The focus of many website owners and marketers is getting their site on the first page of Google search for many keywords. This is a great strategy, but if your site is not receiving enough traffic even after being ranked in the top 10 SERPs, you should investigate further using a search rank checker. If your site has an extremely low CTR, use the below tips for improving it.

What Is CTR?

CTR or click-through rate shows what percentage of people saw your site in search results and clicked and opened it. To know that your website’s CTR is low, you should compare it with the average CTR.

The average CTR for any business site or store is 2%. This means if 100 people saw that site in their search results, 2 people opened it. So, if your site’s CTR is lower than this number, you should take actions to improve it.

Improving CTR In Organic Search Results

Write Tiles That Are Hard To Resist

A better and eye-catching title can improve your CTR. If more users see the title and think that this search result will answer their query, they will open it.

Keep in mind that an eye-catching title is simple and promises answers to the searcher who is skimming through the search results to quickly find the correct site to open.

Mostly, listicles are favored by users because they show exactly what to expect and they are easy to scan through. So, writing a title that’s around it is an easy way to increase the CTR. For instance, “5 ways you can fix a flat tire” may sound better to users than “Fixing a flat tire”.

Besides, including the correct keyword in the title can also increase the CTR. However, proper keyword research is required so include the correct keyword that matches the search intent of the user.

Just so you don’t forget, you have to make the title tag attractive, include the keywords, and keep it simple all within 60 characters.

A Powerful Meta Description

Meta description is the text that’s shown beneath your page’s title. Anyone who wants to know more after reading the title will read the meta description. This is another opportunity for you to entice the users and make them open the link.

Many marketers use many different strategies for improving their meta descriptions and attracting potential customers. However, some strategies are tried and tested and work for most sites so we will list down those:

• Answer the questions of the user in the meta description. If they get the answer, they may open the link to know more.
• Ask questions that are relevant to the user which will increase their curiosity. Make sure the questions are relevant to the search and the topic.
• Use powerful and persuasive words to get a strong emotional response from users.
• Use active voice sentences only.
• Include the key phrase that matches the search intent. This will make the user believe that this site has the information they are looking for.
• Keep it less than 160 characters.

Use Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are key phrases that are longer than general keywords. Therefore, fewer people search for the exact key phrases of these long-tail keywords so fewer marketers try to rank their site for them. Therefore, long-tail keywords are less competitive than broad keywords.

Even though the search volume for long-tail keywords is lower than general keywords, if you get ranked for a long-tail keyword and someone searches for it, they are more likely to open your link. So, if you want to increase your CTR, targeting long-tail keywords is a good technique to accomplish this.

However, make sure that the long-tail keyword you’re using matches the search intent otherwise, the entire effort may not produce favorable results.

SEO-Friendly URL

The URL of your site’s pages should also show what they are about. The URL should not be an alphanumerical code-like text because it won’t show anything to the user. As the URL is also visible with the title and meta-description in search, take it as an opportunity to talk about what this page is about.

So, instead of a page that is like this: “domain-name/e8t4v5s2”, the URL should show what’s in the content. If that page of your site talks about LEDs for homes, the URL can be “domain-name /home-leds”.

However, if you don’t want to change the URL name every time, it’s also a good practice to just shorten the title of the page and make it its URL. For instance, if the page title is “10 types of LEDs for indoors”, you can create a URL “types-of-leds-for-indoors”.

Make these changes and check your progress with a rank checker. Check out rank checker pricing.

Match The Content With Search Intent

We mentioned earlier that your keywords should match the search intent. Search intent means the reason the searcher looking for the information. There are four types of search intent:

• Informational: The searcher is looking to learn more about the topic.
• Navigational: The searcher is looking for a particular page.
• Commercial: The searcher is learning more about a product and might purchase it soon.
• Transactional: The searcher is looking for the product and is ready to buy it now.

So, before including keywords in your content or even planning the content around a keyword, know about the keyword’s search intent. Simply, put in the keyword in Google search and see the results. The results that match most with one category of search intent should be of that category. You can also use SEO tools for learning about the search intent of various keywords.

Use Schema Markup

We see webpages as texts, images, and videos, but the search engines see them as code. If you create a code that is helpful for the search engines to read, understand, and categorize your page, it can be categorized better leading to tailed information for users. This is what schema markup accomplishes.

In simpler words, schema markup gives search engines a pair of glasses to clearly read and categorize the content. So, websites that use schema markup usually rank better than those which don’t use it and miss out on an important method of not only ranking in the top 10 SERPs but also increasing their CTR.

To use schema markup, you need to follow some steps that can be technical for some people. So, if you’re new to SEO, let an expert do this for your website.

Localize Your Content

If you have a website or business that is in certain areas only or the business is done in-person (a physical store or shop), then optimizing local search should be your priority. This will give you a boost and your website will rank better when people will search for the keywords and the location.

Even when people don’t search for the location, most search queries are from mobile devices and Google uses the location data to provide relevant results. So, if someone searches for “coffee shop” in your area if you have implemented local SEO practices, your shop may be shown with other shops. As the search results will be relevant to the user, you may get a higher CTR for those searches.

Conclusion

If your organic CTR is low, you should try the above-mentioned techniques to give it some life and increase traffic to your website. Check your performance by getting an SEO rank report.