SEO On-Air: How Different is SEO & PPC Keyword Research?

In this episode, we cover:

Today, we speak to Piotr Olesson and Matthew Yeadon. They are valuable members of Australia’s highly recognized digital agency Reef Digital. While Matthew heads the Performance Media, Piotr leads the SEO department. Both of them have over five years of experience working in the digital media industry and are passionate about helping businesses grow

In this episode, they will discuss the difference between SEO & PPC Keyword Research.

Stay tuned for the next podcast episode, where our guests, Ilan Shabad, tell us about handy SEO tools for better optimization.

Show Notes Explanation

Hello everyone, this is Senthil. Welcome to another episode of SEO on-Air. Today we are joined by wonderful people from Reef Digital Agency, Mr. Piotr Olesson, SEO Manager, and Mr. Matthew Yeadon, Head of Performance. Welcome to the show, gentlemen.

Time Stamp: 00:45-01:21

Q. Can SEO & PPC work together?

Absolutely, SEO and PPC have to work together very closely to fill in the gaps in the early stages of a few keywords.

Time Stamp: 01:39-02:50

Q. How can SEO & PPC work together, according to you?

• From a paid search perspective, initially identify the gaps in your keywords. Compare the keyword visibility with that of your competitors and then work on it
• Then, later on, look at the new keyword opportunities that people are searching for and have the potential to rank for your site

Time Stamp: 02:55-03:45

Q. PPC has an edge where it can utilize keywords and start building traffic. How do you see this from an SEO point-of-view?

• PPC has its own role in what they do. In terms of SEO, they collect quite a lot of data in terms of non-branded keywords that are converting really well.
• SEOs can then try to work on those keywords and try to improve the organic rankings

Time Stamp: 03:47-04:27

Q. How do you frame the content strategy based on this?

There are a few ways to go about it. One would be using PPC to analyze how you are ranking for certain keywords and build a content strategy around it that can fill the existing gaps in content.

Time Stamp: 04: 35-08:01

Q. Is keyword research a one-time thing, or is it a consistent process?

• It isn’t a one-time approach because it is very critical
• Keyword research helps you understand what words you’ll be targeting, what demographics you should be targeting, etc.
• Keyword research is used to build a content strategy and other SEO optimizations down the line
• User behavior is an important metric to consider for your business and to analyze that you have to carry out keyword research constantly

Time Stamp: 08:59-10:20

Q. What tools do you use to keep track of all these things, Matt?

There are a couple of tools you can use through which you can track significant changes in your keywords, CTA and CPC.

Time Stamp: 10:31-14:30

Q. What are some of the common misconceptions that come when people approach these keywords?

• Some common misconceptions that people have are selecting keywords that are not directly related to the landing page they are targeting for
• Some pro-match modified keywords may have high CTA, but they might not be driving good value for the business.
• Many small businesses try to target the keyword with the biggest search volume, but it’s an old school practice that doesn’t provide much value to them
• You should consider long-tail keywords and other factors, which is a more holistic method for keyword research

Time Stamp: 14:45-15:58

Q. Is there any tool that you particularly useful for this, Piotr?

• I stick with Keyword Planner. There are other tools too like UberSuggest and Keyword.io
• Keyword Planner is best if you run ads on your site
• If you are not running ads, you can look for other third-party tools

Time Stamp: 16:09-18:35

Q. What do you think works best when it comes to writing SEO content?

• Keywords are one aspect of the overall content strategy
• You should prepare a solid skeleton of what your content should look from start to finish
• Start with writing the headline and sub-headlines of the content that will shape the entire structure of your content
• The structure should make the content engaging and answer all the questions that people usually search for related to that topic and satisfy their intent

Time Stamp: 19:12-20:28

Q. How do you write the ad copies?

• Experienced copywriters write ad copies
• There are a few guidelines that we follow while writing ad copies
• It should include the search term within the copy
•  Don’t limit yourself to modify the ad copy based on how users are engaging in it

Time Stamp: 20:40-22:20

Q. How do you plan the structure of the search account in place?

• We practice single keyword Adwords and stop with pro-match modifier
• We select a few search terms and choose search copies that align with those search terms
• Initially, we start will CPC for a week before switching to bidding strategies

Time Stamp: 22:34-23:53

Q. When you mention the broad-match, exact-match, and pro-match modifiers, can you explain to them a bit in detail?

• Exact-match modifier is when someone type for the exact keyword you have bidded on
• Phrase-match modifier is when someone type for keywords you have bidded for along with some additional phrases/words
• Pro-match modifier is when someone types for a keyword that can appear in any order of the keyword you’ve bidded on

Time Stamp: 24:30-25:48

Q. What are some of the bidding strategies you’ve deployed during these campaigns?

• We maximize conversions and give them specific conversion goals
• Testing out other bidding strategies for experiments

Time Stamp: 26:00-26:50

Q. What about fresh ad accounts? How do they do about bidding?

It is good to start with maximize conversions and see how many conversions you can get through it, and then over time, you can bring that down. Depending on the website, your CTA can go up or come down, as well.

Time Stamp: 27:20-28:26

Q. When you speak to clients, how do you convey them the SEO spent?

• The way we do it is we try to set realistic goals and KPIs for our clients
• We have a real conversation at the beginning itself and that’s basically how we discuss the ROI

Time Stamp: 28:29-29:18

Q. What type of clients do you usually work with?

It depends. It is pretty varied. Some of them are smaller businesses, while some are very large and complicated businesses.