Should you rely on SEO — or Google Ads PPC — to grow your wellness business? Actually, “both” is a usually a better answer than “either/or.” The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
SEO is the long play. Done right, it leads to gradual, sustainable growth by filling the top and middle of your sales funnel.
PPC is the quick hit play. Done right, it produces instant customer and revenue growth by targeting people near the end of their buying process, when they’re looking to make a purchase decision.
Think of SEO and PPC as the yin and the yang of online advertising for businesses like wellness centers, medical practices, health and fitness businesses, and weight loss/healthy lifestyle programs.
Ignore one, and you miss out on eight essential marketing opportunities to:
1. Stake out more real estate on the SERP
Typically the top 3 positions on the search engine results page (SERP) are Google Ads followed by the Google My Business listings — and then the organic listings appear. If the only place your CrossFit box shows up is in the organic listings, it’s likely that many prospects will simply never make it that far down the page.
2. Tap into high-potential keywords for SEO initiatives
Look no farther than your top-converting PPC keywords and the underlying search queries. After all, these are phrases that actual potential members, patients or clients used to find your business.
3. Tailor the timing and content of your organic and PPC campaigns to seasonal trends
Use your website’s analytics to take a deep dive into your organic search activity. When do you see recurring peaks and valleys in organic traffic? Which content is popular during which selling seasons? Where on your site do you see organic traffic peaks and valleys?
4. Increase overall click-through
In general, you can expect higher overall click-through rates (CTR) when paid ads for your yoga studio appear on the same page near your yoga studio’s organic listings in Google or Bing search results.
How much higher? A Microsoft survey found that when an individual brand held both the top paid listing and the top organic listing for a given search, it received over 90% of the clicks.
5. Seize an “unfair” competitive advantage
Google Ads’ auction insights and our professional site analytics tools provide deep insight into who your health club’s real competitors are and how exactly they’re competing. For example, which keywords are they targeting? Which ads are performing best?
Then, apply that insight to your organic search campaigns. Custom reporting drills into the websites and PPC activity of your Google Ads gym competition. It gives you the detailed information you need to tailor your site content to the topics of most interest to your potential members. It also helps you highlight your competitive advantages and their fitness center’s weaknesses and deficiencies.
6. Buy time for your SEO to “catch up”
Use PPC to boost your brand awareness instantaneously while your SEO “catches up.” Many, many clients tell us that their biggest issue is invisibility. They do a great job of converting prospective clients — once the prospect finds them. PPC closes this gap overnight.
7. Multiply your channel visibility
Combine PPC campaigns and SEO strategies to multiply the number of channels where your wellness center is visible. We no longer live in a one-channel world. Health and wellness prospects nearly always make multiple trips to your site — via PPC ads, your Google My Business listing, SERP (search engine results), Facebook or Yelp and finally, via direct visits to your site — before they decide to reach out and, eventually, become your customer. If you’re not there, guess what — someone else is. And they get the click.
8. Better optimize your landing pages
Analyze organic engagement statistics across your site in Google Analytics for insight on how to optimize your PPC landing pages. Then, analyze engagement statistics for your post-click PPC traffic as it moves around your site. Where do you see behavioral differences between your PPC and your organic traffic? Which pages and what kind of content attracts the most interest and results in the longest time on site? Which pages do your prospects typically exit from? What’s the first information they look for?
The ROI on Google Ads’ pay per click campaigns is sizable, even when your budget’s comparatively small. Combine it with the ROI from a high-quality search optimization initiative, and it’s often the fastest and most profitable way to grow your health and wellness business.
