You’ve probably already heard that SEO and SEM efforts should be integrated. But why should they be integrated? And what are the benefits of synergy between them? And with social now becoming a larger part of the picture, where does that fit in? I was recently at the BrightEdge Share11 conference and there was a big emphasis on campaign integration. Their stance was pretty much the same as ours, plain and simple: PPC, SEO, and social campaigns should not be divvied up into three separate campaigns, run by three separate non-communicating departments. Now before you write this off and say to yourself your search campaigns function fine as separate efforts, there is credence to this claim. Here’s why.

Understanding the dynamics, strategy, and pace behind both SEO and PPC, it’s understandable why many businesses choose to separate them. But if your teams aren’t communicating, they’re missing out on some key opportunities to improve online marketing performance as a whole.

For example, from an SEO perspective, using the right keywords is the foundation to strategy and ongoing implementation (everything from meta descriptions  to link building efforts center on a cohesive and comprehensive keyword approach). This is where paid search becomes crucial—generating some of these keywords.  Using paid search data, you can better understand user search trends and use the data to produce a much more concentrated keyword strategy that targets the right audience. Asking these three questions can be a good place to start:

1. What keywords lead to a high bounce rate?

These keywords may not be right for the SEO strategy. Maybe they’re not considering the intent of the user. Maybe your business should create content that more closely matches the relevance of the keyword and the intent of the user. For any content that needs to be added or modified, you’ll inevitably need to go back to the SEO roundtable. You may come up with more questions than answers initially, but it will get your mind going in the right direction—and the answers you might have to dig up are likely going to be illuminating.

2. What keywords had high engagement?

Those keywords could be incorporated into your social media profiles and posts.

3.What keywords lead to high conversions?

These are keywords that should be dominant players in your SEO strategy, especially for sites where leads or conversions are essential. Keywords with high engagement are worth considering for brand SEO campaigns as well.

Using paid search to your advantage when you’re improving your site for SEO purposes can be the difference between a conversion and a bounce.

Now on to social. Although advertising in social media is a relatively new initiative for most brands, it is nonetheless an ever growing and evolving practice in search marketing. If you liken a company’s social campaign to their digital presence and overall reputation on the web, then you can see why it is often in the hands of PR agencies (larger companies) or CMOs (smaller companies). But what gives agencies like us an edge, is a clearer understanding of how to optimize these assets based on algorithmic trends. More importantly, as Google and Bing continue to catch on to this trend and really understand the role it plays in digital branding, social influence itself will continue to become a larger part of their overall search ranking algorithms—especially with the advent of Google+ pages for businesses (not to mention Microsoft’s relationship with Facebook).

Less than a year ago, SEOmoz did a test to see whether backlinks (SEO strategy) or numerous tweets (social strategy) to promote a given page would rank better in search engine results. With both pages being nearly identical, Page “A” had 646 links from 36 root domains and was tweeted twice. Page B had one link from one root domain and was tweeted 522 times. Page “B” ranked in position 4, while Page “A” wasn’t even on the first page of results. Surprised? Although this wasn’t a scientific test by any means, it adds credence to the theory that sites like Twitter and Facebook can be a valuable part of your SEO/social/brand strategy—and it also makes the need to post better quality social content more apparent (better posts/tweets = more likely to be shared, re-tweeted/re-posted = more likely to rank in organic search results).

Instead of having competitors dominate important search real estate, why not maximize your brand presence by optimizing the brand site and social profiles through SEO and promote any contest or promotions through social networks simultaneously? It’s a two birds with one stone thing. Add paid search into the mix and it’s three birds.

Your key takeaway should be this: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Using a synergistic strategy can help enhance your marketing campaigns in ways that you wouldn’t expect; and definitely in ways that each campaign couldn’t do for your brand independently.