• Top 7 Ways of Integrating SEO and PPC
• Website Usability and Accessibility for SEO
• Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses 
• Seventeen Effective SEO Copywriting Tips for Copywriters
• SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration

I will continue to share my thoughts about variety of topics regarding SEO and Internet marketing whenever I get some spare time from other professional commitments. Hope to get the same response from the readers in future as well.

In most of the cases, if budget and time allows, by combining SEO and PPC you can reach wider range of potential customers– especially towards the start of search marketing campaigns.

1.       Brand awareness

Every business wants to get as much exposure as possible – and every business also requires same from search engine result pages (SERPs).  Running both SEO and PPC can give that added visibility to win recognition and trust of potential customers.

2.       Keyword research

Efficient keyword research is the first step to organic SEO success. Getting keywords ideas from PPC data and using those for SEO strategies can enhance keyword research to a great deal.  Rather than just going after search volume suggested by keyword selection tools, you can also have a better idea about what keyword converts better for your business. PPC data can give some great long tail keywords ideas which are like a gold mine for a business.

3.       Quality Score

A well SEOed page for a keyword, improves PPC Quality score which is crucial for PPC success and can save dollars for the business. Also, on the one hand PPC ads can give you an idea how well optimized and relevant is your page.  On the other hand, organic SEO landing pages can be used for PPC.  In short, by integrating SEO and PPC you can have a much more efficient website.

4.       Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Search engines can make or break a business these days. Any negative comment about business appearing in top search results can be harmful for reputation. Gaining more top rankings both through paid rankings as well as organic rankings can push any negative press down in the ranking – or even below the first page to build online reputation.

5.       Link or Relationship Building

Links are at the heart of any successful SEO campaign. PPC can be used to spread your name and contents to reach more potential consumers who may share your story on their website or blog.

6.       A/B Testing

With PPC you can test two or more versions of web pages and see which page converts better in the light of detailed analytic reports. Then you can display that enhanced page format for organic rankings.

7.       Click Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion

Click through rate (CTR) and conversion rate ideas from PPC ads can be implemented in SEO to improve SEO  CTR and conversions.

Ultimate goal of any marketing plan is to increase revenue and sales. SEO and PPC integration can serve this purpose better than any other channels available at the moment.

By: Abdul Hayi Mansoor

Google recently updated its algorithm to devalue the exact-match domains (EMDs). Many people believe that All exact match domains are ‘penalized’ or are in the danger of being penalized in future. It is not the case!

Many EMDs are still ranking high. The EMDs which suffered are mostly those who were relying mainly on just one keyword i.e.  the one exactly matching to the domain name. But the sites which were getting traffic for variety of keywords have not suffered.

During the last year or so Google also made its famous Panda and Penguin updates as well targeting low value content sites and the sites with high proportion of ‘bad’ backlinks.

It is quite obvious from all Google updates during the last year or so that Google does not like ‘over-doing’. So it is ever more important to have diversity in the SEO-efforts. Diversity in the keywords,  diversity in page contents, diversity in the off-page or link building resources,  diversity in anchor or linking text and diversity in traffic sources. Above all, focus more on audience than ever before.

On a different note, if you are an up and established site you are less likely to get hit by these updates. These updates are mainly meant for the new sites or the sites lacking ‘freshness’.

Considering the worldwide explosion of Social Media, it looks a tempting channel for businesses. However, they need to understand social customers better before they can take its real advantage. Social customers are dramatically different from traditional customers as they are not passive consumers of informative anymore.  Social customers are much more involved and engaged than the traditional media viewers i.e. TV watchers and magazine readers etc.

Customers are real people and people always want to talk with real people – not with brands – and Social Media has provided the perfect platform for just that. Social Media has also given a platform to customers to communicate at C2C (Consumer-Consumer) level, but there is an opportunity for businesses in the form of access to huge C2C data. Businesses can use that information to much more informed decisions and tailor their product according to customers need. The best way to learn about the customers is to interact with them.

In this social media age, customers are much more connected, informed, outspoken, creative, often uncensored and unscheduled.  They freely share their experiences with other consumers, even without the involvement of businesses. Now, customers are the people with megaphones and, therefore, not listening to them can cost businesses a lot.

Social customers do not like marketing and sales tones; rather they want businesses to collaborate and engage with them. They want to be the co-owner and co-create the products or services with the business. Hence, businesses should interact in an attractive rather than interruptive way to entitle and delight them. Social customers want real-time customer support and a solution to their problems. They also want to be the part of the company rather the prey.   Businesses can’t get all the benefits over social media without giving customers the benefits that they want!

Understanding the social customers better would allow businesses to go well beyond the transactional models and focus on engagement models. Knowing to customers better helps businesses to serve them better. Businesses need to embrace this shift with a new strategy in which the role of the business is to collaborate and create dialogue with the customers.

See also: Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business ; SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration ; Should Facebook Have a Dislike Button? ; Using Social Media for CRM ; SEO Specialist’s Website