Paid search and SEO are two very different techniques, but their end goal is the same; to drive visitors to your website. And while running a PPC campaign compared to optimizing a site are quite distinct, the information gleaned from your paid search campaigns can prove to be useful for SEO initiatives. Here are three ways you can use your paid search campaigns to support your SEO decisions.
- Testing Keywords
Organic optimizations are driven by topical keyword selection and sometimes it can be difficult to determine the best keywords to use for a page. It is important to get this right because some keywords have different meanings depending on the searchers’ intent or their knowledge of your product or service.
AdWords ads are also keyword-driven and each ad has a selection of keywords that it could potentially be displayed for. If various ads for the same topic use different groups of keywords, these keyword groups can be compared.
By looking at the keywords with the highest click through rate and highest engagement, you can build landing pages that use the best performing terms.
- Insights from Search Query Reports
Outside of testing the keywords you already know and want to use, paid search data opens up opportunities to discover new keywords pertaining to your target market. When looking for new keyword opportunities or potential new landing page topics, review the search query report available in AdWords.
This reports shows you the actual search queries that were used to find your ad, and provides new insights into the way searchers are looking for your products or services.
To get to this report, go to the Keywords tab in your Campaign Management dashboard. From there, select Details > Search Terms > All. This will load a list of queries used to find your ad. Both exact match and broad match terms will be shown. For new opportunities, sift through and analyze the terms that are broad match.
- Testing Calls to Action
A compelling title and meta description can lead to a higher click through rate in the SERPs, but sometimes this is hard to directly test and compare in organic search. This is because you are limited to one title and one meta description at a time. With paid search, the advantage is you can run multiple calls to action at once and more often than not they are being served multiple times throughout the day.
This provides a perfect platform for testing multiple CTAs and seeing how they influence a searchers behavior. Once a superior CTA is found that has a high click through rate, this CTA can be used for the page’s title or implemented within the meta description.
Use Paid Search to your Advantage
Whether you are running a paid search campaign or just working on your site’s SEO, it’s always important to use both channels so that you can gain insights and data from each. Paid search allows you to test calls to action and new keywords much faster and this will increase the speed at which you can improve your SEO as well as the quality of your optimizations.