Why should I do Paid Search before SEO?

Generate data from your PPC campaign to help SEO

A critical part of all well executed SEO projects is having robust keyword data identifying which keywords should be prioritised for SEO. This data will steer decisions around site design and redevelopment and will even lead to creating and adding additional content. There’s no point spending time and money optimising your website to rank for keywords that don’t actually generate conversions. But how do you know which keywords are the right ones to optimise for?

The easiest way to gather this data is by running pay per click advertising (paid search)) campaigns. PPC campaigns can be launched within days, target an infinite number of keyword variations and can be tracked extensively, ensuring complete transparency.

The key data that PPC campaigns can provide is which keywords delivered the right kind of traffic to the site – that is, the traffic that actually converted. With conversion tracking it is possible to identify back to a keyword level which terms delivered the desired outcome. A conversion is any desired outcome on a site – anything you want users to do. It could be:

• a sale,
• a lead,
• a registration for a newsletter or membership,
• a brochure download,
• completing an enquiry form,
• simply viewing the “Contact Us” page,
• or, anything else you can define as a desired user outcome.

As SEO is more of a marathon than a sprint (in competitive sectors, SEO efforts can take 12 months to work), you need to be sure which keywords you should be investing time, effort and money on optimising. Running a smart PPC campaign first with good data analysis is the best way to work that out.