It’s no secret that high-ranking pages have the best organic Click-Through Rate (CTR). But clicks happen for many different reasons. It’s no longer just a good page title and targeted keywords that help you rank above your competitors. There are knowledge graphs, rich snippets, and other goodies that divert attention from other pages.
In this post, you’ll find strategies for improving your CTR in search results as well as how to find the pages that have the most opportunity! Let’s take a look at the content you already have and see how we can improve it.
What is CTR?
Click-through rate, or CTR, is a metric that measures the number of clicks a page receives per number of impressions.
In other words, CTR is the rate at which your page was clicked vs the number of times it was seen in search results (Google, Bing, Baidu, etc.)
Note: a click or impression can happen multiple times from the same user, so an impression isn’t the number of times a person saw your page, but the number of times a page was seen. I hope that makes sense.
CTR Formula
The formula for CTR is:
Clicks / Impressions = CTR
For example, if you had 100 impressions and 10 clicks, your CTR would be 10%. (clicks) 10 / (impressions) 100 = 0.1.
Why Measure CTR?
You can use CTR to determine how a page is performing in search results. If your CTR for a page is high, you’re likely getting more website traffic. If your CTR is low or has dropped significantly, you’re missing out on potential traffic.
Find this metric in Google Search Console under the Performance report in the left sidebar.
What is a Good CTR?
Generally, a 3% CTR is considered good. In other words, if 100 people see your website in search results, and 3 people click on it, you’re doing well.
Based on a CTR benchmark study from Backlinko, we know a few very important things:
- The page with the #1 position in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%.
- The top 3 Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks.
- Organic CTR for positions 8-10 is virtually the same.
- Only 0.63% of Google searchers clicked on something from the second page of search results.
Moving up 1 position, on average, in the search results will increase CTR by 32.3%. This CTR change also depends on the position. An increase from #2 to #1 will yield a large increase in traffic, but #10 to #9 likely won’t make a significant difference.
Research
Before you dig into the nitty gritty of improving your site’s CTR, you’ll need to gather information on the following:
- queries and keyword research
- titles
- meta descriptions
- URLs
- rank/position
- page content
By having all of the information in one place, you can easily see what’s working and what’s not. Then, you can prioritize the necessary changes.
The best places to get this information is Google Search Console (GSC) and Screaming Frog. Keyword research will be separate.
Search Console Data
Despite what I said above, we’re not actually going to use the GSC interface for this. We’re going to use an add-on that pulls data from GSC instead.
Go to Google Sheets > Adds Ons (in the top menu bar) and find Search Analytics for Sheets. Install this. It’s amazing, you won’t regret it.
- Install Search Analytics for Sheets
- Go to the Adds Ons menu in your Google Sheet
- Scroll down to Search Analytics for Sheets
- Open the sidebar
Once you get the sidebar open, follow these steps:
- Choose your domain
- Choose your date range
- For Search Type, choose Default (web)
- For Group By, choose Query and Page
- Don’t choose a filter
- For Aggregation Type, choose Default (auto)
- For Rows Returned, choose Everything
- For the Results, choose Active
- Click Request Data
Now you should have a spreadsheet that looks something like the image below. Your columns should include query, page, clicks, impressions, ctr, and position.
This is helpful because it shows which pages rank for which queries. In addition, you can see how the page ranks and roughly how much traffic it’s getting from SERPs.
Now that we have query and rank data, we need page data like URLs, meta descriptions, and title tags. We can get that from Screaming Frog, a website crawler.
If you don’t have it, go download it. With the free version, you can crawl 500 pages. If your website is larger than that, you’ll need the premium version which is about $200/year. If you can find another tool that lets your crawl more than that and gives you what you need and can export the data, feel free to use it.
Screaming Frog
- Plug your domain into Screaming Frog and wait for the tool to finish crawling.
- When it’s finished, export the information.
- Then, paste it into a new tab on your Google Sheet
You should have something that looks like this:
Got that? Great, now you have the details you need. Hang on to these, we’ll come back to this information in a minute.
Queries
Current Rank
In the first tab you made with the Search Analytics add-on, you gathered the keywords you currently rank for. You’ll be able to see that in the position column. This is important because it tells you which pages are optimized for which keywords.
Make another column for notes. If you’re unhappy with the rank of these keywords, this is where to document it. We can work on those keywords in the next step.
Keyword Research
I’m sure you have an idea of what you want to rank for. Make a separate tab for those and call it Keyword Research.
Now, go to a keyword tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer. Any tool that will let you search for keywords by volume and competition is good.
Here’s a list of free keyword tools (some have limitations)
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Google’s Keyword Planner (if you have a Google Ads account)
- Ubersuggest
- Free Keyword Tool by WordStream
- Word Tracker
- Keyword Overview by Spyfu
Step 1: plug in the keywords you want to rank higher for.
