How To Stop Your PPC Ads From Cannibalizing Your SEO Efforts

Even though a Chicago PPC agency recommends using pay-per-click (PPC) marketing as an added way to reach new customers, it does not have to weaken search engine optimization (SEO). PPC and SEO are supposed to work together towards a common goal — greater visibility.

Here is an overview of PPC and SEO and how keyword cannibalization gets in between them:

• Cannibalization and how it affects SEO
• Three ways PPC and SEO are complementary strategies
• Three steps to stop cannibalization from hurting your SEO

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

What Is Keyword Cannibalization and How Does It Affect SEO?

Keyword cannibalization is when you have too many content pages trying to rank for the exact same keyword. What happens here is that they end up eating away at each other’s ranking factors, preventing them from ranking as high as possible on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Needless to say, this can complicate SEO because it counteracts your intended goals for your content. To provide you with a visual, it would be like having your content play tug-of-war, trying to win the top spot for a single keyword. It is not productive or helpful to let this keep happening.

3 Ways PPC and SEO Complement Each Other

Before getting into how to stop PPC from interfering with your SEO efforts, it is probably a good idea to discuss how these two strategies complement each other. That way, you can better understand how they might overlap and how to draw a line between them and keep them apart.

     1. Create Two Plans to Target Different Markets

PPC and SEO are two distinct strategies; you should treat them that way. Do your best to avoid significant similarities and use each to achieve different marketing goals. Aim to use PPC’s strengths to cover SEO’s weaknesses, not the other way around.

For instance, since PPC is great for quick results in short bursts and SEO is better for long-term growth, build your marketing plans with that in mind. You can set it up so that each primarily targets a separate segment of your target market for greater efficiency.

     2. Share Keyword Data between Both Strategies

Both PPC and SEO run on keywords. You need certain keywords to run an effective PPC campaign, while choosing target keywords set the tone for your entire content strategy. For PPC, setting a combination of target and negative keywords is meant to control who sees your ads.

On the other hand, SEO uses target keywords as only one of many ranking factors that dictate whether your content matches a person’s search term. Choosing PPC for strategies requiring precise targeting and SEO for content that works with semantic search makes sense.

     3. Rank High on Expensive Keywords With SEO

Although PPC is cheaper than traditional marketing methods, it can still be expensive, depending on your target keyword’s cost-per-click (CPC). Many other factors also affect its costs, such as monthly search volume and how much advertisers bid for their ads.

Keyword tools present their estimates of this amount, but do not take them at face value. Gather and compare data from different tools to better understand the cost, if possible. Then, see which expensive keywords you can reasonably add to SEO strategies instead of PPC.

3 Steps To Avoid or Stop Keyword Cannibalization

If you want to stop your PPC ads from slowly eating away at your organic traffic, start by finding the root of the problem. From there, work on separating your strategies and making them more distinct. Below are what you should do, according to Chicago PPC agency tips.

     1. Audit and Compare Your PPC and SEO Plans

If you already have both PPC and SEO running simultaneously, do a complete audit of both to see where they are in terms of keyword ranking. You can accomplish this by using free tools that monitor your analytics, such as Google Keyword Planner and Google Ads.

Knowing where your strategies are most successful can help you decide if any adjustments are in order. Take note of your most successful PPC ads and top content and set them aside for later. Make sure to include keyword rankings and related search terms.

     2. Determine Where Keywords Perform Better

Running two different marketing strategies means getting double the data from your campaigns. Sharing keyword data between the two allows you to make smarter decisions and adjust your plans accordingly. Knowing where you stand with specific keywords is useful here.

Your goal is to identify which keywords perform better in PPC and SEO. Then, adjust your strategies to focus on building up those successes and further setting them apart to prevent any more keyword cannibalization. Be aware of how this affects both PPC and SEO.

     3. Analyze Your Ads’ Performance

Once you update your strategies, give them time to run before again checking the results. You most likely cannot address all problems related to this issue in one sitting, so take it slow and be deliberate in your decisions. Change is part of running PPC anyway.

If you feel lost while balancing your marketing plans, refer to older website data for further comparison. Doing that gives you a more accurate idea of how much or how little PPC affects your SEO ranking and performance. Monitoring analytics is essential to this.

Summing Up

Digital marketing strategies often blur the lines between each other, which confuses website owners and beginners. That said, when this results in subpar results, you should consider contacting a Chicago PPC agency to sort out the issues and prevent new ones from coming.

Need help keeping your PPC and SEO strategies separate? Contact Digital Authority Partners to learn how we can help.