
30 second summary:
- Problems with increasing your website's organic traffic can be due to low organic click-through rates.
- Creative title tags can help your website make a positive first impression.
- Limit your meta description to under 160 characters to avoid being cut off.
- A well-optimized, keyword-rich URL can increase organic click-through rates by 45%.
- Use the power of rich results to steal SERP real estate from your competitors.
Getting featured on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is a must for any business looking to grow their online presence and market share. However, if you want to increase your website traffic or increase sales, it is not enough to just appear on the first page. With Google's gradual switch from a search engine to an answer engine, more and more search users are completing their search without leaving the SERPs. In order to win in today's zero-click era, it is of the utmost importance for companies to occupy more properties in SERPs and to make searching for users more visually attractive. If your website is unlucky to increase organic traffic, your problems may be due to low organic click-through rates (CTR). Improving click performance is essential to long-term online success with and outside of Google.
So what can you do to improve your website's organic CTR?
Whether you run an e-commerce store, run a cooking blog, or manage your client's website, these five proven techniques to improve click-through rate will positively increase your organic click-through rates and lead to more targeted traffic to your website.
And the best part about it? All of these techniques are easy to implement and are under your control.
Let's begin.
1. Get creative with your title tags
A traditional organic SERP list has three main elements:
Heading: A blue clickable link showing the title of the page.
Description: A short excerpt of what content can be found on the page.
Url: The internet address of a specific web resource.
The title tag of your search listing (the heading) is very important to both the search engine and the users. Search engines use your as an HTML element Title tag to better understand the information contained on the site.
Searching visitors, on the other hand, use the title tag found in SERPs to get a first impression of your company. Since it comes in an eye-catching blue color, the way you create your title tag can be a big factor in clickability and can have an impact on organic CTR.
Search results aren't the only places title tags are used, however. Because the
So how should you write title tags to make them irresistible to visitors?
Here are five basics you can use when writing title tags
Aim for a title tag of 35-55 characters
According to research by Backlinko Title tags between 15 and 40 characters have the highest click rate. However, such a short title can be challenging – how do you tailor your keywords and make the title tag compelling?
In my experience, the sweet spot for a title tag is 35-55 characters long. A length in this range will keep the title tag short and punchy and ensure it won't get cut off in search results, which is generally the case at around 60 characters or 600 pixels.
Use tools like SERP simulator and SERP Preview Tool for checking the length of title tags.
Move your primary keyword closer to the beginning
Frontloading your title tag with your target keyword increases awareness of that keyword and gives greater weight to its importance. Plus, most users usually only see that The first two words a specific heading. Putting your keyword at the beginning will make the keyword clearer and more relevant to users who scan the SERPs.
Never keyword stuff
While keyword placement is essential, avoid titles that are just populated with irrelevant keywords or variations of your target keyword. Title tags filled with keywords are unattractive to search users and CTR killers.
Highlight the capitalization
Capitalizing the first letter of every word in your title tag is a common copywriting best practice. To make your title tag stand out and make effective words stand out, occasionally capitalize on odd words.
Minimize the use of stop words
Stop words like "a", "the", "on", "or" and "etc." can unnecessarily extend your already restricted character limit. Use impactful words like "Best", "Exclusive", "Insane", etc. to better position your title tag.
Once you've mastered the art of writing title tags, it's time to move on to the next step.
2. Meta descriptions
The snippet under the heading in the SERPs is often (but not always) pulled from the meta description of your page. As an HTML element, a meta description is also used to summarize the content of a website.
And like your page title, a well-written meta description can have a positive impact on click-through rates.
These 155 characters can influence 43% of search users to click on your page. And with nine out of ten Search users who click organic search results or paid advertisements provide meta descriptions to help drive attention to your website.
How do I write the perfect meta description?
If you want to write the most compelling meta description for search results, you should search for SERPs first. Knowing what your competitors are doing will give you a better idea of which descriptions are clickable for your target audience.
Here is a quick checklist to help you make sure your Meta description is very clickable::
- Stick to Google's optimal length
To optimize your meta description, keep the mobile search page summary below 160 characters and 130 characters.
- Add your most important keywords
Make sure to include your target keywords in the description so that they are highlighted in bold in search results.
Avoid generic descriptions as much as possible to create additional snippets that will entice search users to click.
- Do not duplicate descriptions
The pages of your website should contain unique meta descriptions. Duplicating descriptions can cause Google to penalize your website.
- Add a call to action
- To add value to your description and get more clicks, write your description with advertising in mind.
If your website has many pages, focus only on optimizing the most important ones. Why do you ask this?
