How To Increase Your Search Click-Through Rate

How To Increase Your Search Click-Through Rate

 

How To Increase Your Search Click-Through Rate

 

What happened?

You have created a website! But nobody is visiting! We understand your problem, but don’t worry it is just a nightmare. Everything will be all right soon.

We are here to discuss this issue of how to increase your search click-through rate. Every action in digital marketing does not give immediate results.

It is a long-term process, but nothing is impossible.

Many times you have got a lot of opportunities in order to grow your business. You have got many options to grow your business when you have improved on your search performance, your quality score, open rate and even click-through rate (CTR).

According to ComScore

The statistics showed that around or on an average 12 billion web searches per month were conducted alone in the US.

What do you think, what were the searchers looking for?

The answer is “Useful Information”

Basically, the searchers were looking for the content that contains useful information.

The content can be in any form whether, a blog post, an article, a video, an infographic or a podcast. That means if you wish to drive more and more traffic to your website, then you should have to improve your Click-Through Rate (CTR).

Now the question is how to increase your search Click-Through Rate. This article will walk you through all the necessary points on how to increase your search Click-Through Rate.

The search click-through rates, in order to attract more and more targeted traffic, boost your sales as well as build your quality score with your e-mail list.

So, let’s get started!

 

How to Increase Your Search Click-Through Rate

 

#1 Write Attractive Headlines

First thing what your customers will see and gets attracted is with the Headlines. This is one of the most important points to how to increase your search Click-through rate.

Approx. 78% of the marketers in the UK are increasing the quantity of content that they create. But the main challenge is how to stand out and attract high CTRs.According to Content Marketing Institute

This is the one way to stand out, in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Page) is, you should craft Attention-Grabbing Headlines.

From your content to your banner ads, to your ad copy and even to your email campaigns, with an amazing subject line- attractive headlines pull people to your side.

Now the question is –Why Titles are so important and why does it matter?

The answer is- Because of SERPs.

In SERPs, around 8 out of 10 users will click the title, provided it should be compelling. Simply, it is going to increase your CTR.

Well, it does not matter whether you are ranking as 1 or 10 on the first page of Google, if your headline is compelling, people will definitely get attracted towards you. The same goes for banner ads and creating ad copy. The more your headlines are good and attractive, the more your CTR (Click-Through Rate) will increase. This will also increase your quality score.

Let us understand it with the help of an example. I was searching for some good places I can roam around in North East. And see the result is here.

So, you can see that the headline at the 2nd place, I find it more attractive. The reason behind this is that the headline is more clear, specific and relevant as well. Just because it has clearly mentioned the number of places or number of things you can do in North East.

So, now the next thing is- how do you create concise and compelling headlines to increase your CTR and boost your quality score as well?

One, you can conduct Keyword Research. By including the keywords that rank high on the SERPs but has low competition, you can increase your CTR.

But, analysing viral titles are more effective. You can look for a headline that has the most social shares and generates high traffic.

So, let us all move to Buzzsumo.com. Put in your main keyword, for eg., build a content, and then click on “Go!” button.

You will be guided to the next page, which will be like this.

In the above picture, you can see the first heading, which has nothing to do with the keywords Build a content, still having the highest searches. But that is completely OK! But we can still use it for creating a good headline or brilliant banner ads or an amazing ad copy.

Well, no matters how amazing and attractive your headlines are, always ensure that they are natural, appealing to the users and relevant at the same time. You just have to be creative and think outside the box.

Soon, you will realise that once your users are happy with the headlines you have created, the search engines will improve its quality score and improve its ranking continually.

The reason behind this is- if your users are happy with the page searched, the SERP will take it into account and finds it more useful and thereby increasing the quality score of the page. It’s the Google who serves the users and not the website owners.

 

#2 Optimize Your Meta Descriptions

 

Meta descriptions are an important aspect of On-page SEO.

The second and most important aspect of how to increase your search click-through rate.

Without proper snippet text optimization, your page title will not get the much attention, if it deserves to be. This, in turn, will not increase your CTR.

Image result for meta descriptions

Only Meta Descriptions cannot improve your quality score and search rankings, but yes, it can increase your CTR. This can happen only when you have crafted the Meta Descriptions correctly.

Please note that the length of Meta Descriptions should not exceed 155 characters. It should be well-written, relevant, clear and also interest-piquing. Your Meta Description should be the answer to your customer’s question.

Let us discuss few techniques of writing a Meta Description.

a) Answer to a question– Your Meta Description should provide an answer to their question. This is the whole and sole reason why customers come to Google. If the users find the answer their question in your Meta Description, then half of the battle of improving the click-through rate is won.

Let us take an example of MoneySuperMarket.com

It provides a complete answer to the question their customers are looking for.

