Your organic click-through rate is directly related to user engagement, which is what Google cares the most about. If your page receives a lot of traffic, the search engine algorithm will consider it valuable and relevant for future inquiries containing your content keywords.
The organic click-through rate is a calculated metric that indicates the percentage of people that clicked on your search result out of the total number of people who viewed it. It may be calculated as CTR=(Total number of clicks/Total number of impressions)x 100%.
So, instead of focusing all of your efforts on developing SEO content to gain the top ranking, you must convince visitors to click on your search results. We’ve selected a few strategies to assist you to enhance your organic click-through rate and rankings over time.
But, before we get into the SEO CTR strategies, we’ll first learn what a good organic click-through rate is.
What Is A Good Organic Click-Through Rate?
To define a range for a good organic CTR, Backlinko has conducted research on the average CTR at each of the top 10 positions.
The first result they found was that The #1 Google result has a 10x higher CTR than the #10 result.
The top result has a CTR of 31.7 %, while #10 has a CTR of 3.09 %. So, a good average CTR, according to Backlinko, might range from 3.09 % to higher.
However, a good click-through rate may vary based on the keyword, industry, and campaign. For example, the average good click-through rate for consumer services is 2.40 %, whereas it is 1.35 % for the legal industry.
So, on your website, seek CTRs that are less than the industry average. Examine your keywords in the Google search console to identify which have the highest ranks but the lowest click-through rates. Look for pages with a high number of impressions but low click-through rates.
Create a file containing your current positions and CTRs to check for improvements regularly. Then, use the methods below to boost your click-through rate and convince visitors to click on your search results.
How To Improve Organic Click-Through Rate
Increasing your CTR is a long-term project. It relies on user behavior, popular keywords, and how often you optimize your campaign to increase impressions. However, it is worthwhile since improving Organic CTR may generate a significant ROI for your overall SEO efforts.
So, here are the best practices for CTR optimization.
- Write Catchy Headline
Catchy headlines provide you with a competitive edge. They’re irresistibly clickable, enticing your audience to read and respond to your copy and boosting your organic click-through rate.
Your headlines must be specific, measurable, have solid facts, and build pictures in readers’ minds. It must be built around your focus keyword for search engines to find your content. It also must lead people to believe you have the answer and can fix their situation. As you can see from these search results, all headlines are clear and straightforward.
There are many headline formulas that you can use to get readers to click on your results. However, the following headlines formulae based on statistics have shown to be the most successful:
- How-to headlines: They promise beneficial information to the reader;
- A listicle headlines:: They can create an additional sense of value;
- A question headlines: They relate to and engage readers by showing potential inquiries;
- Tell a story headlines: They can better connect and understand your content;
- Give a command headline: They eliminate friction to your information and make it clear what action to take next.
Before you start crafting your headlines, it’s crucial to understand your target audience. You must learn about their pain areas, perspectives, languages, requirements, and desired solutions. That will assist you in selecting information, words, and phrases that will appeal to them.
Also, once you’ve developed a few versions of your captivating headline, you must test how successful they are. It is the best way to gauge success. After sending an email, for instance, examine the click-through rate and compare it to other click-through rates.
- Write Effective Meta Descriptions
Before clicking on your search results, users will look at the meta description to determine whether your content has the information they’re seeking. It has a significant impact on whether or not they click on your search results.
A meta description is a 160-character descriptive text that appears beneath the blue link of a search result. Its purpose is to describe the content of a web page so that visitors know what the page is about before clicking on it. When they are well-written, they will increase your organic click-through rate.
If you don’t provide a meta description, Google will display a snippet of your content from the first paragraph. That means missing out on the opportunity to optimize the message you deliver to readers. So, it’s critical to write your meta description.
When writing your meta description, avoid misleading searchers by stuffing it with irrelevant keywords and inaccurate information. Instead, respond to their query with a solution or benefit. Make it obvious why the reader will find the page beneficial and ensure that it accurately describes what’s on the page.
Also, it’s a good idea to include a call to action, list specifications, and other compelling elements in your meta description to engage and urge readers to select your content.
- Implement Structured Data
Structured data allows you to create a visual search listing that takes up as much space as possible in the SERPs, capturing searchers’ attention and encouraging them to spend more time considering your results, raising the organic click-through rate.
Structured data present your results in the form of rich snippets. Rich snippets are a sort of search result displayed in many formats, such as web page summaries, tables, reviews, videos, photos, questions, and other elements.
For instance, if your post has a table of contents, you may use “jump links” structured data to display anchor links in your search results. Anchor links are links that appear below the search snippet in Google. These links might direct the reader to different pages of your website or a specific portion of the webpage. Here’s an example of a rich snippets jump.
When it comes to the organic click-through rate, featured snippets provide a significant opportunity to boost organic search result clicks.
As seen in the graphic below, when there is a featured snippet in the first result, the click-through rate differs significantly between the first and second results (43.7-27.1= 16.6 %).
Whereas, without the featured snippet, the first result gets a 39.6% average click-through rate, which is 4.1% lower than the featured snippet result.
Structured data might be time-consuming, but it is well worth the effort. You will need tools to help you along the road, such as Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and Testing tools. You may do it by hand, but Google’s tool assures accuracy and simplifies the process.
- Create Branded Keyword
Branded keywords are phrases directly associated with your brand, products, and services. For example, kindle books, Apple watches, Chicago Cubs parking, and so on. Branded keywords typically have a higher click-through rate than non-branded terms.
In the chart below, you can see the difference in click-through rates between branded and non-branded keywords.
Knowing how to define your branded Keywords, and create a good strategy around them, is fundamental to your content marketing strategy. However, you might start by considering your audience’s behaviors, emotions, and difficulties.
Searches connected to your company, industry, and competitors are another source of branded keyphrases. When you search for your brand’s competitors, for instance, you’ll get recommended phrases and deeper insights. Here’s a table with some examples of the kind of queries you may focus on.
You may also look for your company on Google. Simply search for your company name without entering anything and you’ll get a list of ideas from Google. This research works best for bigger brands. Smaller brands may have trouble finding insights, but it can help you in the long run.
- Use Retargeting To Boost Brand Awareness
Customers are more likely to click on your search result if they recognize your name and believe it is a trustworthy source. For that reason, you must devote enough time, money, and effort to brand awareness. Retargeting is one of the most effective strategies for increasing brand awareness.
Retargeting allows you to reconnect with previous visitors and offer them customized incentives to reengage and convert them into customers. There are several approaches to implementing retargeting. However, since your objective is to increase the CTR rate, you need Google retargeting (Google remarketing).
Google Remarketing is a feature that allows you to retarget people who have already visited your website and online users as they browse the web and use applications with customized ads.
All you have to do is upload a piece of Google remarketing code to your website, commonly known as a tag or pixel. Your visitors will be then added to your retargeting audiences via browser cookies. You can adjust the coding for particular pages to adhere to more specific categories.
Conclusion
There is a strong relationship between your organic click-through rate and your search engine ranking. A high organic click-through rate is beneficial to businesses since it means more traffic from people interested in your product, brand, and business without any more additional effort. It also implies greater brand recognition as your rankings improve.
The organic click-through rate is seeing increased competition from sponsored ads, knowledge graph placements, featured snippets, and other features taking over the search results.
