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6 ways to increase your CTR organically

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Trudy Seeger
6 ways to increase your CTR organically

A call-to-action button is only as wide as to have 'Click here,' 'Buy Now.' 'Start your free trial today' written on it.

I am sure if we could, we will write:

‘Please click, you won’t be disappointed’

‘Please, don’t be a cold-hearted customer and click’

‘Don’t be a mere spectator, just click to become a subscriber.’

‘Please, please, I beg you to just click once’

‘Please click, my life depends on it’

Or whatever we could to implore them to click just so that we can see the click-through-rate CTR go up.

But we don't have to do that because, luckily, there are organic ways to improve your CTR. In this blog, we will discuss six ways you can use to help your CTR grow.

Before we start with it, let’s just recall the formula of CTR and how it is calculated.

Simply, CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on your link divided by the total number of viewers who visited the SERP.

 

But, wait a minute.

If you are raking at the top of SERP, doesn't it naturally mean more clicks? After all, we have been told that the top five links get 67% of organic clicks.

So, why we have to monitor CTR as an independent metric?

Here’s why:

See, you might be at the top of SERP, but if your CTR is low, it means people see you, but not clicking on your link. Google sees it and realizes 'maybe you aren't adding any value to the users, and you may not belong here.’

What will happen next?

You'll begin slipping from the top position, and who knows where this fall will stop.

So, only ranking at the top isn't going to cut it. You have to optimize the links to increase your CTR.

Now coming back to our six ways to increase your CTR organically… here are a few tricks for you:

1.    What’s working and what’s not

Your website will have hundreds of pages. Not all of them would have poor CTR, and similarly, not all will have CTR going through the roof.

So, you have to identify the pages that are pegging your CTR average down.

Start by visiting the Google Search Console to check this data.

Go to Performance > Select Queries > Check Average CTR.

Here is what you will see:

The one with the lowest CTR should get your attention first.

2.    Play with the title

After identifying low CTR links, it is time to fix the issues to improve CTR. The first thing that you should look at is the title.

Is it catchy or boring?

Is it urging the user to click?

Is it properly formatted?

  • Choose your words wisely.

An optimal title length is 60 characters. After that, the title is cut with ellipses. So, make sure you use every character to extract the full value. Try to fit your title within 60 characters so the users can get the idea about the content just by looking at the title.

  • Add elements to it

It is no secret that listicle headlines have more probability of being clicked (damn you, Buzzfeed).For example: ‘Why freelance work is future of work industry’ or ‘7 signs that tell freelance work is future of work industry’.

Which will you click? Of course, the one with numbers because you know you’ll get the entire picture n just 7 points.

If you’re trying to be cheeky, add (number X will make you start freelancing today). A HubSpot study found that headlines with brackets get 40% more clicks.

Listicles have numbers, and research shows that headlines with numbers boost CTR by 36%. Also, this kind of content requires minimal up-gradation.

Once you have created it, just change the year, and add fresh details to it. Bam! Talk about low-maintenance content.

  • Personal

Your title shouldn't be: 'Here's what I'm telling you.' Instead, it should be: "Here's something you should know that will benefit you."

Being personal gets you more clicks. Like: ‘5 self-help tips that help me overcome anxiety’ instead of ‘How to overcome your anxiety

  • Check your title

When you have added all the elements to your elements and are all set to publish it, take a moment and test it to see if it can still be improved.

There are many tools that let you test your titles and headlines. For example, the schedule is a great tool to check your headlines.

 

Source

It will give the website a score out of 100 for a number of factors like length, power, emotions, words, etc.

You can also post the content on social media multiple times with different titles. It will give you an idea of which is the most suitable headline that people are clicking on.

3.    Meta description

The meta description is the summary of your content.

The title gives an idea, while the meta gives details. Many viewers read the meta description to decide whether the page content is relevant to their search or not.

An ideal meta description should be 150 to 160 characters long.

Add long-tail keywords in the description for the understanding of the viewers. These keywords are highlighted if they match the users’ query. So, if you have done keyword research right, you can benefit from it.

The use of words should be persuasive, like "exciting,' 'surprising,' 'unbelievable’ etc.

The highlighted example in the image below is a perfect meta description. It lists all the tools that are featured in the blog.

4.    Improve URLs

URLs are often ignored in SEO. They shouldn’t be.

When it comes to CTR< URL, are your place to fit the keyword so that they can rank for a specific query.

See this for example:

The URL mentions the keyword ‘writingtoolsforwriters’. Also, the path to the URL is also given.

The length of URL length, its path, and categories can also affect search results.

So, for an improved CTR, it is important to add a keyword in the URL, mention its path, and show which category it is placed into.

5.    Site speed optimization

What purpose will CTR optimization serve if your website is slow to load?

Even if you nail the headline, write a perfectly crafted meta description, create a URL that clearly mentions the path, but if the link takes more than 3 seconds to open, all your effort will go to the dustbin.

Therefore, it is important to reduce your website's load time and also make sure it loads fast on all kinds of devices.

6.    Track changes

After you have implemented all the changes, it is now time to check whether it increased your CTR or not.

Are your links converting from viewers to buyers/subscribers? Because that is crucial and here’s why: https://growthproton.com/blog/conversion-tracking/

To check the conversions, you can use one of many conversion tracking tools. Here are some of them:

  • Google Analytics: This allows you to track link clicks on your site.
  • Crazy Egg heat map: This allows you to know which parts on your website are being clicked the most

  • Visual Website Optimizer: Shows you exactly where the users are clicking and show a lined path to trace users’ journeys on the page

Final words

Search Engine Optimization and CTR optimization go hand in hand. After all, it’s all about the clicks.

Your CTR will depend upon how well you are capturing the audiences’ minds in those fractions of seconds from the loading of results on the SERP and clicking on the very first link.

If your headline is outstanding, the meta description is well crafted; the site will load faster than you can say the word 'load' and URL clearly defines where the user will go, then, believe me, your CTR is only going one way – up.

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Trudy Seeger
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