PPC · 3 September 2026 · 5 min

PPC and SEO should share one keyword map

Paid and organic teams that will not look at each other's queries are paying twice to learn the same lesson.

Search terms from a well-run Google Ads account are the most honest keyword research you can buy. They show the language that survives contact with a wallet. Organic reports show which of those terms you can win without renting them. The two lists should be one document.

Split the work by time, not by ego

Terms you can rank for in a quarter belong primarily to SEO, with paid used to learn the message. Terms dominated by marketplaces, or by brands with a decade of links, stay in paid until the organic page deserves the click. Revisit the split every month. The point of SEO is to retire rent where you can.

Tracking before creative

If form fills are counted twice and phone calls are not counted at all, both channels will optimise for the wrong win. Agree what a lead is, pass it once, and let the landing page use the same offer the ad just made. Mixed messages are the quiet budget leak.

Negatives matter as much as keywords. A query you do not want — jobs, free, the wrong town, a product you dropped — should be excluded in paid and noindexed or unanswered in organic. One map, two tools, no contradictions.