A lot of us make the mistake of optimising our content for ranking, but not for clicks. Traffic depends on more than just ranking well on results pages, and being on the first page of the SERP may as well be worthless if no one is clicking through. Knowing how to improve your CTR is what brings you traffic, so if you want your content to be viewed, these tips are a MUST for a good CTR:
1. Use a Powerful Call to Action
We’ve all seen one of these ads before: a long ad crammed with a lot of text or visuals and tells you everything you need to know, but not what you need to DO once you’ve viewed it.
No matter what your ad is about and no matter what your product is, the main goal of your ad is always to inspire your audience to take action. Your content could be incredibly creative or super informative, but without a powerful call to action, the user will be left confused, or even worse: frustrated.
A good call to action smoothly takes your user to the next step after viewing the ad, and serves as a way to relate the service or product in your ad to the user by explaining what interaction the user needs to take in order to take advantage of the features your ad just showed them.
This also applies to blogs, articles and other content that is not directly selling a product: cramming information on your page with no context is a big no-no. In the case of written content, your call to action is your conclusion, which tells the user what to do with the information they just read or how to apply it in real life.
To improve your CTR, a good call to action is the ticket!
How?
For ads, the trick to improving your CTR is incredibly simple: use actionable verbs such as “book” “learn” or “call” and be as specific as possible. The less you make your use think, the easier it is for them to take action, and click through.
For blogs and articles, tell your readers exactly what they need to do with the information you just provided them. Tying all the information you just provided into the user’s goal and highlighting the importance of the information you just gave them is what keeps them coming back. If the reader feels like they didn’t learn much, they won’t be visiting your website again anytime soon!
2. Write a Masterful Headline
Your headline, subject line, or tagline is the first piece of text your reader sees. It’s what catches the user’s attention and what frames your content. To ensure the user clicks through, the headline needs to be powerful and compelling enough to make the reader want to continue reading.
In a survey conducted by Litmus, “more than a third of respondents stated that the most impactful element of content determining whether or not they click is the headline”. Writing a good headline is incredibly important if you’re looking to get clicks.
How?It’s been proven time and time again that emotional triggers are a big factor in why users click through or continue viewing your content.Boring headlines aren’t memorable, compelling or inspiring.
Research your market, understand what they’re looking for and how they feel, and use words you know will resonate with them emotionally.
3. Choose the Right Keywords
It’s not enough for your keywords to make sense – ranking well for the wrong audience won’t get you any clicks. For example, if your content talks about getting a new mouse as a pet, and your keyword is “buy new mouse” – your page could be coming up with results about computer mice. Yes, you’ll rank well, but people who see your page won’t be interested in what your content is about, and you won’t get the clicks. To improve your CTR, you need to make sure your keywords are helping your content rank for the right audience!
How? Extensive research into what keywords are actually relevant is needed to make sure your website ranks for the RIGHT audience. Look into what kind of results come up when you type your keywords into a search engine – chances are the search engine determined these are the most relevant results based on their users’ behavior. Adjust the keywords you’re using on the search engine, and once you find the keywords that bring up content in the same area or topics as yours in the results, incorporate them into your content’s keyword and replace your existing keywords with them.
4. Nail Your Meta Description or Caption
Right after your headline or title, the next thing a user sees is your meta description (or for ads, your caption). The little piece of text that’s right below your headline is much more important than it appears, according to Moz, a meta description isn’t necessarily relevant when it comes to ranking but can make or break your CTR rate.
Just like a boring headline won’t get clicks, a dull meta description can have a huge impact on your CTR – and for the worse. Your meta description has to be concise, powerful, and fits within the frame of the SERP. If half of the meaty part of your meta description isn’t showing in the SERP, it’s not doing its job.
How? Use tools such as Portent to make sure your meta description fits in the SERP page. If your content is in an ad – make sure you preview it before pushing it live to make sure the caption fits nicely and is not too cluttered.
Pro-tip: start your meta description or caption with what you can offer the user to entice them to click!
You’ll be surprised by how well these easy hacks work!