When it comes to pay per click advertising, there is one company that provides an industry leading interface and series of great complimentary tools – Google!
The google adwords system has been around for many years now and is the largest of its type in the world. The total ad revenues from google products was $28 billion in 2010 and a lot of this came from adwords. Both small and large companies find the system easy to use and control. What’s more, you can spend as much or as little as you wish and spread it over a short or long period. So, how can this type of ppc advertising help your SEO effort?
Well, the first thing to consider is how the placement of google ads next to organic search listings can influence clicks on both. It is estimated that if you have a top three position in the organic results and have a relevant ad facing it, the click through rate on the ad can increase by 25%. Of course, this kind of strategic placement takes a bit of planning and you’ll have to tweak your PPC values to see the movements. Now, a lot of people ask me, “why would we want to pay for this click when we already have a decent position in the organic search list?”
I can say that it is really all about capturing a potential customer from one or the other. If you have a ppc ad and an organic search listing on the same page then this can only have a positive effect – which ever way you look at it! There is no doubt that google ads will affect clicks on organic results and vica versa, Therefore, it all seems to even itself out in the end. What’s more, it is all good publicity for you, your brand and your products.
There are various conspiracy theories to suggest that google will automatically boost your organic results if you use ppc ads through their google adwords service. I for one do not agree with this theory, as it would not make any sense for them to use this tactic. They would lose credibility very quickly and the bottom would fall out of their business! It would also be almost impossible to track and even it could be done this would leave a trail!
The only other way that ppc ads through google can help your seo is in the way you can test your keywords. You can choose your keywords and then create ads based on those. You then place them, let them run and track conversions using the google analytics tool. If these keywords generated a decent ROI then you can work extra hard on getting them as far up the organic search results as you can. There is no doubt that certain keywords will entice potential customers more than other and this is a great way to test them. I would suggest that you try this with a variety of your product and application keywords and analyse the data closely.
This is the clearest way to see how ppc can help your seo effort and to ensure a good long-term ROI for you main website pages.