As you track the return of your sponosred campaigns, remember this little stat. Based on some of our original research inside the mind of the searcher, we found that Organic results received the majority of clicks on a SERP. We found that the split between organic vs. paid clicks was as high as a 70%-30% split. Over the past couple of years this ratio has changed slightly, but the fact of the matter is, more people click on organic results. Now of course further research suggests that there are other factors that affect what people click on when they perform a query in a search engine. Factors such as:

* Blended Search Results appearing
* The phase of the buying cycle that the searcher is involved in
* Brand Awareness or lackthereof
* Type of keyword/phrase queried

Ah yes the all mighty key phrase. Depending on what the users types into a search engine may dictate whether they click on a sponsored listing or an organic result. So as online marketers, where should you spend your time? Organic or Sponsored? The answer quite simply is both. SEO and PPC work together quite nicely when establishing your keyword strategy for your online campaigns. However, how many of you have a balanced SEO/PPC online marketing campaign? When it comes to keyword strategy, something to think about when planning your keyword strategy is understanding where you are today. That is how competitive is the online space that you are trying to occupy? Are your "money" phrases hyper-competitive and expensive to bid on? Ask yourself if you can really rank for . Note: Prior to establishing your final keyword list it is assumed that you have performed research into your target audience and have identified the language that they will be using to search for your solution or product.

Keyword Strategy: SEO or PPC?

Ok so you have an understanding of your target audience and of what they may be searching for online. You’ve looked at some of your competitor’s web properties and you’re aware of what they are trying to position their sites for now what?

Step One: Determine the Genetic DNA Make Up for your Keyword Strategy - When you think about it, there are three types of key phrases. Head Phrases, torso phrase and long-tail keywords. You will need to establish which combination will work best for you in terms of being able to intercept your audience. How does SEO and PPC fit in? Well head phrases tend to be hyper-competitive but can drive a ton of traffic to your site. In this case, a simple SEO strategy may not get you the rankings that you hope for, instead you’ll want to utilize a sponsored strategy where you bid on some of these hyper-compettive phrases to drive this traffic to your website. Depending on your budget, the level of success depends on which phrases wil provide the best bang for your advertising buck.

SEO on the otherhand can be effective when optimizing your site for long-tail keyphrases that are more specific to your industry. These tend to be phrases that the user will type in a search engine when they are closer to making a purchase decision. A lot of times long-tail phrases tend to be less competitive, but they drive more qualified traffic. More qualified traffic to your site means more qualified leads.

Step Two: Monitor Your Exisiting Visibility - from an organic (SEO) point of view, monitoring your visibility in the search engines will determine where you draw the line between sponsored budgets and organic SEO for your site. If by chance you are lucky enough to rank in the natural search results for a relevant head-type key phrase, you may not need to put sponsored spend towards this phrase. Instead you can either A). Save this spend (which affects your bottom line as less money going out) or . Put this spend into other keyword groups or baskets that may require a boost. By monitoring your visibility, you will determine the right balance needed between SEO and PPC when positioning keyword visibility for your site.

Step Three: Consider Timing - Considering the timing of when to use PPC to boost SEO is critical to the success of any online marketing campaign. We all know that SEO can be very rewarding and that the results are longer lasting, but the fact is that SEO takes time. Do not expect to improve your website’s visibility overnight with SEO. So as part of an effective keyword strategy is understanding when to use PPC and SEO and when to use PPC with SEO. For example if you are planning a website redesign, you will want to use PPC to mitigate any risks from organic ranking decreases as a result of transitioning your website durning the redesign. For a period of a couple of months, you may need to use PPC to boost site traffic until the SEO and organic results are "revived". Also if your business is somewhat seasonal, you may want to boost sponsored spend during this time while optimizing your site for organic visibility. If all goes well, once you enter your "slow-season", you can reduce sponsored spend and time it so that your organic rankings drive traffic to your site.

Step Four: Revisit Your Keyword Baskets - for both SEO and PPC, you’ll want to visit your keyword groups and baskets on a regular basis. Your target audience will not remain status quo with their searching habits. Identifying the latest buzzwords that your audience is using is critical for obtaining qualified traffic to your site.

SEO and PPC work nicely together when establishing an effective keyword strategy. The key is to know when to empasize one over the other, or when to use when to support the other. SEO is effective when focusing on long term keyword strategy. PPC is effective when you need immediate traffic, together the two of them work to ensure that your site remains visible in the competitive online space that is the World Wide Web.


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