Keyword Analysis For SEO And PPC – 4 Fundamental Differences

Keyword analysis helps us better understand what users are looking for, where they get from the search terms and how to design the website structure appropriately. Based on the analysis, however, we also select keywords for PPC campaigns. So why not use SEO analysis to set up PPC campaigns? Or PPC keyword analysis for a link-building proposal? Well, that’s probably not the best idea.

The analysis of keywords for SEO and PPC is fundamentally different. Although we would find several similar signs, a tailor-made analysis for the chosen purpose will achieve the best results. So, if you are still hesitating about whether it would be better to simplify it, we would be happy to disabuse you with the following differences:

1. Objective of the analysis

SEO

In search engine optimization, our goal is to understand the background of the keyword. What are users looking for? What are they interested in? What will be displayed in the search under the given keyword? Do users want to buy a service or learn something themselves? All this is important to know to choose suitable keywords for SEO activity.

PPC

PPC analysis aims to find keywords for which we can bid effectively. We, therefore, combine the monthly number of searches and the price per click. Since the most common goal of PPC advertising is sales, we also choose the words in such a way that we are sure that the user is ready to buy. If we were to target general terms through which users search for information, it would probably be a waste of money. At the same time, we bid on those words that are not easy to get to high positions in the organic market.

2. How we choose keywords

SEO

In SEO, the choice of keywords depends on whether our goal is to optimize the website in terms of content, design a new structure of subpages with an acceptable range, or improve search positions.

Web development

Creating a new website requires a more comprehensive analysis of keywords, including words of different intent (informative and to make a purchase), searches (from general to long tail keywords ) and competitiveness. Thanks to the analysis, we will better understand what users in our segment are searching for and what they expect from the results.

We should use general keywords based on search and our offer for the main categories and more specific keywords for subcategories and filters.

Have you come across a high volume of searches for keywords with a question or search for information? This indicates that you should include a blog or FAQ section on your website. Keywords will help you design suitable article topics.

Content optimization

Few users are immediately ready to buy products. The purchase phase is preceded by finding information about the segment or comparing the competition. Therefore, we should not only focus on keywords with purchase intent on our pages (even if we are an e-shop). Potential customers can be in multiple stages of the buying process (“See Think Do Care” scheme), and SEO as a marketing channel will be applied across all these stages.

Informational keywords can bring potential customers to your website when they are just getting to know your product. Quality content (in this case, especially in the blog section) answers questions, informs new customers about the product and, ideally, keeps them up to the “to” stage, i.e. until the purchase is made.

Of course, don’t forget the keywords related to your products and the purchase itself. 

Some keywords have the same meaning, but users search for them under different phrases. Ensure you use all relevant synonyms within the subpages they relate to cover as many search queries as possible. If you sell, e.g. lamps, users will search for “floor lamps” and “floor lamps”, but in principle, it is the same type of lamp. Create the texts, so they are understandable, and pay attention to the optimal density of keywords so that your pages are not just “glued” with keywords. 

Linkbuilding

Everyone who deals with SEO knows that the work of an SEO specialist does not end with website optimization. Especially in a highly competitive field, we won’t get far without link-building. How to choose suitable keywords for link-building activities?

In this case, we look at both search volume and competitiveness. In SEO, we can afford to target highly competitive words with a sufficient budget in some areas. However, it would be complicated for start-up e-shops to overtake the competition on highly competitive words, especially if they have been doing SEO activities for years.

In most cases, therefore, we are looking for an ideal ratio between sufficient search volume, good competitiveness of the keyword and whether this keyword has any meaning for us (we mainly select keywords with purchase intent).

At the same time, we must have well-optimized subpages that we want to strengthen. The links we obtain or purchase should be consistent with the content to which the link points. Consistency of headings, titles and meta description is essential, as well as good content on the given subpage.

PPC

With PPC campaigns, we have to be a little more careful when choosing keywords. We target the campaigns with words that carry the intention of purchase or interest in a product or service. In the case of PPC, the character of the word is much more important than the search volume. In some cases, longtail words are rarely searched for, so the only option is to target more general terms.

In addition to the correct choice of keywords, choosing a relevant landing page that most closely matches the search term and simultaneously makes sense for us to lead users to it.

3. Where we use keywords

SEO

We will use keywords as the basis for all the activities we do within SEO. We use them to connect the existing content on the website, add them to the places where they are suitable, or decide whether we want to create additional content for them. The keyword will be in the headlines, meta descriptions and body text.

PPC

We will use the selected keywords in the targeting of advertising campaigns, in the advertising text and on the landing page. There must be a close connection between the keywords in the individual parts of the ad to have the highest possible quality score.

4. How do we measure the success of keywords

SEO

To find out if we have chosen the right keywords and are doing enough to strengthen them, we monitor their positions for that website and traffic from organic search. Various SEO tools, for example, Collabim or Rank Tracker, will help us track keywords. Traffic from an organic search can be easily tracked in Google Analytics in the section Acquisition – Search Console (however, the condition is that these tools are linked). In Google Search Console, as a separate tool, we can track which user queries we have appeared in the search and which queries users have clicked on.

PPC

We monitor the performance of keywords either in the advertising system (Google Ads) or in Google Analytics. In the latter case, it is essential to have Google Ads linked to Google Analytics. But it is even more important to pay attention to the cost of the campaign and its effectiveness so that we work with those keywords that bring us conversions at an acceptable price.

In both segments – SEO and PPC – data is an irreplaceable helper. Relying only on your intuition or experience is not worth it. At the same time, however, it must be kept in mind that not all our data is relevant for every medium. If you don’t know how to do it yourself, we will be happy to help you with keyword analysis for both SEO and PPC campaigns.

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