Unarguably, higher rankings on google search results lead to the increased probability of having a page clicked by the user. That’s why every folk seem to be hungering for higher ranking. The Click-through Rate (CTR) is responsible for billion dollars online business. There are lots of tricks and tips could be found but here I am sharing the best 3 methodologies that will definitely improve CTR on SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page)– all based on my personal experience.
Indeed, you are a good writer. You have written an impressive article, got listed on First Page of Google. But do you know, How to secure your listing? As it can be disappeared overnight. This Article is all about Improving CTR of Ranked Listings on SERP to improve and secure your listings for longer.
What is CTR in SERP?
CTR stand for Click-through Rate, CTR is the number of clicks that your page listing receives divided by the number of times your listing is shown, expressed as a percentage.
For a quick example,
Assume there are 1500 daily search impressions for keyword “wordpress seo” and there is a #1 listing on a website, and it gets clicked by 300 times. Then the CTR of that listing will be [(300÷1500)x100= 20%]. On Organic Search High CTR is Directly proportional to Higher Ranking.
For every inputted search query Google Search return 10 Organic Listings per page (there could be thousands of such pages), for example there are 10 listings on page one, and when user see the returned results and he clicks on the search result 3 instead of search result 1 and 2, do you have idea what gonna happen? Search Result 1 and 2 will receive negative points for that and if it will be repeated with the number of visitors, search result 3 will be pushed up to higher ranking and search result 1 and 2 will be downgraded (this is the reason, we see significant changes in Ranking throughout the day).
Remember, Search engines have been smarter and now they also consider the on-page experience of visitors. For the same Example, Listing 3 got clicked 300 times, but when visitor landed on the final page, he realize the page content is not as it was described in Listing Page (Simply useless for him), he will return to Google Search and again input the same query “wordpress seo” and this time he clicked on listing 4 or 5. Do you know, what will happen? Listing 3 will be marked as inappropriate and may be downgraded to the depth of Search Results or simply disappear from page 1. That is why SEO Tactics are working only for websites with useful and unique contents.
Now experience this Search Result Page and understand what information search engines like google uses to create a listing for your page. Here you can notice up to 5 Lines of listing for every page.
- 1st Line: Your Page Title [up to 65 Character]
- 2nd Line: Your Page Permalink/ Breadcrumb
- 3rd + 4th Line: Date + Meta Description [up to 156 Character]
- 5Th Line: Extra Information (Site link etc..)
As you can see generally Google uses these 5 lines to create a listing in their organic search results pages.
OLD Theory of SERP
Meta Title, Description, and Rich Snippets lead to higher ranking on SERP Just by using your targeted keywords within.
New Theory of SERP
Meta Title, Description and Rich Snippets lead to enhanced CTR on SERP that lead to improved rankings.
You can see in above screenshot, how Google is showing search results for keyword “wordpress seo from its US data center.
How to Control listing information on SERP?
Controlling these information can be done using seo plugins in WordPress and with seo scripts in other platforms. However, sometimes google completely ignore what information you provide, and their crawler uses their own algorithms to make it natural. But You should always be worried about your role, so just do what is in your hand and simply create a natural and catchy metadata to submit to Search Spiders.
Proven Ways to Improve CTR on SERP
Now here I am gonna reveal, my strategies to improve CTR on SERP, It is not any secret; it is just what most of the bloggers/webmaster are unaware about.
Write Fascinating and Descriptive Title and Description
When it comes to on-page SEO tactics, the majority of SEO experts recommend writing a fascinating and descriptive title and description. Both, shown to searchers when they input their search terms in google. It’s always a good practice to assign unique title and description (meta) to every single page of your website. Keep it small, and subjective to your page contents. Use these to describe what your page is all about not to advertise your page.
If you violate the permissible limits, it may be completely ignored by Search Spiders and your effort will be in vain.
- Page Title: 65 Character including white spaces [2016 update, google using up to 71 Characters]
- Meta Description: 156 Characters including white spaces [2016 update, google using up to 278 Characters]
Use Rich Snippets Feature
The majority of search engines believes that the more information is provided in the rich snippet the easier it is for the user to find the appropriate result. The Rich Snippets contain more data than regular snippets – they include information like Star Ratings, Reviews, Addresses, Dates, Prices etc. Since the rich snippets are bigger and having rich data it lures searcher. You can add Rich Snippets to your website by using microdata, microformats, and RDFa. You can learn more about microdata at the schema.
Optimize your Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb is the other factor that can help you to optimize your page’s CTR. Generally, a breadcrumb is a navigation aid that allows users to keep track of their locations within the website by showing them the full navigation path.
It’s also useful when someone wants to land on a particular section of your website. The Search Engines also give importance to breadcrumbs and shows it with your page listings along with the title, description, and rich snippets. Search Engines can understand your breadcrumb either by algorithmic or by adding it through microdata. You can optimize it by several ways depending upon your site’s niche.
On the screenshot attached above you can easily see how above these three factors can dramatically change your website’s search result look and increase Click Through Rate by attracting searchers. You should implement your own strategy for rich snippets instead of just copying others.
These are very the common SEO Practices that will play a major role if applied cleverly. So why to avoid it if you can improve CTR on SERP up to 30% just by employing these simple practices.
Credit goes to: Deepak Singh
Thank You!
