Businesses and website owners must be aware of both link-building and PPC ads. These two marketing tools are equally powerful yet kept separate from one another. Having said that, some people debate whether PPC ads can be used to improve a link-building strategy.
Is this possible? Can you combine the two to create the ultimate website marketing tactic?
The short answer is no – and you crucially need to know this right away. You cannot rely on PPC ads to influence your link-building campaign. As you scroll through this post, we’ll explain the purpose of both PPC and link-building, along with why some people think they go together. It will quickly become apparent why PPC ads are not supposed to be part of your link-building strategy!
What are PPC ads?
PPC stands for pay-per-click and it refers to a popular online advertising method. The core premise behind this is that you pay for an advert whenever someone clicks on it. The amount you pay is established beforehand during a bidding process.
For example, if you run a quick Google search for anything, you’ll see some website links advertised above the organic search results. These are PPC ads. Different companies have bid on specific keywords to ensure their ads are shown on this particular search results page. Competitive keywords will command higher rates because more people are bidding, and the closer your ad is to the top of the page, the more expensive it tends to be.
In this scenario, imagine the cost-per-click for your advert is $1. Every time a user clicks on the advert, you pay $1 to Google Ads. It’s the same on other advertising platforms as well – like Facebook, Instagram, X, Bing, etc. This is one of the most popular marketing services, and it’s something a marketing company is highly likely to help you with. Most beginners are encouraged to work with experts as this is a tricky field to navigate and you don’t want to waste money.
What is link building?
Link building forms a critical part of your general SEO strategy. Most people recognize SEO as the practice of improving your site’s search engine performance. You’re optimizing it to appear highly in search engine results pages, which theoretically leads to more clicks.
What some people aren’t aware of are the two major sides of SEO:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
On-page SEO is more widely talked about and includes everything from the technical layout and makeup of your site to your content strategy. In simpler terms, it covers everything you can change or tweak ON your site to improve its search engine ranking.
Off-page SEO looks at the opposite. It deals with factors OFF your site that still influence its search performance.
Link building is one of the biggest off-page SEO factors to focus on. Here, your aim is to generate backlinks to your site from a myriad of sources. In theory, if you’ve got multiple sources from across the internet linking to your pages, it sends out the right signals to search engines. Google looks at this and thinks it means you’re a valuable source of information. Therefore, they bump your site up the rankings for the relevant keyword searches.
Do PPC ads count towards link building?
In fairness, you can see where this question comes from.
If link building relies on links directing people to your site, surely PPC ads are an example of this? You’ve literally got a link or an advert that users click on and are taken directly to your website. Surely this means you’re building links, right?
Wrong. PPC ads do not count towards link building at all. For one, Google is pretty strong on its stance about paid links. It will not count links you’ve paid for if they directly try to influence your web traffic. A PPC link is a clear example of this.
Secondly, Google knows where your links come from. They detect the origin of the link and can check the domain authority. The higher the DA from your backlinks, the better this looks for your site. It shows you’re being linked to from some of the most recognized and reputable sites on the internet.
An advert is an advert – it does not carry a domain authority score. Google recognizes that it is an advertisement, so it will not have any bearing on your link-building strategy. So, if you think you can influence your link-building regime by paying for loads of ads and getting links that way, you need to think again!
What are the best ways to build backlinks?
Link building should never be ignored as it’s one of the biggest search engine ranking factors. Nevertheless, you must do it correctly to see the desired results and avoid being penalized by Google.
Here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Never pay directly for links (you can pay for link-building services, but ensure they provide the links organically via content placements, etc.)
- Don’t spam your links in the comment sections of other websites
- Don’t create your own blog network and link back to your site
- Publish guest posts on other sites with a good DA score and include a backlink
- Work with a blogger outreach network to find bloggers who’ll be willing to make great content on their sites with a link back to yours
- Register your business at online directories like Yelp
- Create content that ranks well in search engines and is valuable enough for people to want to reference
There are plenty of link-building strategies to explore, but the key message is to avoid paying directly for links. Focus on generating links from reputable sources with a high DA – and remember that your PPC ads do not count as backlinks.
You can (and should) use PPC and link-building together as parts of an all-encompassing marketing strategy. PPC should focus on advertising your business and generating more clicks, forming a core aspect of your lead generation funnel. Combined with great landing pages, you can elicit many conversions. Link building operates separately and will help to improve your organic SEO.