How Do SEO and PPC Work Together?

How SEO and PPC Work Together

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, “search” often serves as an umbrella term for both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. Both funnel visitors to your website using the search engine results pages (SERPs). Both impact the search results users are even able to see. 

But many business owners ask, “Can my PPC ads affect my site’s SEO or vice versa?” Technically, the answer is no — having PPC ads can’t affect your site’s ranking, and your site’s ranking can’t affect your ads. 

Instead, you may find more answers in the understanding that you don’t have to choose between SEO and PPC. You can benefit from both, even on a shoestring budget. 

Here are some ways that the two practices can work together to attract people to your website. 

Increased Search Engine Visibility

The most obvious benefit of SEO is to rank higher (ideally on the first page and in the number one position) for one or more keywords that you’re targeting. But purchasing PPC ads for those same keywords with a high enough bid will push your ad to the top of the page a user searches for using that keyword. 

 Sponsored ads get top positioning on the SERPs, which means that targeting both organic and paid advertising ensures that your brand dominates the search results. Not only will you likely capture valuable clicks, but you’ll give the impression that you’re an established presence in a particular market.

Remarketing Campaigns

Even when your SEO efforts increase your website ranking, those same shoppers or potential leads can quickly change their minds. Price and product comparisons on other websites lead to shoppers leaving your website before they’ve made a purchase. 

To get these potential buyers to return, track the goods that initially brought them to your site and purchase ad space to remind them of these exact items at a later time. After all, it’s easier to click on an ad than to make an additional search for specific items.  

Keyword Testing for SEO  

PPC keyword data shows words that have already been searched, clicked, and converted. Needless to say, this information simplifies the work of creating an SEO strategy.

To test, simply choose a highly relevant keyword for your products or services and purchase PPC advertising for it. After some time monitoring it, see how your website performs and translate that into optimizing your site for that particular keyword or avoiding it altogether. 

Brand Image Control

Sometimes people write negative critiques about your company online. It happens. Thankfully, a combined effort between PPC and SEO can do damage control by controlling your image through visibility. 

You can begin to control the conversation by focusing on specific keywords and phrases. For example, following BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill, they paid for PPC ads linked to the keyword “oil spill.” They chose to create a landing page connected to BP’s site that showcased their cleanup effort. This can be used as your opportunity to tell your side of the story. 

Social Media Presence

Social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube offer targeted ads to highly specific groups of people. Using Facebook user profile information, ads can be shown uniquely to 20-year-olds living in Boston, Massachusetts who are interested in technology and motorcycles. 

The paid ads are precise and can lead to more highly qualified leads in addition to narrowing your overall SEO strategy.

Need help creating a marketing plan using both SEO and PPC strategies? 
Real results to improve your website’s search engine visibility, retargeting, and keyword testing are possible with our digital marketing team. As a leading full-service Internet marketing agency, our experts can work to establish your website’s presence using PPC and SEO. 
Contact our digital marketing experts at RLC Media to start growing your online business today.

4 Ways to Boost Your Google E-E-A-T Rating Right Now

Improve E-E-A-T

4 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Google E-E-A-T Rating Right Now

On August 1, 2018, Google rolled out its broad core algorithm update to make content more relevant. And several months back, they revamped their 166-page internal document—Search Quality Rating Guidelines—a document which spends significant time talking about how to create this relevant content, and about something called EEAT.

Put simply, E-E-A-T refers to expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Boosting your hypothetical E-E-A-T score will, in general, improve your chances of ranking well on the search engine results pages.

Here’s how you can start taking steps towards doing that today.

  1. Add Author Information to Editorial Content

Google Quality Guidelines clearly indicate that “Understanding who is responsible for a website is a critical part of assessing E-E-A-T.” In particular, YMYL (Your Money Your Life) sites, such as healthcare and wellness websites, contain sensitive content that must be created by trusted, authoritative experts.

On landing pages for products or services, Google’s guidelines suggest that customer support and business contact information should be readily available.

But for blog posts, the reputation of its creators is extremely important, especially when a website utilizes different authors or content creators. A “Low” quality score indicates that there’s no visible evidence that the author has expertise on that particular topic.

  1. Invest Time in Personal Branding

Raters are encouraged to consider reputation information created by third parties, which means that a positive personal brand is essential to compete with others in your niche. While reputation information isn’t always available for small businesses, large organizations are held to a higher standard.

If reputation and EEAT for the content creator are “lacking for the purpose of the page, the Low or Lowest rating is appropriate.” Spreading misinformation will only prevent others from trusting your reliability.

SEO experts also recommend fleshing out the About page on your website by mentioning all the publications on which you’re featured. Businesses should also fill out social media profiles and interact with users on their platforms in order to develop connections and trust.

  1. Remove Low E-E-A-T Content

According to the Google search quality guidelines, websites that use individual authors should be evaluated based on each post and page of the website. However, low E-E-A-T content on a single page doesn’t necessarily impact the rating of other pages. The trustworthiness and authority of your website and brand are also taken into consideration.

What it does mean is that cutting pages with low E-E-A-T content is worth the potential loss of short-term traffic. Instead, rework the page to boost your E-E-A-T score.

How you choose to rework and repurpose depends on your business and website. For example, if you’re managing a YMYL website, ensure that the content is curated by experts in your niche.

  1. Secure Your Site with Technical Security

Apart from quality content, backlinks and author reputation, website security ranks as equally influential to reputation and accuracy. For example, when users on an e-commerce site proceed to a checkout page, the connection should be verifiably secure.

Now that Chrome marks all HTTP pages as “Not Secure,” any site without an SSL certificate and that does not redirect automatically to an HTTPS URL is risking their E-E-A-T rating. Verifiable badges and certifications, such as BBB and Google Checkout logos, should also help earn a “Highest” quality rating.

Conclusion

The most recent changes to Google’s quality rater guidelines, and the core algorithm update, place authority, expertise, and trustworthiness at the forefront of site ranking factors. Starting today, take action to improve your SEO strategy and secure your position in search results by improving your E-E-A-T.

Contact our digital marketing experts at RLC Media to start growing your online business today.