Can AdWords help your SEO?

Last Friday we talked about how SEO can help you in pay-per-click advertising. What about the other way round? Can PPC influence your SEO in a positive way?

A common myth

This is actually a frequent misunderstanding when it comes to Internet marketing. One of the myths out there is that Google favours websites that sign up for Google AdWords and gives them extra. The truth is it doesn't work that way. Google is very strict on keeping its organic and paid search results separate. Paying them for AdWords advertising won't help your website rank in the natural results one bit.

Despite that, running an AdWords campaign can be very useful for your search engine optimisation. How come?

BUT.... It's all about information (update June 2024)

Running an AdWords advertising campaign can provide you with valuable data and Brand exposure, which indirectly CAN have an impact on your rankings. It is a complicated issue.... running a few ads here and there probably won't move the needle (SEO wise), but a comprehensive effort aimed correctly CAN!

Specifically, it can show you what kind of keywords people use the most when they search for your products or services. You can actually measure the amount of traffic the top keywords get each day and analyze what kind of long-tail keywords are most popular and most important, lead to actual conversions - with Goal Tracking Analytics.

On top of that, you can track, measure and compare not only the volume but also the quality of traffic associated with specific keywords. This kind of information is crucial for successful search engine optimisation. In fact, sometimes Google AdWords campaigns are run solely for the purpose of keyword analysis. So if you're already running AdWords, why not take advantage of that and leverage it for your Google SEO?