In today's digital marketing landscape, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Paid Search (Search Engine Marketing) are essential parts of a successful strategy. Each brings its own strengths, but when combined, they can significantly enhance each other's effectiveness. At Bluebird Media, we harness the synergies between SEO and Paid Search to deliver the best results for our clients. Here's our approach:
1. Using Paid Search data to inform SEO strategy
A key synergy between SEO and Paid Search is the use of Paid Search performance data to refine SEO efforts. By analyzing performance metrics like conversions and conversion rates from Paid Search campaigns, we can identify high-performing keywords that traditional SEO research might miss. This approach allows us to discover high-performing keywords, ensuring our SEO strategy focuses on terms that not only attract traffic but also drive conversions.
2. Managing traffic cannibalization
An important part of integrating SEO and Paid Search is understanding their impact on each other. Traffic cannibalization occurs when both channels compete for the same keywords, only one of them will receive the click, which is why it’s important to monitor traffic developments in both channels. This helps us ensure we are maximizing total visibility and not just shifting traffic from one channel to another.
3. Reallocating investments based on cost-effectiveness
Certain keywords can be very expensive to bid on. In these cases, it’s worth assessing whether it's more cost-effective to improve organic rankings for those keywords instead of relying heavily on Paid Search. This approach can lead to more sustainable and affordable long-term results.
4. Maintaining dual exposure for high click-through rates
In highly competitive industries, appearing in both paid ads and organic search results can significantly boost the total click-through rate (CTR). We ensure that for high-performing queries, our clients have visibility in both SEO and Paid Search, which helps protect their click share.
5. Using Paid Search for SEO testing
One of the advantages of Paid Search is the ability to test keywords quickly and adjust strategies based on immediate performance data. Bluebird Media uses Paid Search as a testing ground for SEO. By running Paid Search campaigns for potential keywords, we can see which ones perform well and then focus our SEO efforts on those, minimizing the risk of investing in ineffective keywords which is a waste of resources and time.
Furthermore, we can use the performance data to test different landing pages (helping us prioritize if there are internal organic competition across pages) and to evaluate which ad copy works best, to be used in titles and meta descriptions.
6. Optimizing landing pages for both SEO and Paid Search
Landing page optimization is a key area where SEO and Paid Search intersect. We use both performance metric data and Google Ads' landing page score data, to improve the relevance and quality of landing pages. This not only enhances Paid Search performance by improving Quality Scores and lowering CPC but also boosts SEO rankings by better aligning with user intent.
Bonus Point - Should you be visible on your brand?
This is a highly debated topic with various opinions. While many in the industry emphasize the benefits of using brand ads to control messaging, we believe that if no competitors or resellers are appearing on your brand terms and the organic search results are clear of negative PR or links that could redirect traffic and affect purchase decisions, it may not be necessary to advertise on your brand. Instead, save the money and allocate it elsewhere, as users are likely to click on your organic result.
You can monitor this by comparing your aggregated CTR (Paid CTR + Organic CTR) before and after pausing ads.
Conclusion
By strategically combining SEO and Paid Search efforts, we can maximize visibility, attract cost-effective traffic, and boost conversions. Although the mechanisms behind organic and paid search results differ significantly, they appear together on the same search engine results page. This overlap makes it essential for SEO and Paid Search to work in harmony, ensuring that both channels contribute to a unified and effective digital marketing strategy.