How You Can Get More Clicks from the SERPS
This is something I’ve been pondering a lot lately. I have a couple of clients that are ranking well for some pretty heavy keywords when it comes to search volume, and yet the expected clicks (after factoring in average CTR for their position etc.) just isn’t what matches the ‘actual’ number of organic visits from the search engines.
Maybe the predictions and averages are wrong or maybe they don’t apply to the industries that I’m working in with these clients in particular but my big thing at the moment is to try and get more clicks from the rankings they do have.
As an example scenario, there may be Wikipedia and the main distributor or manufacturer ranking right above my client, which means they might be sitting at position 3 and unable to move for months at a time. The client doesn’t see any further progress in positions so my efforts turn to pulling in more traffic to get the most out of the rankings they currently have.
After some thought on this I came up with a couple of ideas for my clients to help make their listing within the search results more attractive and, therefore, more clickable. This will help drive more traffic to the site and, if their conversion rate stays constant, should result in more enquiries, sales or phone calls – whatever the client is pushing for. With tracking we can gather information on all of this and work out what actually does work and how well.
So, I have a couple of suggestions that will help increase click-through rate from the search engines and wanted to use this as an open forum to discuss further ideas to increase SERP click-through.
My ideas:
Better search snippets
If your SERPS still show your meta description as your search engine snippet you should tailor this to be attractive. Maybe include base pricing if your prices are competitive, your location if you are local, your USP if it’s something that is appealing or in demand. Make it engaging and get across why you are the right listing to click first. You can find more on the meta description tag and why you should still be using it here.
Schema star-rating
We tried this with our first-page ranking for ‘SEO’ and were the first of the sites on page 1 to be doing this. Others quickly followed which made our experiment redundant but this still works at really grabbing attention, particularly if you have high star ratings from reviews posted on your site.
Sitelinks
You can’t opt in for this, although you can influence which links are displayed once you awarded with it. Make sure any irrelevant or unhelpful links are removed to ensure this is streamlined.
Synonyms
Google highlights the search phrases used by the searcher in the search results page. It also highlights synonyms. Take advantage of this and include synonyms in your title and meta description to make your results stand out to the eye while helping your snippet to read naturally while remaining relevant.
Domain name
A good domain name might also help. Although I’ve read the occasional blog to say that a keyword-rich domain name can reduce click-through rate (maybe it’s a human subconscious decision that they are ranking on P1 because of their domain name, rather than the quality of the site) it’s worth ensuring the right information is present, ie. your brand name if it is well known, the types of services you provide or your target market (domestic, commercial etc.)
I’m sure there are many other ways you can give a boost to your click-through rate from organic search and I’d encourage anyone to post any ideas they have on how else to go about this, as it’s something I’m sure we can all benefit from, particularly as we have worked so hard to gain high rankings. Please comment below with any ideas, suggestions or refinements you may have.
