undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Keyword Research
  4. Paid vs Organic Keyword Optimisation

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Paid vs Organic Keyword Optimisation

Keyword Research
3
7
1.2k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • aplnzmarch18
    aplnzmarch18 last edited by Mar 27, 2018, 2:20 PM

    Hi Im wondering whether I should optimise my site with Organic search terms that drive traffic to the site or the paid terms i use in Google search ads?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Smileworks_Liverpool
      Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber last edited by Apr 24, 2018, 6:35 PM Apr 24, 2018, 6:35 PM

      Thanks Christie,

      Yeah we could start a book with that lot right? Sometimes people just disappear. Others will still be able to search it though and get help. 🙂

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Christy-Correll
        Christy-Correll Staff last edited by Apr 24, 2018, 3:30 PM Apr 24, 2018, 3:30 PM

        Hi aplnzmarch18, did you see Ed's last response to your question? He's left some extremely thoughtful replies, btw. If any response helped resolve your issue, please mark it as a "good answer." If not, please give us more details so we can help, thanks!

        Christy 🙂

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Smileworks_Liverpool
          Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber last edited by Apr 5, 2018, 4:12 AM Apr 5, 2018, 4:12 AM

          Yes you should.  Ad Words results are a brilliant source of insight that informs your organic efforts.  And organic is a brilliant source of insight that informs your AdWords strategy.

          But remember Ad Words works a little differently to organic so you add in each keyword permutation or use logical expressions to help google understand when you want your ads to appear.  So in AdWords you may want to show for

          "Veneers Cost", "Veneers price", "cost of veneers", "price of veneers", "what's the price of veneers", "how much do veneers cost" etc.

          If you put all these permutations exact match into your organic page ten you're going to get an over-optimisation problem because google considers them all to be the same in organic.  So it will think you are keyword stuffing. Just pick the most natural sounding ones from each 'topic' and optimise for them.  Remember it's ot optimising for 'keywords' anymore it's optimising for 'topics'

          So optimise for your google PPC words, of course.  But beware that often google will consider similar terms as meaning the same thing and you might end up with over-optimisation by keyword stuffing.

          Give me an example specifically of what you're trying to do and I'll help you with more detail.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • aplnzmarch18
            aplnzmarch18 @Smileworks_Liverpool last edited by Apr 4, 2018, 7:48 PM Apr 4, 2018, 7:48 PM

            So  in terms of on- page optimisation should I be trying to optimise for words that we bid on in google search adverts AND organic search terms that drive organic traffic to our site? I was thinking there would be benefits from being optimized for these paid words as it would reduce what we spend etc

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Smileworks_Liverpool
              Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber last edited by Mar 28, 2018, 7:26 AM Mar 28, 2018, 7:25 AM

              Also the mighty Rand (who is always right about everything) say's 'don't take an advertising first approach' https://moz.com/blog/why-paid-ads-fail see it here and my own experience of this is spookily precisely what he describes.  We did paid at first when we were new and nobody clicked.  It barely broke even and those ads were really great ads with a low agency fee.

              Now we are augmenting our number one positions with paid ads and killing it and also squeezing competitors out of the market and making them suffer by starting bidding wars.  Some of them have just given up ad words. SO top organic spots put you in a strong position.  The strongest position.

              What happens is you overtake a competitor in the serp and they think OMG I need ad words! Then you plonk an ad above them in ad words and they go into a flat spin.

              aplnzmarch18 1 Reply Last reply Apr 4, 2018, 7:48 PM Reply Quote 1
              • Smileworks_Liverpool
                Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber last edited by Mar 28, 2018, 5:26 AM Mar 28, 2018, 5:17 AM

                Optimising for search will create organic traffic - this is 'owed media' - the benefits ow owned media are that it's always there so long as you keep optimising.  But a high ranking page can generate lots of revenue on autopilot for many months and years for just a couple of days research and writing time.  The downsides of this is that you have to be a real expert in your field or have done so much research that you can write like one and know how to optimise to get the high rankings that will generate the traffic and revenue.

                Organic is not immediate.  It might take a month to get your domain authority up to a reasonable level through link-building and then each page might take a week or month to get onto page one and then after a bit of tweaking to position 1-3 (where the money's at.)

                Paid is different - it's immediate.  You don't own it you pay for it.  It's someone else's system (ad words or Facebook) and you're buying their advertising space.  The benefits of this is it can yield instant returns and is extremely flexible so you can run flash sales and offers etc.

                There is a huge amount of research to suggest that the long term benefits and ROI or ROE or ROMS (or whichever metric you go for), of organic far outweigh those of paid.  Because when you turn off paid media it's gone.  Whereas you can't turn off organic, it's evergreen and the traffic just keeps coming.

