In today’s day and age, a business can thrive only if their online presence is strong, if not unmatched. The website for any business is a great medium to contact their potential customers and provide their services. So, what happens if your website is not getting as many visitors as you had expected?
The issue could be that you haven’t optimized your website to receive organic search traffic.
So how do you attract more targeted traffic to your website? It all starts with your Click Through Rate.
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What Is Click Through Rate and Why Is It Important?
Click Through Rate or CTR is the ratio that shows how often people who see your ad end up clicking it. If one has to compute the CTR for their website, they can use the following formula:
Clicks / Impressions * 100 = Click-Through Rate
For example, If your website page had 1,000 impressions and 10 clicks, that’s a 1% CTR. A high CTR indicates that your website has elements that resonate with your target audience.
If your website makes it to the 1st page of SERP, that’s great. But if the website doesn’t receive traffic from the targeted audience, it amounts to nothing. No actual business has taken place. On the other hand, if a website has high organic CTR, it means there’s higher traffic and, as a result, more potential or even real business opportunities.
Here Are Some Proven Ways to Boost Organic Click-Through Rates on Your Website:
1. Include Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are search phrases that are usually specific and more than 3 words in length. Searches that include long-tail keywords are more specific than searches with fewer keywords, so they garner less traffic but have a high conversion rate.
For example, “Vegan restaurants near JFK airport” is an example of a long-tail keyword, whereas “vegan restaurants” is a short tail keyword. The idea is- the longer the phrase, the more definite it is, and there would be fewer search results when people search for it.
By incorporating long-tail keywords into your website, you’ll significantly boost the volume of similar organic queries.
2. Keep Your Title Simple
The title is the first thing one notices about web content, so it’s important that you make sure your titles are simple yet engaging. You’re free to add your site name at the beginning and end of the title if you’re looking to boost personal branding.
Titles are key in garnering CTR and further traffic and engagement on the website. There is also the incidence of the website not getting the expected traffic in spite of all the efforts put into making the title ‘catchy.’ This is where one has to reassess the decisions and try to frame better titles.
3. Include Clickable Meta Titles
Meta titles or meta tags are something that builds the foundation for your SERP entry. They give the customers who visit the site what to expect when they click on a link.
Here are a few tips on writing meta titles:
- Include attention-grabbing words or phrases and attempt to pack emotions into the title as well.
- The title should contain keywords as the best keywords match user search intent.
- The title and the content on the website should be consistent or, in other words, avoid putting click-baits as they may result in the website losing clicking users and also attract penalties from the search engines.
- Avoid plagiarizing, unique content always stands out.
4. Make Catchy Meta Descriptions
A meta description explains what a link is about and what to expect when you click on it. Good meta descriptions that are concise and clear can help boost the CTR and traffic on your website.
It’s recommended to limit the meta descriptions to 160 characters, so you need to be creative when you write meta descriptions. Including a call-to-action (CTA) in the meta description will also help in attracting traffic and increasing CTR.
5. Implement Structured Data
Structured data ensures the infoboxes at the top of the SERP are shown to the user. This makes it convenient for users because they don’t need to click on a site in order to read the whole content, but they can get the necessary information on a certain topic just from the excerpt at the top.
For example, the year when the first test-tube baby was born or the day Kobe Bryant died.
Structured data assists search engines in understanding the content of your site better and enhancing the ranking in search engines by showing only the required information when someone makes an online query. So, even if you’re on the 5th or 6th position on the SERP ranking, if your content pops up in position 0, i.e., on the featured snippet, you can expect more CTR than sites that rank at position 1 or 2 of the SERP.
6. Use Images in Your Posts
Images are one of the simplest ways to grab anyone’s attention. Make sure you use relevant and appropriate images in your content that catches the users’ eyes. This will help your website get higher CTR and more traffic as well as engagement. According to research done by Vero, images can increase the CTR by 42% in emails.
7. Keep Your URL Simple
Short, uncomplicated URLs are always preferred due to the ease of sharing them on social media. Shorter URLs are more visible in the search results and can help your website get more clicks. It should be descriptive and readable for both users as well as search engines.
Remember to use at least one target keyword in your URL as it makes it easier for users who see your URL on Social Media or in an email to understand what you’re sharing with them.
8. Optimize Site Speed
Site speed is yet another factor that determines the CTR on a given site. If the webpage is slow in loading, the instances of users getting annoyed by it and leaving before they explore the page are going to be high. Thus, it becomes imperative that the site is made fast and reliable.
Some common ways the site speed can be improved are by compressing website images, reducing server response time, minimizing HTTP requests, etc.
Remember to optimize the experience for desktops and mobile phones also. Check whether the loading time is optimal for both the versions. Check for broken web pages, slow-loading images, and other such issues that could affect the click-through rate of your website.
9. Google’s Knowledge Graph
Having your business listed in Google’s Knowledge Graph will help you get a significantly higher CTR and, consequently, higher traffic and website engagement. If you own a local business, you’re very likely to have your website listed in Google Places or Local listings.
Google collects information from these pages and builds a unique knowledge graph for your business with details such as what your business is about, the names of the business partners, link to social media profiles, etc.
10. Check Your Competition
The measures listed above are surefire ways to enhance the Click Through Rate on your websites, but if your website still does not experience the desired level of traffic as compared to your competitors’, it is perhaps time to see what is contributing to the low traffic. Most web content that receives high CTR for a given search query has meta titles/tags, headlines, and content that’s in sync with each other and are trying to reach a goal; informational or promotional, depending on the intent of the search. Ensure that your content is in sync with each other, and the keywords are used appropriately.
The organic search traffic comprises potential customers coming in to browse through your website, to look at your brand, the products as well as the services that you offer. After implementing the measures listed above, one ought to analyze if they are effective or not. It’s advised to check the progress of your website every week or at least every month.
Compare the performance of your website 30 days before and after you implement changes; see how they affected your CTR, what are the areas that need improvement, and so on. By improving the CTR, you will boost the overall organic search traffic and engagement on your website.
Author Bio:
Swathi S, an indispensable member of the Stan Ventures SEO team, is the current outreach specialist at the organization. Known for her way with words, Swathi is a frequent blogger who keeps a tab on the latest SEO updates and guest posting services at the firm.
