Using PPC data for SEO
13th July 2006
|
Many marketers make the case to use the intelligence learned in SEO to put into a PPC campaign. Such a strategy could be revising content on landing pages, changing title tags and description tags, long tail keywords, etc. Implementing these changes could have an effect on Quality Score, CTR, Avg CPC, Ranking, etc. For example, if there is a high traffic keyword, and/or a very expense keyword, why not optimize one of your webpages for that term? That way, you’ll end up saving a lot of money from Paid Search because of your SEO. Rather than going after the “head terms” first, you might want to give this a try on your Long Tail Keywords. Once your chosen webpage has been optimized for that expensive keyword, sit back, relax (not too long), and watch all that “free” traffic from that once-upon-a-time expensive keyword. Related posts: |
July 14th, 2006 at
Shimon, excellent point. It’s strange, but many SEO and marketing “gurus” do not utilize this technique.
First, in order to see how popular a keyword is, why not look at your PPC impressions. I know this is not the most accurate number … though sometimes it’s better than what you get from keyword traffic analyzing tools.
Second … before choosing a keyword for which you want to optimize your site look at how much your competitors pay for it on PPC. If this keyword is the highest in PPC cost … there is a light bulb for you. This might be a high converting keyword.
So, yes, definitely use the PPC data for your SEO. Shimon (The Hershey’s man), I’m glad you brought this up.
July 17th, 2006 at
I am a big believer in using PPC data for SEO purposes. Another reason that PPC can be good for SEO is the conversion data you get. You can use PPC to find the keywords that convert into sales the most and then target your organic campaign towards these terms. Too often when creating an SEO campaign, companies just target the high traffic terms even if they don’t convert well. PPC gives you a quick way to determine where to go instead of focusing months of effort in the wrong areas.
July 25th, 2006 at
There are a couple of challenges with using PPC knowledge for implementation in Natural SEO. First off it is possible your audience who is clicking your ads is different than the audience clicking the natural listings – we have to confess that the ads (even to the average user who does not discern them from natural listings) appear to be of a more commercial nature. The second and more important element to consider is that the ‘head terms’ will usually generate 97% of the traffic one is likely to receive anyway. These you discern prior to PPC, and based on the amount of impressions the keywords are receiving rather than their actual conversion rate.
As such one is as likely to garner the same knowledge regarding conversion rates from the amount of impressions specific keywords may drive – PPC doesn’t really provide a better impression. Also, conversion rates may differ on a monthly basis (especially if seasonal products are involved). It makes sense to construct pages to cover all relevant keywords, but optimising pages for terms that have few impressions is a larger risk than investing that energy on bigger traffic driving terms.
I guess the discussion is a matter of “intuition� verses “scientific rigor�. I’ve rarely seen a key term that isn’t relevant, that wouldn’t be considered a top driver – drive more conversions and justify its CPA than a top head keyword.