Does your company’s website really need to be listed in both the organic or “natural” search results as well as the paid “sponsored” results? The answer is a most definite “yes”. After talking to a lot of other SEO experts, we all tend to agree that a combined approach—one that relies on both organic search engine rankings and paid listings—works best.
How Can You Get Higher Click-Thru Ratios?
According to recent research, (I will quote and talk about the research in the presentation), websites that are listed at the top of the organic search results and the paid listings will triple their click-thru ratio. Three times more people will visit your website if it is listed in both places because there is a “second opinion effect”. Searchers see both listings and are encouraged by the fact that a website is listed in both the organic listings and the paid listings.
This effect stems from the psychological reassurance that comes from seeing a brand in multiple places. When searchers see your site not only ranking organically but also appearing in paid ads, it reinforces the idea that your brand is credible, trusted, and dominant in your industry. It’s like encountering a familiar face twice, which builds confidence and makes searchers more likely to click on your link.
Does This Mean Greater Penetration of Search Results?
By optimizing your website’s content to rank well in the organic search results, your website can be found for many keyword phrases and combinations of keywords. Good organic search engine rankings typically take months to achieve, and are fairly easy to maintain on an ongoing basis. Pay-per-click (PPC) can be implemented quickly—it can also be turned on and off as needed, depending on your company’s budget and current promotions.
By appearing in both organic and paid listings, you’re essentially covering all your bases. Organic rankings give you the long-term visibility and authority, while paid ads give you the flexibility to target specific keywords, audiences, and campaigns in real-time. This dual approach increases the likelihood that your website will appear in front of potential customers regardless of how they’re searching—whether they prefer clicking on ads or scrolling through organic results. This broader exposure leads to greater penetration of search results, which can have a substantial impact on your brand’s visibility and lead generation.
Should You Perform More Keyword Research?
Keyword research tells you how many people per day search for what keyword terms. There are many tools available that allow you to perform keyword research even before you achieve organic search engine rankings or start a PPC campaign. Once organic search engine rankings are achieved, keyword research using existing website statistic data allows you to enhance your listing of keywords—you can combine your organic keyword list with your PPC keyword list to focus on the keyword phrases that bring you the best ROI. If you start a PPC program before your organic rankings are achieved, then you can use the PPC data to enhance your organic ranking efforts—focus on keywords that are giving you a better conversion rate and more qualified traffic to your site.
In addition, keyword research isn’t a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process that should evolve as your business grows and trends change. PPC data can provide valuable insights into what keywords are performing well in real-time, giving you a competitive edge when updating your organic strategy. On the flip side, your organic rankings can help identify high-value keywords that you can push further through PPC to gain even more visibility. In this way, both efforts complement each other, helping you refine your overall keyword strategy to target highly relevant terms that convert better.
Build Credibility
Organic search engine rankings provide very high levels of credibility and broad coverage on potentially every search engine worldwide. When a website is listed well in the organic search results, the website usually is found for not only their chosen keywords but many combinations of keyword phrases related to those chosen keywords. It’s those other combinations of related keywords that bring a website a lot of more visibility in the search results, frequently causing a website to appear to be found “for everything” related to a certain industry. The results can be staggering—a properly optimized website can appear in the search results more often and for more related keywords than a company who has not done any organic search optimization.
Appearing in paid results also helps to build credibility. Even if searchers don’t click on your paid ad, they are exposed to your brand, creating brand recall. This type of brand exposure is invaluable, especially when it comes to building familiarity and trust. Paid listings provide visibility for keywords that may not be easily obtainable through organic search optimization alone—either because the competition is too high or the keywords are too niche.
In competitive markets, PPC can help bridge the gap where organic rankings may take time or effort to reach the top. This combination helps to ensure that your company’s website is visible across a wider range of potential customers. And even if a searcher doesn’t click immediately, seeing your brand in multiple places reinforces the impression that your company is a leading player in its field. Over time, this can enhance your company’s credibility, making it more likely that searchers will click on your links in the future.
Enhancing Brand Dominance with a Dual Approach
By utilizing both organic and paid listings, you’re effectively establishing a dominant presence in search results. This dual listing strategy not only maximizes your reach but also positions your brand as an authority in the minds of searchers. The visibility provided by being in both organic and paid search results ensures that your brand becomes a trusted and familiar option. Consumers are more likely to engage with brands they see repeatedly, leading to increased website traffic, better engagement, and ultimately, higher conversions.
Furthermore, this combined approach can work wonders for new brands or companies entering competitive markets. While organic rankings take time to build, paid ads allow you to quickly gain a foothold and start attracting traffic, even before your SEO efforts fully take root. This way, you’re not only driving immediate results through PPC but also setting up a solid foundation for long-term success with organic SEO.
Understanding the Costs vs. Benefits
Another important consideration when using a combined organic and paid strategy is the balance between cost and benefit. Organic rankings, while taking longer to achieve, are essentially “free” after the initial investment in SEO work. On the other hand, PPC ads come with a cost per click, which can add up depending on your budget and the competitiveness of your keywords. However, the immediate traffic boost and the ability to precisely target your audience make it worthwhile.
The key to maximizing your investment is understanding how these two approaches complement each other. By using your organic strategy to target long-term, high-volume keywords and your PPC campaign to focus on short-term goals or competitive keywords, you can balance both approaches to achieve an optimal return on investment.