It’s a common problem among marketers: you have an otherwise strong site, but a low organic click through rate. Addressing this issue effectively is key to your overall success.
This isn’t mere speculation. Marketers used to debate whether organic CTR even impacts a site’s ranking on Google search engine results pages. Those days are over. A recent Moz study indicates RankBrain places a high value on organic CTR when determining a site’s position. Clearly, fixing your low CTR needs to be a major priority.
The following essential tips will help. Apply them to your strategy, and you’ll draw a lot more traffic to your site.
Perfect Your Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions tell potential visitors what type of content they can expect to find if they click a link to your site on a SERP. Thus, they obviously play a major role in boosting your organic CTR.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to maximize character count. According to Search Engine Land, the average length of a snippet viewed on a mobile device now sits at 130 characters. With mobile browsing now more popular than desktop browsing, it’s clear that expanding the length of your meta descriptions isn’t the best way to improve them.
Instead, remember to adhere to the latest best practices when writing meta descriptions. Include the most important keywords, but make sure the copy itself sounds like something a human would write. Stuffing your descriptions with keywords can make them come across as spammy. It’s also important to not use duplicate meta descriptions. Each page on your site needs its own unique snippet.
Craft Emotional Titles
Marketers can focus so much on including the right keywords in their page titles that they overlook the power of emotional language.
Tapping into a potential visitor’s emotions is a simple way to hook them. An article titled “10 Budget-Friendly Dinner Recipes” will attract fewer clicks than one titled “Save Money & Savor Every Meal: 10 Low-Cost Dinner Recipes Your Family Will Love.”
Consider having a copy of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (shown below) on hand when creating and titling content. This simple reference can help you determine which emotions your content corresponds to.
Of course, it’s always smart to A/B test various titles. Monitoring their performance will help you better understand what factors yield a high organic CTR. You might also consider testing various headlines on Facebook. Titles that result in high engagement levels on social media will typically have a similar impact on organic CTR.
Include Numbered Lists
While SEO best practices are constantly changing, some tried and true strategies will always be effective. For instance, titles that indicate a page’s content features a numbered list usually result in twice as many clicks as “How to” titles. Additionally, odd-numbered lists attract 20% more traffic than even-numbered lists. Organizing your content into an odd-numbered list (and crafting a headline accordingly) is a simple way to boost your CTR.
Localize Your Content
The rising popularity of mobile browsing has also impacted the importance of localization in SERP positions. The Moz graphic shown below illustrates the shift:
Proximity now plays a major role in your page’s ranking. This makes sense. When someone searches for a business via a mobile device, Google accounts for their location in order to display relevant pages. The higher your position, the higher your organic CTR will be.
Thus, localizing content when appropriate is key to getting noticed. Make sure your copy indicates where your business is located.
This strategy won’t merely boost your CTR. If you run a brick-and-mortar business, it will also help you attract more customers.
Get Personal
Marketing experts who’ve tested headlines with personal, human language have found that such language has a positive impact on organic CTR. A headline that reads “5 Best Fitness Apps for the iPhone” typically won’t receive as many clicks as one that reads “These Are Our Top 5 Picks for the Best iPhone Fitness Apps.”
The “content is king” trend has predictably resulted in a lot of similar-sounding content and headlines. Adjusting your titles so they sound more personal and human is an easy way to stand out among the competition.
Include Video
Generating video content may be slightly more expensive and time-consuming than sticking with written content exclusively, but the rewards are worth the investment. One study indicates video content receives a 41% higher organic CTR than written content.
Additionally, HubSpot predicts video will account for more than 80% of internet traffic in 2019. It’s easy to understand why. Video is more dynamic than mere written copy. It allows marketers to forge emotional connections with customers more easily. Additionally, it offers unique branding opportunities. Investing in a video content strategy will boost your organic CTR and ensure your overall content strategy is designed with current trends in mind.
…And Images
Obviously, you probably won’t ignore written content entirely moving forward. It should still play a role in your marketing efforts. However, it’s important to break up written content with images.
Boosting your organic CTR involves improving your general SEO strategy. Content that’s strong on all fronts SEO-wise will improve your ranking in SERPs. As we’ve established, a high ranking tends to result in a high organic CTR.
That’s why including images is so important. First, it helps to make your content scannable on mobile devices. With more people browsing the internet via mobile now, it’s more important than ever to avoid large chunks of flat text. Images (along with basic formatting elements such as headers and bullet points) make content more mobile-friendly.
They also give you the chance to present content in various ways. After all, images can serve very practical purposes in content. Some information may be more appealing to visitors when presented in the form of an infographic, for instance. These are key reasons images have a positive impact on SEO.
Tying it All Together
These tips will definitely help you improve a low organic CTR. Just remember, monitoring your performance is always key. By applying these strategies and paying attention to how effective they are, you’ll learn what steps you need to take to draw as much organic traffic to your site as possible.