Click Through Rates
Being at the top in Google is of very limited value if no one then clicks through to your site to get what they need (from contact numbers, brand assurance, information through to purchase)
So you’ve made it to the top of the Google search rankings – either through clever coding/design/keyword targeting/content management….or simply paying Google for the privilege (via a pay per click/ad). Job half done. The real measure of the success in search engine marketing is your Click Through Rate (CTR); This is the percentage of people who see your listing and then end up clicking through to your site.
Ignition’s Sam Matthew explains why Click Through Rates are so important and provides some simple tips on how you can improve your website’s performance as a result.
Every time Google serves up your website in its listings, they’re essentially giving you free advertising space – (well free in the sense that if you got there through an ad/pay per click – if they do then click on your site Google get paid). Either way the goal is now to make the user pick you. There are simple things you can do to control what appears in your listings, but you need to put the same effort into it as you would into a press advert to ensure it grabs attention and encourages views to take action.
Why is increasing you Click Through Rate important?
Let’s put the importance of your Click Through Rate into perspective. If you’re currently achieving a CTR of 25% from Google and generating 100 visitors a month for a particular search query, there’s 300 potential customers who have seen your site in the listings and decided to click a competitor’s site instead. Isn’t it worth putting a bit more effort to grabbing their attention?
The bottom line is that increasing your CTR can ultimately lead to more new customers.
How do I measure my CTR?
Your Google Analytics account will tell you everything you need to know. The Search Engine Optimisation section shows all the search queries people used to find your site. For each query you can see:
· Impressions: The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user.
· Clicks: The number clicks on your website URLs from a Google Search results page.
· Average Position: The average ranking of your website URLs for that query.
· Click through rate: Clicks / Impression x 100.
Top Tips for increasing your Click Through Rate
1. Titles grab attention
The page title needs to stand out from the crowd and grab the visitor’s attention! Google prefers to use the <title> code from your website, but if it doesn’t represent the page, Google will write its own version. If you’re going to include your brand name, put it at the end Don’t let your brand get in the way. A word of caution; you’ve only 60 – 70 characters before Google will shorten it with an […] which can create a poor user experience.
2. Descriptions entice the user to take action
You need to create curiosity to entice the user to click through to your page. Google will look at the <meta name=”description”> part of your website. Start your descriptions with verbs as it makes the sentence active rather than passive and tell the searcher the benefit of clicking through. Including a strong call to action often helps to encourage click through. Again, you’ve got limited space; on average 160 characters before it’s truncated on a desktop.
3. Keywords highlight relevance
Include the keywords people search for in your Titles and Descriptions as Google emboldens, highlighting that your page is relevant to what a user is looking for.
4. Mobile-Friendly demonstrates usability
If visitors are using a mobile phone or tablet they will be more likely to click the search results which are listed as being mobile friendly. Check your site out https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ and see if it makes the grade.
5. Test and learn, all of these rules may not work for your audience!
Try out different options for the meta title, description and key words to see which works best for you. Don’t just stick with the first thing you think off! Monitor your Google Analytics and measure the impact of different words.
If your CTR seems to be low, or if you would benefit from Ignition undertaking a digital review using Google Analytics on your behalf – please get in touch.