Marketing on the internet has evolved so much since the early days of the web. Back in the day, if you wanted to reach potential customers, you’d put up some flashy websites packed full of features and optimized for search engines. Those types of websites worked great for attracting visitors organically.

But then came PPC (Pay Per Click).

Yes, you heard that right. Back in the day, you might have heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That was kind of like PPC. You might have heard of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). That was similar to SEO as well.

Honestly, these days I think most people simply call it SEO or call it marketing. But no matter what you call it, the practice of getting traffic to your website through organics and PPC has largely become the same.

Which leads me to my next point…

Why Have Online Marketers Tried To Simplify The Process Of Organic And Paid Search?

If you’ve been paying attention to the search engines and how they work, you’ll know that each day they update their algorithms to favor websites built using the best practices outlined in their white papers.

This constantly changing environment makes it increasingly difficult for marketers to excel in. Being on top of all the changes and updates requires a ton of research and continuous education. Being unable to keep up with the changes can seriously damage your SEO and PPC performance.

To help you combat this, the big brands in the industry have gotten together and released a marketing guide for E-Commerce stores. This guide will help you create an SEO and PPC strategy that is suitable for your business. One of the things it emphasizes is how important SEO and PPC are together. So let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways From the E-Commerce Marketing Guide:

Here are the key takeaways from the E-Commerce Marketing Guide:

• SEO and PPC are important, but they are not separate strategies
• Do your research and make strategic decisions
• Content is still king (and queen)
• Mobile is the new desktop
• Make sure that your campaigns are trackable and measurable
• Plan and work toward reaching your target audience
• You need to become an expert in digital marketing

Let’s dive into each key takeaway.

SEO and PPC Are Important, But They Are Not Separate Strategies

In simpler times, a marketer would probably approach SEO and PPC as separate strategies and would handle each one independently. This is a mistake.

These days, SEO and PPC are not strategies that you perform independently of each other. They are parts of a broader digital marketing strategy that you work on along with your marketing team.

You don’t have an SEO strategy without considering what type of content to create and how you are going to create it. In a similar way, you don’t have a PPC strategy without considering how you are going to pay for it (i.e., what keywords you are going to target and how much you are going to spend on each click).

So if you are looking to improve your SEO or PPC performance, don’t think that you are going to tackle one strategy and then move on to the other. Instead, work on both of them at the same time.

Do Your Research And Make Strategic Decisions

When approaching a new marketing strategy, you first need to do your research. Without this step, you are simply flying blind.

After gathering as much information as possible, you can move on to the next step and make some strategic decisions. For example, do you want to focus on gaining more traffic from organic searches or pay-per-click ads?

Before you start any type of marketing campaign, you should have a clear idea of how well you are performing in the industry. By taking the time to do your research, you can easily identify any weaknesses you may have and work on fixing them. In addition, you can use this information to make smarter decisions about your marketing strategy. For example, if you find that you are not performing well in terms of traffic, it may be a sign that your marketing efforts are not paying off and you should consider changing gears.

Content Is Still King (And Queen)

Back in the day, you wouldn’t have found many marketers who wouldn’t have agreed that content is king.

These days, that statement still holds true. While there are many methods to gain more traffic on your website, the best way to do so is by creating valuable content.

According to HubSpot Blogs research, 76% of people in marketing agree that “content is King” while only 16% disagree. It seems that people have not changed their tune; they’ve just adapted their approach.

If you want to attract visitors to your website and turn them into leads and customers, you need to create content that is helpful, interesting, and most importantly, valuable. And to make sure your content is valuable, you need to ensure that it is of good quality. Good quality implies that the content is:

• Useful
• Actual research
• Creative
• Highly relevant to your target audience
• Pro-active (not just passive)
• Well-written
• Accurate

To create value, you need to combine traditional marketing methods with digital marketing. That’s because people in digital marketing have shown that value-adding content works better in getting organic traffic (i.e., without using paid services).

Mobile Is The New Desktop

These days, more people access the internet via mobile devices than they do via desktop computers. And that’s not a fluke. According to Cisco, 95% of people in the world will be using mobile devices to access the internet in 2020.

Desktop vs mobile. Which is the king?

Depending on which stats you believe, mobile may actually be the king. But it doesn’t really matter which one you believe is the king so long as you start acting like it.

Because of its user-friendly nature and the convenience of having all of the apps at your fingertips, desktop computers have largely become obsolete when it comes to accessing the internet. For example, did you know that 90% of people who use WhatsApp to communicate with people they don’t know personally already know each other?

So if you want to market to consumers on the internet, you need to consider mobile as a viable platform, especially if your target audience is likely to be searching from a mobile device.

Make Sure Your Campaigns Are Trackable And Measurable

If you want to be able to determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, you need to make sure that you track and measure all of the metrics associated with it.

Most marketing campaigns can be tracked and measured based on three main metrics:

• Volume of traffic (i.e., how many people are visiting your website or landing page)
• Where those visitors are coming from (i.e., organic search results, paid search ads, referral links, etc.)
• How much revenue you are generating from these sources (i.e., the money you are making from charging for products or subscriptions)

Keep in mind that not all online marketing strategies are created equal, and you may have to adjust your approach based on which metrics you are seeing. For example, if you only tested a paid search campaign and the results are underwhelming, it may be time to switch gears and try a different approach.

Plan And Work Toward Reaching Your Target Audience

When approaching a new marketing plan, you need to consider how much time you have to dedicate to it and how much you are willing to spend on it.

If you are looking to grow your business quickly, you can’t simply focus on attracting as many visitors as possible via the internet. Instead, you need to set a goal and work toward reaching it. Once you start seeing the results of your efforts, you can determine the worthiness of the strategy you implemented.