Monthly Archives: April 2014

Like Michael Jordan & Scottie Pippen, peanut butter & jelly, and under appreciated R&B 70′s duo Herbs & Peaches – reunited and it feels so good – SEO & PPC together is greater than the sum of its parts.

Some people may disagree with that statement and make this analogy, “Why should I pay for the milk (PPC) when I have a cow that will give it away for free (SEO)”. This argument might be valid if we’re talking about bovines and dairy products. However, we’re not talking about free milk; we’re talking clicks and conversions. Those who treat SEO and PPC as two mutually exclusive online marketing tactics will be missing out on tremendous digital marketing opportunities.

Here are some reasons why you should be utilizing both SEO and PPC in your digital marketing campaign.
 
The Rules of Real Estate
Think of the SERP (search engine results page) as valuable real estate. Any screen space above the fold can be considered valuable waterfront property. Screen space below the fold on the first page is a rather nice neighborhood with a few gated communities and a Whole Foods. While anything on the second page and beyond is the wrong side of the tracks. Just as in real estate, getting clicks and impressions is all about location location location. Having top positions in both SEO and PPC greatly increases the chance that your home page or landing page will become a popular destination.

Shared Keyword Data
Running an SEO and PPC campaign gives you double the data to analyze. Determine which organic and paid keywords have the highest conversion rate, and use that data to optimize your overall strategy.

Greater Authority Figure On a Subject
Studies have shown that when businesses hold top spots in both SEO and PPC they are seen as a more trusted authority figure on a subject. So when Joe Car Repair holds top positions in both organic and paid search, he is going to be viewed as a much more competent mechanic than Gary Car Repair – yelp reviews withstanding – and much more likely to be clicked on.

Test Organic Keywords with PPC
Using PPC is a great way to refine your organic keyword strategy. As you evolve your long term keyword strategy, you can test the conversion rate of words that you want to rank for with PPC ads. You’ll get immediate feedback on the success, or failure, of organic keywords you’d like to rank for.

Greater than the sum of its parts – Content Motive and Integrated PPC when used together will help maximize your dealership’s leads and sales potential.

Whether you manage a small, yet burgeoning, blog with a few dozen readers or an immensely popular blog with a profitable Adsense account; you can utilize Google Analytics to gain insightful measurements on your blog’s performance. The myriad of data and graphs may seem daunting at first glance. However, if you know what data to look for; you can cut through the clutter and make sense of all that information. In this article we’ll point out some statistics you should consider monitoring to understand how well your blog is performing.

When it comes to blogging, content is king. Great content on your blog will get visitors returning to it repeatedly. Google Analytics allows you to see how many people came to your website once, twice, thrice, etc over a period of time. In the navigation panel go to Audience > Behavior > Frequency & Recency to see this information. Checking the number of return visitors to your blog is worth monitoring on a monthly basis to see if this figure gets better as you continue to develop loyal readers.

The Audience Overview report in Google Analytics has some valuable statistics you should monitor. In the navigation panel go to Audience > Overview to access this report. The metrics that you should monitor on this report includes:

Average Pages per visit: This statistic tells you how many pages your average visitor goes to during a session. Your blog should entice readers to explore other content within the site.

Time on site: The amount of time a visitor spends on our blog can give you valuable insights on the user experience. If your visitors are spending lots of time on your page then it may be an indication that they’re reading your content. That is great! On the other hand, if they are not spending significant time in your site then it may be a red flag for issues with your blog. Issues such as offensive content or long page load times – a likely cause for graphic heavy pages – might be some possible causes for visitors to retreat from your blog prematurely.

Bounce rate: The bounce rate is the percentage of users that visit your site, but leave without engaging with other pages. A high bounce rate can be addressed by implementing an internal linking strategy to relevant posts within your blog.

These are just a few metrics that you should consider. There are many other ways to measure blog performance. What analytics do you use to measure your blog performance?

Are you looking for an automotive blog with transparent results?  Content Motive uses professional writers who specialize in SEO in the automotive industry.