Five Fast Ways to Boost Your Organic CTRs

So, you’re ranking on the first page for some great search terms for your industry, but the click through rate doesn’t appear to be giving you the traffic you expected. There could be some very simple things that are stopping people from clicking on your result. With so many possibilities, even on the first page, there are many reasons why someone may choose a different result over you.

With a few little changes you could benefit from a massively increased CTR, here are some quick solutions:

Getting more click throughs

Did you know that 80% of organic clicks go to the first five listings on page one? While the first two results are often the most clicked, it is a very close call between the 3rd, 4th and 5th position. Depending on the returned results and the brands you’re up against, the lower down results could potentially be more popular than the top stop.

Unsurprisingly, it is what your result says that will encourage people to click through to your website. How is that done? By doing this:

#1 Optimising meta data

When you get search results, what you are seeing is meta data – made up of a meta title, meta description and URL. To get an accurate idea of what this information will look like, here’s an example I’ve thrown together:

Many companies don’t realise that optimising metas is something they need to seriously focus on. If you don’t optimise it then Google (or another search engine) will simply rip information from the page, so it isn’t seen as a problem for many people.

While the meta description will not affect how your website ranks, it is essential for having people click through to your website. Ripped information tends to just be a random snippet, whereas you need to briefly sum up what the page is about and encourage them to click through. If you can do this well studies prove that you will see much greater CTRs.

#2 Spelling and grammar

Itz rly anoyin wen ppl dnt spel fingz proply on da intaweb.

Who wrote your website and metas? If the answer is an intern or someone you hired for 5p a word then you need to take a good look at what you have. Poor spelling and grammar will stop a huge amount of people from clicking on your link. It looks unprofessional, sloppy and it doesn’t inspire trust in your website. If this is the case then by rewriting your metas and website you’ll probably see huge improvements.

#3 Remove spammy metadata

If you managed to get to the front page of Google with spammy metadata then you may think it doesn’t matter, but it does. This is the most likely reason why you haven’t got the click through rate you were expecting. Go through all your pages and ensure that the data is optimised and correct as stated in the points above.

Try to make your metas sound as natural and friendly as possible, while getting your message across and delivering a call to action – sounds tricky, but it is possible trust me!

#4 Use rich snippets

If you’re going up against competitors using rich snippets when you’re not, then you’re going to struggle to get good click through rates. Rich snippets draw the user’s eye to your link by using things such as star reviews, photos, ratings and even song lists. This makes them immediately more appealing and can quickly drive your CTR up. One case study found that by simply adding rich snippets to their website they increased their CTR by a whopping 30%!

#5 Try split testing

Some titles work better than others and the same is true of pictures and meta descriptions. The best way to figure out what works best is to do split testing. There are many programmes out there that let you mess around with this information in order to produce the best click through rates. This can be very important when it comes to making the most out of having good rankings, so it is well worth looking into if you’re not seeing the best results.

If you’re still struggling to get the click through rates you want to achieve then come and talk to us today. With years of experience in handling organic SEO across a wide range of industries, we can help you to get the most out of your website.