Befriending PPC for SEO benefits

Pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) are widely used for search engine marketing, but are mostly performed in isolation to one another. The cross utilization of data is seldom seen, which if done, could potentially produce far better results.

The idea behind this post is to ascertain how best PPC can be used to gain useful insights, which when implemented in search engine optimization can help us derive improved results. Mentioned below are few tasks that can be performed better by using PPC to ‘test the waters’.

1. Keyword selection: There is no shortage of free and paid keyword research tools but the data presented by them is not always accurate. Many of us would have learnt this fact the ‘hard way’ – by optimizing for keywords that don’t deliver targeted traffic, or for that matter any traffic at all. It is a costly mistake both in terms of time and money.

PPC can be used to determine the ‘traffic generation capacity’ of keywords by mining raw data such as number of impressions for that particular keyword. This data can be extrapolated to predict the traffic yielding capacity of keywords. Optimizing the website for such keywords would therefore drive more traffic to the website.

2. Building a wider keyword portfolio: Every website has a set of core terms it wants to rank for, in addition to other semantically similar key phrases. High rankings for core terms will deliver maximum targeted traffic, but at the same time the importance of ranking for secondary terms cannot discounted.

By running a PPC campaign for core terms on broad match, we can identify keywords other than the core terms that trigger the ad. This will not only help in building a database of relevant keywords that are searched for, but also assist in ascertaining keywords that Google considers relevant to the core terms. Tapping these keywords along with the primary keywords would therefore channel more visitors to the website.

3. Judging keyword efficacy: As everything else in search engine marketing, not all keywords are made equal. It is a well established fact that some keywords convert better than others, but the only certain way of knowing keywords that convert better is to test.

PPC is a quick and efficient way to check the ‘conversion potential’ of both the primary and secondary key phrases. Optimizing your website for keywords that drive conversion is a sure shot way of generating more revenue.

4. Writing compelling descriptions: Meta description may have lost its importance as a ranking factor but plays a crucial role in enhancing ‘click through rate’ for organic listing. In short, it is the ‘ad copy’ for organic listing.

PPC can be used to test different versions of ad copies and their corresponding click through rate. The best performing ad copies, based on their click through rate, can then be improvised to develop Meta descriptions that are likely to attract more clicks.

5. Testing landing pages: A website that does not have the potential to convert visitors into customers is no good.

In order to create a landing page that facilitates conversions it will need to be tested, modified, and tested in an iterative manner. Since PPC has the propensity to deliver quality traffic quickly, testing can be performed without waiting for organic rankings and the consequent traffic.

The whole exercise of leveraging PPC to build a high performing SEO campaign has an additional bonus attached to it – you get the ‘best of both worlds’ and here’s how.

It is a well established fact that an online marketing campaign produces best results when search engine optimization and PPC are implemented in tandem, and compliment each other.

After initial spillage and fine tuning, the PPC campaign that is being used to churn data will start to deliver positive return on investment. Synergizing the PPC campaign with your search engine optimization campaign will result in a holistic search engine marketing campaign. This is bound to deliver best results. And our philosophy is - why settle for less when you can get the best.

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Google Slips in China

A new report shows Baidu.com Inc. increased its share of the search market in China's top cities, while rival Google Inc. lost ground despite continued heavy investments in its Chinese operations.

Baidu has a 69.5 percent share of the search market in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, up 7.6 percentage points since last year, according to a report (in Chinese) by Peter Lu, managing partner and chief analyst at China IntelliConsulting Corp. (CIC).

Meanwhile, Google saw its share of the market shrink, falling 1.1 percentage points to 23 percent.

Google's decline was offset somewhat by improved performance among students during the most recent six months. But the company continued to lose its older, more affluent users to Baidu, the report said.

These figures are likely to step up the pressure on Google China President Kai-Fu Lee to deliver results for the company. Google China has grown quickly, hiring hundreds of staff and moving into a new building close to the campus of Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University. But these investments have yet to deliver the hoped-for domination of China's search market and raised concerns the company expanded too fast in the country.

Those concerns came to a head in April, when Google admitted that a software tool released by its Chinese operations used a database developed by rival Sohu.com Inc. for a competing product -- a stunning admission for a company that is widely respected for the strength of its engineering operations and the caliber of its software developers.

The CIC report had some good news for Google. The company's efforts to strengthen its Chinese search capabilities are recognized by users, with 58.5 percent of respondents in a survey saying they'd noticed changes to the search engine. Of those respondents, 65.3 percent said Google's Chinese search engine had improved.

Other search engines also saw their share of the search market decline. Yahoo China, which is run by Alibaba.com Inc., saw its share drop 2.9 percentage points to 2.3 percent of the market, while Sohu.com's Sogou search engine fell 1.4 points to 1.8 percent.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been defined as a subset of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is a technique to enhance the organic search engine rankings and increase the online visitors for a website by incorporating various changes on and off the website.

SEO is an amalgamation of a number of activities. For a successful SEO campaign, some of the important activities are:

1. Targeted Keyword Research
Keywords form the backbone of any SEO campaign. A successful SEO campaign needs the right keyword selection satisfying the business model and objectives. Keyword research may be performed using various tools like Google Suggest, Overture Keyword Suggestion, Word Tracker amongst others.

2. Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis includes studying various competitors' websites and analyzing the strategies used by them to optimize their websites. This study includes the analysis of their target keywords, role business model and optimization strategies used by your business competitors.

3. On Page Optimization
On page optimization has the highest tangible value amongst various SEO activities. The website pages are tweaked and optimized for better search engine rankings. Some of the important on page optimization activities include meta tags revision, use of heading tags (h1/h2), image optimization (including size reduction and addition of alternative text), file renaming and optimizing the over all website architecture.

4. Off Page Optimization
Inbound links from thematically similar websites result in a high Google Page Rank making it favorable for search engines.

5. Technical Optimization
There are many technical factors that command consideration to help boost the search engine rankings for a website. Some of these factors include canonical indexing, custom error pages amongst others.

The aforementioned are only a few of the activities that lead to a successful SEO campaign. High rankings and traffic is an outcome of a blend of various Search Engine Optimization activities performed continuously over time. These further yield a higher ROI than most marketing activities that exist.

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