Use the keywords from the Current Rank section that you wanted to rank higher for a search for those in your keyword research tool. Pull a list of keywords related to the ones you chose and put them in your Keyword Research Tab along with volume and difficulty/competition.
Step 2: research the keywords you don’t rank for.
Repeat step 1 but use the keywords you don’t rank for. Export that data and put it in your Keyword Research tab.
Consider Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are searches with phrases like a question or informative search. An example might be “how tall is the Eiffel Tower” or “best vacations to take in the winter”. These types of searches have become popular with voice search and can give you more information about how a user searches and a more comprehensive idea of what they’re truly looking for.
Many keyword tools let you look at searches for questions or similar phrases which is really helpful in this instance.
Make a note of these types of keywords also.
Now What? Create Better Content.
Now that you have your keyword research, what do you do with it? Great question. You use it to create better content.
What did people search for (Look at your GSC data) and think about why they might not click on your website in those search results? Was the title tag not relevant enough? Maybe the meta description didn’t give them enough information. Or maybe your URL doesn’t make sense to them. All of these factors can inspire people to click, or not.
Review all of the keywords you want to rank for or rank higher for and compare it to your existing content. Look at your main page elements first. These are the elements that people can see in search results:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- URLs
Use that information to better answer the user’s search query.
It’s always helpful to Google the keyword and see what the search results look like. Look at the websites ranked around yours and at the top of the page. How are they more informative or relevant?
Page Titles
Your title tags are the first thing people see when they Google a keyword or phrase to find information.
Take some time to think about the intent of the user when they look for something you offer.
For example, if I type “infinity scarf” into Google with no additional information, what can you assume about me? A few things:
- I don’t know what an infinity scarf is
- I’m planning to buy an infinity scarf
- I want to make an infinity scarf
- I’m cold
- I’m looking for a scarf with no ends
Only one of those is not an assumption. The last one.
Use Keywords
We need more information so let’s search for it. Google knows better than we do what people are looking for when they search because the goal is to give searchers the most relevant results. You can trust Google’s judgment.
As expected, the first thing we see is shopping ads, Etsy listings, then the knowledge graph with a description of infinity scarves. This tells me that most people are shopping or want to know what an infinity scarf is.
Now we can dig a bit deeper. What about these is appealing to your ideal searcher? Do they like fabric or crochet? Maybe they need a certain price point to choose your website over someone else’s. These are all important questions to answer in your page title. Now, use the keywords people search for (from your keyword research tab) relating to your page and better answer those questions.
Relevance
Think about how your page title is relevant to the user. You want to appeal to that person’s needs if you want a higher organic ctr. Are they in the market for the scarf because it’s pretty or because it’s cold? If the need is twofold, you might want to consider a title like “Infinity Scarves for Warmth & Fashion.”
Emotion
While we think we’re rational beings, studies show that we make decisions based on how we feel at that moment, including clicking a search result in Google. It’s important to appeal to a user’s emotions in your title since it’s the first thing they will read.
There are some great resources on emotional headlines:
How to Write Emotional Headlines That Get More Shares
13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work
We Analyzed 100 Million Headlines. Here’s What We Learned.
You can also use a headline analyzer tools to get a better idea of how your headlines might perform:
AMI Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
Keep Titles to 60 Characters or Less
It is an SEO best practice to keep your title tags to 60 characters, including spaces. You don’t want Google to cut it off in SERPs because it’s too long. That’s what’s happening when you see “…” at the end.
In this example, the title of the post is safely displayed, but the name of the company is getting chopped off. Which brings me to my next point.
Place Your Brand at the End of the Title for Awareness
In the example above, the name of the company is intentionally situated at the end of the title tag. That’s important for two reasons:
- The most important info is at the front so it doesn’t get truncated if Google decides to experiment with different lengths.
- It provides awareness for your brand if the searcher has never heard of you but is searching for a service/product you offer.
Test Your Headlines
It’s always helpful to write a handful of headlines when you first write a blog post or release a new product. That way, if one isn’t working out, you can swap it for another one you’ve already written.
You can keep track of how those headlines are performing with Search Console. It’s helpful to link your Search Console and Google Analytics accounts to get more info in one place.
Tip #1: If you use a website builder or CMS, there’s likely a plugin/module you can install that will tell you if you’re over your character count.
Tip #2: WordPress has a plugin called Title Experiments Free which lets you write multiple headlines for your blog posts that get displayed randomly to visitors. You can then choose the title that received the most clicks to ensure your title is the most effective one!
Meta Descriptions
Much like titles, meta descriptions are seen in the search results when users are looking for information. Here’s that anatomy again.
It’s important to make sure that meta description meets the intent of the user or they won’t click on your page.
Before I talk about writing your meta description, it’s important that you understand that it is not a ranking factor for Google. That means it is not directly used to determine how your site ranks in search results. However, your site’s organic CTR can influence your position in personalized results, so having a well-written meta description is very important.
