SEO and PPC are the two effective digital marketing tactics used to increase traffic to your website (e-commerce or content) through search. These two types of traffic can compliment or cannibalize each other, depending on the way they are implemented. Used skillfully, PPC campaigns can supplement and enhance your SEO and boost traffic to your site. Here are some ways you can use PPC to make your SEO better:

Use PPC campaigns to test which keywords bring the most traffic to your site and generate the most conversions, before you optimize those terms for your site. A pay-per-click campaign can be established in weeks or even days and you can view the results in real time. SEO, on the other hand, is labour-intensive and it takes several months to realize results. Run ads for different search terms using pay-per-click to find out what works best, and feed that information into your SEO efforts.

Generate visitors early after a site launch. SEO takes awhile to come into effect, but PPC can be used to attract visitors to a new or re-launched website right away. Not only does that boost your traffic while you’re waiting for your SEO to take off, it actually helps improve your search standing since Google factors the amount of traffic a site receives into its search ranking.

Gain traffic for highly competitive keywords. Some search terms are extremely competitive, and it may not be possible for you to achieve first-page ranking organically. Pay-per-click ads are always on the first page, allowing you to gain visibility for these key terms that you just can’t get through SEO alone.

Use PPC ads to target specific terms. It’s hard to achieve optimization for every product on your website, even with good SEO. With pay-per-click, you can run campaigns for specific products, product numbers, or brand names to serve ads to people searching for those exact terms.

Run PPC campaigns for short-term promotions. If you’re running a contest, sale, or other promotion, it doesn’t make sense to put in the effort and time necessary to build organic SEO around it. With a pay-per-click campaign, you can target visitors for a short amount of time and don’t have to worry about ramping the campaign up in advance. You also don’t have to worry about the page turning up in search results after the promotion is over.

Use remarketing to serve ads to visitors who’ve already been to your site. This keeps your products and services front-of-mind for people who’ve already demonstrated an interest in what you have to offer. Read our remarketing blog post for more about these campaigns.

By using PPC campaigns strategically like this, you can increase traffic and expand the reach of your site, building on the results of your SEO efforts. Use both tactics in tandem to maximize your presence in search results.

Have questions or other great ways to use PPC campaigns? Let us know in the comments. If you're interested in gaining hands-on and in-depth knowlege on SEO, PPC, and other digital marketing tactics, attend our 1-day P.A.C.E. digital marketing training workshop.