Updated March 1, 2025
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A Combined Strategy for an Extra Lift
Managing website SEO so you appear on the first page of a Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) seems to be every online marketer’s goal. Organic SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take years… especially if the competition has been at it for awhile. Studies have shown there’s definitely a link between organic website SEO and PPC.
Incremental Clicks Impact of Search Advertising
In a Google abstract they reported on how the number of organic clicks change when search ads are present and when search ad campaigns are turned off.
“The incrementality is dependent on factors such as the organic search result ranking and how similar the paid and organic listings are to each other.”
Ok, what does that mean in plain English? The closer the organic website SEO is to the PCC ad copy, the more clicks the organic link gets.
Humans tend to pick non-paid links, especially when the same business appears in a PPC ad. By the way, these studies aren’t new. Back in 2004 iProspect and several research firms conducted studies. Nearly a decade ago they found that 70% of respondents clicked on organic results. Online behavior has evolved. We’re more experienced at searching… and more discerning with the results. Searchers are also more skeptical of ads, especially since we’re bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every day.
In her book Marketing in the Age of Google Vanessa Fox writes:
An iCrossing study found that when a brand appears in both the organic and paid results, the searcher clicked on that brand 92% of the time compared to 60% of the clicks when the brand appeared in only one location.
The Website SEO & PPC 30% Lift Explained
What’s the key takeaway here? Investing in both organic website SEO and PPC can drive more traffic to your business. A human searcher, when given the choice between a non-paid result and an ad from the same business , 92% will choose the organic result. The mere presence of a paid ad can give your business a 30% (92%-60%) response lift. Why? The searcher doesn’t click on the ad, just notices it. The bottom line? You get the ad impression without having to pay for the click.
Beyond optimizing your Website SEO, PPC is a complementary strategy. If you use both, what results have you seen?
Website Speed Affects Conversions