Ranking Locally: Your Guide to GMB & SEO (Unknown Secrets Revealed!) Ep. 580
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SEO vs. Paid Search? How About SEO and Paid Search! Ep. 581
Using SEO and paid search together produces greater combined results than either alone, because PPC accelerates keyword testing, retargeting, and ranking momentum while SEO builds long-term organic authority.
Key takeaways
- PPC lets you test keywords quickly and cheaply before committing budget to a long-term SEO campaign.
- Running paid ads on target keywords sends user-behavior signals to search engines, which can speed up organic ranking movement.
- Only about 2% of visitors convert on the first visit, making retargeting campaigns essential for capturing the rest.
- Different people click ads versus organic results, so there is very little audience overlap and both channels add incremental traffic.
- Third-party cookie decline makes building your own first-party and zero-party data lists more important than ever.
About this episode
In this SEO podcast episode, we covers the compelling reasons why both paid search (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) should be integral components of your digital marketing plan. We cover how these two strategies, although distinct, complement each other harmoniously. The episode offers practical tips on leveraging both PPC and SEO effectively, from testing new keywords to retargeting visitors,…
Questions this episode answers
Why should I run SEO and PPC at the same time instead of choosing one?
Running both together means different audiences see you in paid and organic results with very little overlap, so total traffic increases. PPC also sends user-behavior signals to search engines that can accelerate organic ranking movement, and both channels share keyword and content insights that reduce wasted spend.
How does PPC help with keyword research for SEO?
Google Keyword Planner only surfaces paid keywords, hiding high-converting organic terms. Running PPC ads lets you test whether a keyword actually drives conversions quickly and cheaply before you invest months of SEO effort, and it exposes keyword intent mismatches before they become costly mistakes.
What is search incrementality?
Search incrementality, referenced from a Search Engine Land article in this episode, describes the finding that when PPC ads are stopped, SEO performance also drops even though nothing about the organic strategy changed. It suggests the two channels reinforce each other rather than simply competing for the same clicks.
How important is retargeting and what data supports it?
Retargeting is described as extremely valuable because only about 2% of visitors convert on the first visit. Most converters return roughly 10 times before buying, so spending a small amount to serve ads on multiple platforms to past visitors significantly improves overall conversion rates.
In their words
Keywords are the pillars of both SEO and PPC campaigns. You can use the keywords for both. You can test with PPC to find out if they work quicker and easier. And then you can decide what to commit to from an SEO standpoint.
Matt Bertram
data shows only about 2% people convert after the first visit. The only data we see is either you convert on the, like the first day or you convert on like whatever your sales cycle is, seventh day or 10th day or 15th day and probably they come back like 10 times.
Matt Bertram
Everything you should do in digital marketing over traditional marketing is because of analytics and data. And if you don't love data, try to love data because it really helps you save money and make more money.
Matt Bertram
Terms defined in this episode
- Search Incrementality
- A phenomenon where stopping PPC ads causes SEO performance to also drop, suggesting the two channels actively reinforce each other rather than working in isolation.
- Zero Party Data
- Data a consumer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand, which becomes more important as third-party cookies are phased out.
- First Party Data
- Data collected directly by a business from its own audience, such as email lists, used as an alternative to third-party tracking cookies.
- Keyword Trap
- A word or phrase that sounds relevant to a business but has a dual meaning or mismatched search intent, causing wasted SEO or PPC spend on the wrong audience.
Full transcript is being added.
This episode answers
Matthew Bertram
AI keynote speaker · Owner & CEO, EWR Digital · President, ModalPoint
Matthew Bertram is an AI keynote speaker, creator of DIG™ (Digital Information Governance), and owner and CEO of EWR Digital. He helps energy and industrial leaders win visibility in AI search (GEO and AEO), is President of ModalPoint and CMO of the Oil & Gas Global Network, hosts The Best SEO Podcast, and has authored eight books including LLM Visibility. More about Matthew Bertram.
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