Use Keywords
Much like titles, your meta description helps users determine whether they want to click through to your page. The perk of using keywords in your description is that Google bolds them in the results if they match the user’s query. In the example below, I searched for “black shoes” so in these results, both “black” and “shoes” are called out to help me make a decision on which result to click.
Emotion
The joy of using emotion in your meta descriptions is that you have more space to accomplish it! See the Emotion section under title tags for more info on how you can improve your meta descriptions with powerful words.
A Mini Ad
Think of the title and meta description as a free ad for your page. You have a headline and a description line to convince users that your page is the one they want to land on. Keep it short and to the point, but describe the benefit this page provides. The more satisfied they are with your ad, the more likely they are to click!
Keep Meta Descriptions to 155 Characters or Less
It is an SEO best practice to keep your meta descriptions to 155 characters, including spaces. When you see “…” at the end of the description line, it means the text was too long. Again, if we look at the Tavel and Leisure result, we can see the “…” indicated that the text has been truncated.
Avoid this by keeping your descriptions short and to the point.
URLs
Although URLs take up the least amount of space in search results, they are still an important factor in getting users to click through to your website.
Use Keywords & Be Descriptive
Your URLs show up in search results with your title tag and meta description. You might not think people look at them, but studies have shown that descriptive URLs get more clicks. 25% more actually.
If you have 2 URL options:
- domain.com/adorable-kittens
- domain.com/postid=1254&kw=kittens
Which one do you think will get more clicks?
If you answered #1, you’d be correct!
Even though the second option does have a keyword, the rest of the path looks questionable. You might have a good idea of where you’ll land, but you can’t be sure. The first URL makes it clear. You will land on a page filled with adorable kittens.
Folder Structure
Keywords and descriptiveness are important in your folder structure too, so take that into consideration when naming your services, products, and categories or tags for your blog posts.
example.com/seo-for-startups-guide will get more clicks than example.com/services/guides/
The first example is more descriptive and all of the good info is at the front of the URL.
Breadcrumbs Schema
If you’re using breadcrumbs, make sure you implement schema for them. These can also show up in search results and it helps the user understand where they will land on your site. It will look something like this:
Google Search uses breadcrumb markup in the body of a web page to categorize the information from the page in search results. It makes the result cleaner and more comprehensive.
Page Content
The actual content on the page is very important! This information generally doesn’t show up in search results, but it helps Google understand the purpose of the page so it can better share your information with users.
Like many other areas of optimization, page content needs keywords. Choose your keywords during your research phase and sprinkle them throughout the page. But focus on long-tail keywords and keyword clusters.
If your keyword is “puppy dog” you don’t want a ton of paragraphs and headlines that repeat it. Think about that keyword in groups. What are people searching for related to puppy dogs? Grooming? Training? Pictures? Any of those ideas that are relevant should be present in your content. That brings me to my next point: formatting.
Formatting
Formatting your pages will help users navigate and digest your content which means they’re more likely to read it, share it, and link to it. If you want more traffic, this can help. Use the following types of formatting:
- Headlines
- Lists (bullets or numbers)
- Bold or italic font
- Internal and external links with anchor text
Images
Definitely use images throughout your content to add value. Most people are visual learners so you can help them retain information through imagery. If optimized properly, your images can appear in Google Image Search and bring in more traffic.
There are a few things to remember.
- Use high-quality photos: clear images increase the likelihood of getting traffic from an image search.
- Optimize filenames: use a naming structure that makes sense to people. For example, my-cute-kitten.jpg is superior to IMG23065.jpg
- Use descriptive alt text: write useful, information-rich content that uses keywords and is relevant to the content of the page.
- Include descriptive titles, captions, filenames, and text for images: self-explanatory
- Don’t use important text in images: Avoid embedding text in images, especially headlines and page titles. Use HTML text instead.
Schema Markup
Like in the breadcrumb example a few sections back, schema markup can be used to help Google understand the purpose of your page. You can use it for articles, courses, products, recipes, and many other types of pages.
When you add schema to your page, it could show up in featured snippets in search results. Here’s an example of pages using recipe schema.
If you can get your pages into these areas of the search results, you’re chances of getting clicks increases. One study showed a website’s sessions increased by 516%, the CTR quadrupled from 2% to 8%, and organic visitor revenue went up by 677%.
You can use the structured data testing tool before you implement it to make sure all is good!
Page Speed
Page Speed is at the top of the algorithm ranking factor list. Pages with a longer load time tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page. Longer load times have also been shown to negatively affect conversions.
On mobile devices, a leap from one to three seconds in site speed increases bounce rates by 32%.
As you might have guessed, a slow load time doesn’t directly impact your CTR, but it can cause users to bounce back to the search results, which Google takes into account.
You can see your website’s score with Page Speed Insights and learn how it can be improved.
What have you done to increase your organic CTR?
There are many ways to boost your site’s CTR in search results, and the good news is that you have control over most of them.
What have you tried in the past and have you found any good tidbits in here that you plan to implement?