                If your questions is more about which keywords to use, traffic ones or money ones then this depends on how your site operates.  But always have money in mind if you're running a business or helping someone else with theirs for a fee.  The highest bid PPC keywords are clearly the ones that are going to generate more conversions and money.  Because the huge google marketplace has decided that for you in a billion ways. So if it's a service business and there are people bidding on '[service] cost' then write an article about cost, price comparisons or what people are actually paying for inside the product (is it research (pharma) or the actual materials (jewellery) or the skill of the creator (art) - so that you rank for cost/price.  Or even just put the cost on there. This is something lots of B2B companies don't do - and it's a conversion killer.  People want to know how much something costs.  Like at least a ballpark figure.

                Or if you make your money with the ads network then go you may wish to go after the high traffic keywords and get the traffic so that you get paid more per ad impression. I like to go for both traffic and money.  Why limit yourself to one or the other?  And with traffic comes authority and lots of other benefits, you may find that a bigger site with more traffic is like a snowball and starts attracting links so you can rank better for the money terms too.

                But start small. Everything starts from nothing.  And there'll be niche keywords with moderate traffic and low competition and commercial intent that you can rank for to kick things off.

                That's a difficult question because it's not 100% clear whether you're asking about paid vs organic or traffic keywords vs commercial intent ones.

                Hope this essay helps though. Feel free to ask again if i've misunderstood.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • 1 / 1
                1 out of 7
                • First post
                  1/7
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                Browse Questions

                Explore more categories

                • Moz Tools

                  Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                • SEO Tactics

                  Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                • Community

                  Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                • Digital Marketing

                  Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                • Research & Trends

                  Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                • Support

                  Connect on product support and feature requests.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • Raymonda

                  German Keywords

                  keyword explorer

                  Hi I wanted to check the volume of a keyword in German but unfortunately, it shows no data available.?
                  Is this actually possible to research German keywords with your tool?

                  Keyword Research | Apr 5, 2024, 5:20 PM | Raymonda
                  0
                • Voucherstore 0

                  Choosing the right keywords when the products are similar

                  What keywords should I choose if I have 3 similar products, only the value differs?
                  It is recommended to use the same keyword, and change the value? Example: Product 1: $ 100 discount coupon
                  Keyword: $ 100 discount coupon Product 2: $ 75 discount coupon
                  Keyword:? Product 3: $ 50 discount coupon
                  Keyword:? Any advice? Thank you, Sergio K.

                  Keyword Research | Oct 4, 2021, 6:58 AM | Voucherstore 0
                  0
                • surabhi6

                  How can improve my keywords ranking?

                  My keywords are not in top in 50.So, what kind of activity we do to get in top in 50 rank?

                  Keyword Research | Aug 22, 2014, 8:22 PM | surabhi6
                  0
                • surabhi6

                  Which keywords are sending traffic to my site?

                  I want to know Which keywords are sending traffic to my site?  What type of strategies behind this ?

                  Keyword Research | Jul 2, 2014, 12:29 PM | surabhi6
                  0
                • SSFCU

                  Keyword research tools

                  So I went to a panel a while back that said Wordtracker is basically useless. I'm not using it as an end-all, be-all, but more for insights and context. Do you agree with that statement? The hosting company provides a keyword research tool, so I wasn't sure how seriously to take it. Have you guys been using Bing for the search data previously provided by Google's Keyword Research Tool? Do you find that to be a viable resource? Thanks.

                  Keyword Research | Dec 3, 2013, 9:53 PM | SSFCU
                  0
                • Alchemist23

                  Google Keyword Tool: What is considered a unique keyword?

                  I'm trying to research keywords using Google's Keyword Tool.  After looking at results, I have the following questions: 1.  Does singular/plurals of a word count as two different keywords to Google (ie: photobooth and photobooths)?  Would I need to have a unique page targeting each word or will one page on my site be sufficient for targeting both? 2. I've noticed that different variations of keywords have the same global monthly search results.  This leads me to believe that Google see's all of them as one keyword.  ie: "photo booth props" and "props for a photo booth" and "props with photo booth", all have 22,200 search global monthly search resluts.  On the other hand "moustache prop" and "prop moustache" have different global monthly search results (480 and 590).  Can anyone explain this?

                  Keyword Research | Jan 28, 2013, 6:47 PM | Alchemist23
                  0
                • nathan_lg

                  Plural vs singular keyword usage - on-page optimization

                  The on-page report card appears to include both plural and singular versions of keywords in reporting the keywords within the body, which results in a keyword stuffing warning. My question is, is it truly keyword spamming to use over 15 instances of a keyword that is spread across plural and singular versions of the keyword? If keywords are lumped together this way by Google's algorithms, why do pages rank differently for singular and plural versions of the same keyword?

                  Keyword Research | Dec 5, 2012, 8:47 PM | nathan_lg
                  0
                • Motivators

                  Search Volume vs. CTR

                  Is it better to optimize based on search volume or click through rate? For example: If a keyword has a CTR of 19% and only 3,000 monthly searches, while another keyword that is relevant to that page has a CTR of 0.7% and 20,000 monthly searches, which keyword should that page be optimized for for better natural results and the bottom line?

                  Keyword Research | Sep 28, 2011, 3:32 PM | Motivators
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.