Quite simply, no. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising will not have any direct effect on your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts as these are two different channels of online marketing.
The best way to explain the difference is that while PPC is designed to achieve quick results through campaigns that can be switched on and off, SEO is a long-term strategy that will benefit your online presence without the need for paying for impressions.
Why PPC Does Not Affect SEO
It is important that we distinguish between not helping SEO and not having any effect on SEO. PPC will not directly help your SEO campaign as it does not have any effect on a website’s SEO, good or bad. This is because Google and other search engines do not take PPC ad placements into consideration from an SEO-perspective, so whatever placements – whether they be at the top of a search results page or on a social channel – will not count towards your rankings.
Should I Run Both a PPC and SEO Campaign?
This is a question that can only really be answered based on your own individual needs. However, while it is true that PPC does not have any direct effect on your SEO efforts, it can have an indirect one.
Allow us to explain.
The more often a user sees your brand, the more likely they are to click on it. This means that, if a user sees one of your PPC adverts and were to then find your website through an organic search, there is an increased chance they will open the link, thus improving your click-through rate, even if your website is not necessarily ranking at number one.
At the very most, there is an indirect knock-on effect on your SEO efforts but paying for PPC adverts on their own will not improve your website’s search rankings. PPC and SEO campaigns can complement each other with the correct know-how, which is something that professional digital marketers spend years practising and perfecting.
Keyword Opportunities
Another way in which doing PPC can indirectly help your SEO campaign is through identifying new keyword opportunities that you may not have considered. Google’s Keyword Planner helps the user to identify new keywords to create PPC adverts and this feature is often utilised for SEO-purposes.
This means that, in theory, when you identify a keyword that would work well for your business but your SEO campaign has not yet targeted it, you can use PPC to appear for that keyword whilst working on optimising your site to rank in the search results. This is an example as to how PPC and SEO can complement each other.
Consider the Reasons for Wanting to Run a PPC Campaign
Before starting any PPC campaign, you should consider your reasons for wanting to do so. If you are hoping to improve your website’s SEO, your time and effort will be far better spent directly working on your website's content and user experience. If you are looking to improve your business’ online presence in highly competitive areas and/or gain a short-term push, then PPC is a viable option.