Because Google ignores the meta description tag for 63% of inquiries. It's not worth focusing on pages that are getting little SERP visibility, especially if Google's descriptions work equally well sometimes better as custom descriptions.
Now that we've covered Title Tags and Meta Description, it's time to turn our attention to URLs.
3. Use descriptive URLs
The third element of a traditional search list is your page URL. And studies have shown that a well-optimized, keyword-rich URL can 45% increase in organic click rate.
When it comes to URLs in search results, you'd rather not click example.com/blog/ten-tips-for-seo-success rather than example.com/index.php?=5754225=t44=?p=987?
What are the steps to take to create clickable SEO friendly URLs?
The first step is to include the exact keyword that you want to target in your URL.
Avoid using special characters, stop words, and numbers when writing your URL. Special characters like the ampersand or "&" and numbers are best for your page title tag or Header tag. Also, use only lowercase letters and hyphens to separate words instead of underscores.
Lastly, keep your URL length short. Some studies have shown that there is a correlation between shorter URLs and higher rankings. The average URL length of the top ten ranking pages is 66 characters.
Now that you understand the basic SERP strategies for increasing CTR performance, let's take a look at two advanced techniques you can use on your website.
4. Turn your title tag donkeys into CTR unicorns
While it can be tempting to just write a title tag and forget about it, you need to constantly tweak your title tags to get the best results from your organic listing. As Larry Kim shows, this requires testing new variations and measuring their performance.
The best way to fully optimize your title tags is to identify the worst performers on your website. We call these title tags your donkey. The best way to see which title tags are underperforming is to go to Google Search Console and download your query data.
Once you have your query data, draw a graph that compares your click-through rates to the average position for all of the queries you ranked for in organic search. Add a trend line to your chart.
After you've created your chart, target the keywords below the chart curve. These are your website's biggest donkeys, the pages with the highest number of impressions, but delivering a lower click-through rate than expected for their ranking position.
To maximize your efforts, instead of testing new title tags and comparing their performance over time, consider doing some Google ad lightning tests.
Blitz testing involves creating a series of ads for the page you are optimizing and testing at least 10 different headings. 10 headlines are the bare minimum for lightning testing as it gives you a better chance of finding the headline that will resonate with your audience.
When you find your statistical unicorn from the Google Ads test, use this heading as the title tag on your newly optimized page.
The final hack we're going to look at not only brings more visibility to your listing, but it has been shown to bring in too 2.7x more traffic from organic search.
5. Rich results
The power of use rich snippets Allows your listing to occupy more SERP real estate and enhance the visual elements of your SERP result, making your website increase organic click-through rate while also being satisfying Search intent.
In order to be successful with extensive snippets from the organic search, it is worth knowing the most common schema types. While there are dozens of different rich snippets available, not all of them can be customized for your business. Some are event specific like flight information.
The most common schema types that work for the majority of the companies participating in the SERPs are:
- Check sections: Displays an asterisk and a numeric rating below the meta description.
- Recipe-rich data snippet: Provides a step-by-step overview of a specific recipe.
- How-to snippets: Provides step-by-step instructions for a specific task.
- Sitelinks: Adds navigation links to key pages on your website below the meta description.
- Search field snippet: Displays your site's internal search box in SERPs.
- Product detail: Displays product information (price, ratings, stock availability) in SERPs.
- Video snippet: Displays video information (thumbnail URL, upload date, transcription, etc.) in SERPs.
- FAQ snippet: Presents frequently asked questions and answers in search results.
Now that you have a better understanding of the types of rich snippets available, follow this seven step process to publish structured data on your site:
- Visit google Structured data markup helper.
- Select the type of snippet you want to create.
- Paste your URL or HTML source into the markup helper.
- Select the page elements to be included in the structured data.
- Press the Create HTML Button.
- Copy your generated structured data and paste it into the HTML of your page.
- Preview and test your new rich snippet in Google Extensive result test.
Once you've run your test, your schema markup will generate a report detailing the eligibility of your rich snippet. The information also indicates any problems or warnings that must be resolved before your page can be published.
It should be noted, however, that validating structured data in your page's code does not automatically guarantee that a large snippet will appear in your search list. Google always gives the search user the best search experience that sometimes doesn't require a large snippet.
Now it is your turn
By using the strategies above, your website can experience more organic traffic. This can significantly contribute to greater overall online success and, ultimately, higher website conversions. In addition, the strategies provided here increase website traffic without creating more content Building further links.
Since organic click-through rates are already declining, adapting these tips and tactics to your website can help your brand stay competitive in the current zero-click search landscape.
And the best part about it? All of the strategies mentioned here can also be used by any company, regardless of SEO experience or marketing budget.
Karl Tablante is Inbound Marketing Manager at SEO Sherpa.