This is how it appears on the search engines.

 

This provides an answer to the question of their targeted customers:

“Pay less for your insurance and get more comprehensive coverage for your money by reading our money-saving tricks at MoneySuperMarket”.

b) Be Specific and Relevant– While writing your Meta Description, you should make sure that your Meta Description should very specific and relevant to the point. It should specific and relevant to the keywords people are typing in the search box.

Let us understand this with an example.

Bluenile.com writes clear and compelling Meta Description that inspires the audience to click.

The one ranking second, I find it more compelling, as they are very clear, specific and relevant.

 

#3 Use Rich Snippets

 

Rich Snippets! We always see them in SERPs.

Related image

Let us have a look at the benefits of Rich Snippets:

Increase Click-Through Rate

Gives more and more information and social proof of the result

Drawing the readers eye to more relevant search results

Before clicking only, it helps the user to know what is there on the other side of the link.

Rich Snippets are mainly used by e-commerce website holders because they have the product with customer reviews and ratings. There are two ways of showing these reviews and ratings in search results:

Either coding it manually

Or activating a Rich Snippet plugin

Well, for WordPress users the easiest option is to activate a rich snippet plugin. This is how you can do this:

A) Login to your WordPress dashboard, and click on Plugins and Add New.

B) Type All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets. Install the first one only naming the same as mentioned. Activate it and you are done.

C) After writing the content on your post, scroll down to configure your rich snippet. You have to “select what the post is about”.

D) Select Item review and fill in the name and the item you are reviewing and click on the ratings.

Then publish your post and go to your web page, scroll down and you will be able to see your product’s review and the rich snippets.

And guess what? Your Rich Snippet is now ready and will hope you know how to increase your Click-Through Rate.

 

#4 Use Google Analytics Reports

 

If marketers use their Google Analytics Report properly, then not only they will be able to improve their organic search performance, but also they will increase their landing page conversion rates as well.

This will help in leading to better call to actions, a higher quality score and stronger e-mail campaigns.

image35

 

We usually forget or many times ignore the data that is available on our web pages. If you are aware of how to look Google Analytics Report, then you will be able to see and understand exactly how Google and the users perceive your website’s pages.

Set up a conversion goal

You should analyze bounce rate

Attract the actual visitors

User-friendly website

Provide useful and relevant content

 

#5 You Should Optimize your URL for Users

The last but not the least on how to increase your search click-through rate is that you should optimize your URL for users.

Are your webpage URLs relevant and clickable? Let us take a closer look at this:

We can see above that the first one on the page contains some numerical as well and it is very long. That means it is not user-friendly for Google bots and to search users.

While the 2nd and the 3rd ones are clear, relevant, short and user-friendly. They contain only 3 words which are separated by hyphens (-).

The main purpose to tell you this is that you have to keep your URLs relevant, short and clear to the topic.

But, when you have got the breadcrumbs set up, you don’t have to worry much about the URLs.

Well optimizing the URLs improves the clicks from the search users.

You should remember that the URL of the page should be displayed in the browser. This is because the user is able to see everything. Just like this:

Most of the e-commerce sites have not optimized URLs for their products. So, I am sure Google has penalised them for this reason.

We can see that Amazon is the worst player, in this regard:

Image result for amazon url

It is the incident of the year 2010 when Matt Cutts advised the e-commerce entrepreneurs that if they have store locations in different cities or states, then they should create different unique pages for each one and assign a URL that is crawlable to each store. This will help the Google bot to find and index them.

Google usually views your URLs as an integral part of your On-page SEO. Your homepage should contain the domain name only. This will help the users to easily identify, remember and can directly type the URL into the browser.

Image result for clean simple URLs

 

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter which industry you belong to, your target audience will bring their ultimate problem to your site.

They are the least concern about how awesome your site looks or headline or how amazing your banner ads are. They are just concern that your site or web page help in solving their problem.

If your site is not working properly, there are always ways to improve your current results.

There are other numerous options as well apart from those mentioned above 5.

Use Heatmaps to Improve Site Clicks

Build high-converting landing pages

Breadcrumb navigation should be activated, etc, etc, etc….

I hope we have given you valuable answer to your question how to increase your search Click-through rate.

If you have liked the article how to increase your search Click-through rate, please write to us in the FORM here.

In the meanwhile, please visit our page best SEO books 2018, for a better understanding of SEO.

 

In Your Service

Dhairya Singh Chauhan

 

Digital Dhairya

About the author

Dhairya Singh Chauhan is a Google certified professional who has achieved hundreds of number one rankings over the past 5-years. Dhairya has consulted countless clients on SEO and how to make money online, from small family-owned businesses to international brands.

Leave a Comment