team. When appropriately balanced and continuously optimized, this all-star combo is unbeatable.

The partnership between SEO and PPC stands the test of time. As search behaviors shift and new options emerge, agility and optimization are key.

What innovative approaches will you leverage next to drive search visibility and conversions? The possibilities are endless, but a laser focus on the user stays constant.