The organic click-through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks on an organic result expressed as a ratio of the number of total impressions. It is surprising that such an SEO metric is often overlooked by marketers. After all, ranking at the top of the SERP is the endgame. However, that’s not true. The organic CTR is the real crown of your SEO efforts. Ultimately, a higher click-through rate inevitably enhances your ranking.
Therefore, it is paramount to take critical steps to boost your organic click-through rate. If you are not sure how to start, begin with these three powerful tactics that will send people rushing to your website.
Optimize Headlines
Experienced SEO specialists acknowledge that there is some psychology in their work. "You need to learn people’s behaviors and understand actions (especially the subtle ones) that trigger different responses from them," says Kashif Raza, SEO expert from Globex Outreach. One of the areas where you need to channel that knowledge is in crafting headlines. You can hack people’s emotions by adding certain trigger words to your headlines, nudging them to visit the page. Use the following tips:
- It is better to make your sentiment apparent in the title instead of remaining neutral. Apparently, titles with positive or negative sentiment improved CTR by approximately 7%, testifying to the powerful effect of emotional titles.
- Using numbers in titles has been proven to increase clicks. Try different creative methods of adding numbers to your titles, such as stats shown as percentages, number of sales/customers, etc.
- Framing your titles as questions is a smart way to elicit curiosity from people.
- Sometimes, you might have to substitute SEO-based titles (which come out bland and ‘robotic’) for more relatable titles
- Add ‘power’ (but not cliche) words to your titles to grab attention quickly. The power word in the title of this article is ‘boost’. It captures the essence of the post.
In any case, the most important tip in optimizing headlines for clicks is that titles should demonstrate the value that the piece of content will bring. Let your audience know clearly what they would be getting!
Implement Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Google uses information from structured data to provide viewers more context about a web page, depending on the nature of the page. For instance, the use of structured data allows Google to display a restaurant’s ratings and prices right within the search results. Also, most of the interactive content you see on the Google SERP make use of schema markup, such as carousels, Knowledge Graphs, snippets, top stories, social media posts, images & video packs, etc.
Even though schema markup is part of coding terminology, implementing it on your web pages requires little to no coding. When you use Google Structured Data Markup Helper, it displays various data types to determine what type of content is on the web page. Some of the recognized data types include article, video, event, question and answer, local business, etc.
Next, enter the page URL in the box below and select ‘start tagging’. The following page is the tagging page, where you can select and add missing but relevant schema tags to the web page. Try to fill in as many as possible; just make sure the tags contain accurate and relevant information.
Once you are done adding the tags, the last step is to create the HTML code. This takes you to a final page with the HTML code for your schema markup, ready to be copied and pasted (or downloaded) into the web page’s source code or CMS.
Use A/B Testing
Split tests have been a lifesaver for marketers. You never really know how well a certain tactic will perform until you have seen it play outlive. Then, you compare results and implement the best one. When trying to boost organic CTR, A/B test everything. Test multiple title tags, headlines, meta descriptions, structured data, etc. in order to find which specific ones resonate with your audience the most.
You may perform split tests manually using spreadsheets and data from Google Search Console/Analytics. However, it is better to use dedicated SEO A/B test platforms to automate the process. These include Optimizely, CrazyEgg, VWO, Google Optimize, etc.
Split testing is important because SEO is hardly straightforward. At the end of the day, beyond the foundational principles, different tactics work for different websites, industries, audiences, content types, etc. How you know what works in your specific case is split testing.
Conclusion
It is frustrating to not see your SEO efforts pay off in terms of bringing organic visitors to your website. When that happens, it may be that you have left the job unfinished. You may have awesome content, but you need the right strategy to get people to see the nice package. The three tactics explained above, implemented rightly, will help you increase clicks to your website.
