While content marketing has proven to drive higher conversion rates and boost engagement and social media marketing is all the rave right now, businesses have their doubts about SEO. And, understandably so. Google changes their algorithm around 600 times every year. In addition to all these minor tweaks, the search giant occasionally rolls a major update, such as the Penguin one, that significantly affects search results. Keeping pace with all the changes and ensuring that their website is up to date with the latest amendments can be extremely difficult. So, a lot of businesses turn their attention to Google AdWords to promote their products and reach their audience. The service operates on a relatively straightforward concept: you purchase real estate on Google’s page and work to create ads that are relevant to your audience’s needs and search habits. But, here’s one thing most business owners are ignoring: your PPC efforts can have an impact on your organic ranking. In this article, we’ll explain how that can happen and what you can do about it.
Does AdWords Affect SEO?
If you’re looking for a magical solution to boost your SEO rankings, then here’s the bad news: there isn’t one. However, there is a silver lining. Although paying for Google ads doesn’t automatically boost your rankings, it doesn’t mean your SEO can’t benefit from it. AdWords can provide you with insightful data that you can ultimately use when crafting your SEO strategy. Its effects aren’t exactly direct, but it can indirectly help you understand what you need to include in your strategy to advance your goals and take your business to the next level. Here’s what we mean by that:
AdWords Can Help You Find the Right Keyword
Understandably, you probably have a long list of “relevant keywords” that you use every time you post new content, but have they been effective so far? If you want to incorporate keywords that will truly impact your content, then you need to test them first and see if they have any SEO value. AdWords lets you determine which keywords are working for you and your audience and which are just a waste of resources. For example, by looking at the bounce rate, you can identify the key phrases that are not worth using for future ads and content efforts.
It Helps You Optimise Your Content
Picking the right keywords is important, but your efforts will be in vain if you don’t optimise your content. Once again, AdWords can come in handy. By analysing the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) on your ads, you can assess which words, headlines or descriptions are most likely to be clicked. That way, you can effectively modify your content to resonate with your audience and persuade them to take action.
Google AdWords Has a Positive Impact on Long Tail Keywords
As you probably know by now, long-tail keywords should be specific to your business and explain what you sell or provide. Here’s an example: if someone is interested in purchasing natural amorphous silicon soil in Montana, that’s what they will be looking for online. They’re not going to type something generic like organic fertilisers. That is why long-tail keywords play such an important part in your digital strategy – they bring in buying customers. But for some reason, small business owners ignore them altogether. Keyword Planner also doesn’t seem to be able to provide much help with this issue. So a lot of businesses just stick to head keywords instead. However, AdWords can make it easier to find the right long-tail keywords, helping you target your audience and land some pretty profitable deals.
It Optimises Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting is perhaps the best way of determining the geolocation of a website visitor by showing data about the country or region, city, zip code or even the IP address. AdWords is an excellent tool for geotagging since it allows you to establish traffic levels coming from different locations. This information can help you determine what regions, cities or countries are the most responsive, and create geo-specific keywords to generate even more conversions.
It Boosts Your Online Presence
This one seems fairly obvious, but it’s worth mentioning it. By paying Google to show your ads, you are increasing your chances of people interacting with your ads and content, thus boosting your business’s online presence. As a result, your website and business get more exposure, and that can lead to an increase in traffic, qualified prospects, and sales.
It Improves Your Click Through Rate
It’s not enough to have catchy taglines or clickbait-style phrases to ensure you have a decent CTR. So, what else should you do? Well, Google AdWords can, once again, lend you a helping hand. Just like it can help you figure out how to optimise your content and keywords based on AdWords data, you can also update and improve your ads. The service already provides information on the performance of your ads, so you can analyse what is working and what isn’t. Closely monitor your ads and modify your strategy as needed. Use the insights you’ve gained to improve your organic content as well.
Over to You
It bears repeating, but merely paying for Google AdWords isn’t going to improve your SEO rankings magically. Online marketing doesn’t hold any hidden secrets that bring great results with minimal effort. The reality is that it takes work to see results. However, AdWords can positively affect SEO. It’s ultimately all about the data it provides. When you create an ad, the service provides you with all the information you need to learn about its performance. Moreover, it allows you to change your strategy whenever needed. But, what most small business owners don’t realise is that this data is vital for your SEO strategy too. So, it’s a good idea to closely monitor your ad performance and review if your efforts are paying off and then use the knowledge you’ve gained to improve your organic content. SEO and AdWords are two online marketing strategies that can generate amazing results if they are used as complementary tools. However, it all comes down to strategy. You need a rock-solid strategy to promote your business, which means knowing exactly what you want to do and what you want to achieve. Once you lay it out, everything else will fall into place naturally.
