I say kinda, because PPC should be the last part of anyone’s online strategy. The goal of pay per click is to get users to your website with proper key word selection and compelling ad copy. I have always told clients that the goal of PPC is to get people to the party; it’s not up to PPC that makes them stay. That is the responsibility of good design and proper search engine optimization. Let me explain how this all works.
Good design is, well, good design. This means that a site is easy to navigate, with relevant and congruent content that makes users view multiple pages, spend more time on the site, and hopefully produce the desired out come (a conversion metric such as - a purchase, phone call, leaving a comment, etc) while differentiating its self from the competition, if necessary.
Well executed search engine optimization will ensure proper messaging when being indexed by search engines. This means that the messaging of the site (a product of good design) will match how the site is read by the search engines and then ranked in order by keywords. Once design and SEO is in place only then should proper Pay Per Click advertising tactics should be used.
When all three elements come together this is what a search experience should look like:
- An internet user types in a the keyword that is targeted by both PPC and SEO
- The ranking of the site appears in both the organic and paid search listings of the search results page, thus increasing the chance of a click through.
- With good design, the user finds what they are looking for and a conversion metric is triggered
- Search engines reward the PPC advertiser because the high relevancy with lower cost per click and higher ranking
PPC rocks but it isn’t the end-all be-all that so many people incorrectly believe it to be. SEO, design AND PPC are all required for the most effective online branding strategy.
