Sunday, January 24, 2010

Learning To Improve Rankings With PPC


The more time I spend using PPC marketing, the more I find similarities between pay per click advertising and search engine optimization. PPC can be one of the most powerful tools for improving the effectiveness of your search engine optimization campaigns.  Here's how...

If you're already running your own pay-per-click campaigns, then you have already collected valuable data than can have a significant influence on the success of your SEO. The most important thing to know is which information is can be used to inform other campaigns and how it can enhance the overall results you're looking for.

Qualified visitors are those that have a higher degree of interest in your products or services and a greater likelihood of purchasing your products. I've often seen websites that have reduced their traffic while significantly improving conversion rates. The result is lower costs related to traffic acquisition and higher revenue. With more revenue and less expense, margins reach a new level of success.

The concept that I teach in SEO training is the most effective way to combine pay-per-click advertising with search engine optimization is to focus on conversions. What keywords have you promoted through pay per click advertising that led to conversions? If you've been running PPC for a while and you are still unsure, then consider expanding your analytic capabilities to include Google conversion tracking.

By looking at your PPC results, you can quickly find the keywords that lead to conversions. This information is golden. Not only can you use this to generate more traffic to your website, but you can also use this information to drive the right kind of traffic to your site. With the right focus, you can improve conversions and lower costs - because you're not attracted bad traffic, rather, you're only attracting the type of browsers who want your product or service.

One way to think about this is a company that's selling widgets. If they use PPC, they probably know that the term, discount widget converts the highest of any keyword term. As a result, they should be focusing their organic campaigns around optimizing that particular keyword. Once the phrase appears at the top of the search results, one can reduce the amount spent via pay per click and enjoy the benefits of targeted traffic.

After you've gotten more sophistication around converting pay per click terms and started an optimization campaign, it's time to focus on other elements that can help with conversion. One of the most important is your web site and landing page. Most people work to optimize search terms that drive individuals to a web site. If that's the case with you consider looking at your home page or web site landing page with a new perspective. Once a visitor is there, do you have a clear call to action? If not, consider revamping your landing pages to get browsers to take action.

Use what you've learning through PPC advertising to truly target your search engine optimization campaigns. By doing so, you can improve the quality of traffic you're attracting to your site and reduce your pay per click costs. Don't waste time optimizing your site for terms that no one is searching on or that never lead to conversion.


No comments: