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Using PPC to Test Keyword Phrases For Your SEO Campaign
Get a group of experienced internet marketers together and you can start a heated debate by raising the question of whether PPC or SEO is the better marketing method. In truth, both have their benefits, particularly if you are pursuing an SEO campaign.
What is PPC? It is a form of marketing that will produce nearly instantaneous traffic to your website. PPC stands for pay per click marketing. The three major platforms for this are unsurprisingly found on the three biggest search engines. On Google, the program is called AdWords. On Yahoo, it is called Yahoo Search Marketing. On MSN, it is known as Microsoft adCenter.
I personally believe that PPC is inferior to a properly executed SEO campaign that produces high rankings. Does that mean that I don’t use PPC in my online marketing efforts? Of course not. In fact, it is the first thing I use in any SEO campaign and you should be doing the same with any of your search engine optimization efforts.
Why is PPC important to a SEO campaign? Well, let’s look at a common situation. I have a site selling widgets. I research the keyword phrase I want to get rankings on. After a year of hard work, I get a lot of high rankings that produce visitors to my site. The only problem? I get negligible sales. I just wasted a year of time and money to get rankings that do not produce profits for my site!
Running a small PPC campaign can help you avoid this result. How? When you first identify the keyword phrases you want to pursue in the SEO campaign, take a month or two to run a PPC campaign focused on them. Make sure to track the advertisements. As the traffic comes in, you’ll be able to see which keywords produce revenues and which keywords do not.
So, should you just go with the keywords that produce revenues? Well, yes, but there is a second step. Expand your keyword list and try new phrases. You want to identify as many revenue producers as possible and then incorporate them into your site. This will produce the most benefit for your site.
Once you obtain rankings through your SEO efforts, you’ll not only produce rankings – you’ll produce revenues. That is the point after all!
