How to Increase My Website’s CTR?

If your intention is to move forward in alliance with Google’s new updates and algorithms and improve your website SEO in order to rank higher than your competitors, you have to pay extra attention to CTR or Click-Through Rate on Google’s search results. 

What is CTR?

CTR stands for Click-through rate. When the user watches the Google search results on the topic he/she has searched for, the user will make his/her choice to click on one of the links provided by Google. Hence, that one click will be counted in, for calculating that specific website CTR. The CTR basically means the percentage of the users who click on your website link on the Google search result list. CTR will not be identical for different keywords and pages. For instance, the CTR for “SEO Training” keyword can be 10%, whilst 18% for “Professional SEO Training” and both might be directed to the same page on your website.

The information about the CTR can be obtained through Google Search Console tool. On the “Performance” there is precise information about a keyword performance, number of clicks and CTR of your website. In addition, a CTR will be calculated for each page of your website, which is the average CTR of all keywords which were directed to your website page. 

What is Impression?

Impression means your website presence on Google search results. Every time a user searches for a topic, an impression will count for all results shown on the page. Even if your website is shown on special boxes such as maps or images, an impression will be counted in for your website. 

In case of your website be listed at the end of second page of Google search results, if the user does not come over to the second page, no impression will be counted in for you, whilst if the second page is visited, even if the user does not scroll down to see your website link, one impression will be taken into account for your page.

One of our most important concerns with SEO is identifying the exact number of searches for one keyword. In order to do that, there are a few tools such as KEYWORD PLANNER and KWFINDER but neither of them are able to provide precise data. However, one of the good advantages of reaching the first page of Google, other than more traffic, is having access to valuable data such as the number of searches for every keyword and the diversity of words being looked for. 

Average CTR based on Google ranking 

On average, each rank on Google search results has a specified CTR. The most CTR usually belongs to the first Google rank which is now close to 34% for desktops and 24% for mobile phones. This is a global rate which has been calculated based on all words and websites, so you might be on Google first rank with a 20% CTR or 80% CTR depending on the keyword. 

The average CTR for the Google search result ranking back in November 2017, is outlined in the graph below. It is shown that the website which ranks first on the search results, absorbs visitors as much as the total number of visitors other websites which are ranking second all the way down to fifth are absorbing. This indicated the importance of ranking first on Google search results. 

Over the last few years, Google has introduced many tools such as google map, News, rich snippets, etc. that occupy a part of the google search result page. On Top of that, Google Ads should also be taken into account, as they affect the first rank position and the CTR.

Based on statistics, the value of Google’s first rank has decreased by 37% over the last few years. It means that if the first rank would have attracted 50% of users a few years ago, now it’s decreased to 32%! However, the number of searches on Google has been significantly increased over the same period of time. 

How to increase our CTR?

There is only a few seconds for users to make their decision to click on your website link or not, when searching for a topic on Google. Over this very short period of time, there are a few spaces to be used, in order to affect the visitors’ mind positively, so they would probably click on your website’s link.

• Page’s topic on search results

On average, there is a 70 character space for the topic on the search result page, in which you should be putting attractive phrases. There are a number of words and phrases which are popular on the internet and indicate a specific concept. Normally, more users click on the links that contain these words and phrases. Here are some example of these words:

TODAY, NOW, FAST, EASY, STEP BY STEP, SIMPLE, FREE, WHAT? 

Using these words on a page’s topic can increase your CTR.

Attractive words and phrases may differ, depending on your business type. To find the phrases that suit best, define a few phrases and test them on a weekly basis. Once done, you will be capable of finding the best phrase for your topic by analysing the results. 

• Meta description display improvement o search results

Meta description space is displayed under the topic space and provides more room for you, though with smaller font size. On average, there is enough space for 168 characters on Meta box, however Google may provide less or even more space, depending on the searched phrase and page content.

When writing the Meta specification, you should be using informative, precise and attractive content in order to encourage users to click on your webpage.

There are a few attractive phrases like, with a special gift, including training video clips that would increase your chance of being chosen. We suggest you read the “Meta Description” article to find out more.

• Standard markup or Schema

You may have come across the websites in Google search results that provide supplementary information in addition to topic and Meta. The most well-known sample of standard markup, is relating to the scoring system which are shown as yellow stars on search results. The standard markup is not limited to stars display, as it can be displayed in different formats depending on the content type. 

Would an increase in CTR be effective on SEO?

Yes, it would. Increase in CTR would enhance the website’s rank on Google. Even though different SEO specialists have different opinions about CTR effectiveness on SEO, all SEP service providers see the  CTR enhancement as one of their main tasks to do when improving SEO. When your website CTR increases, Google would improve your website rank by using RankBrain Algorithm. For instance, assume that your website is at third rank on google search on a particular topic. This would absorb 9% of users on average. However, due to the attractiveness of your topic and descriptions, your website may absorb 15% of audiences. Google recognises this and if the other website at second rank is not attractive enough, Google would escalate you up to the second rank.

To increase CTR using Robots

One of the first solutions to increase CTR that comes into an SEO consultant’s mind is to create fake clicks for a website. The concept is like; if higher CTR enhances the SEO, we are able to design robots with different IPs to search for desired keywords and click on it, so the CTR increases significantly. 

Fortunately, using robots, not only doesn’t improve your rank on Google, but may cause your website to lose its current rank and be fined by Google, as Google benefits from very complicated and strong algorithms to identify where the clicks are coming from.

Furthermore, like we outlined in different articles, charming SEO techniques or SEO Black Hat, might have a positive effect on your website performance for a short period of time, but it will definitely damage your website SEO in the long term. 

You can book your free SEO consultancy or check our SEO packages to start ranking up your website in Google.

FAQs

What does CTR stand for?

CTR stands for Click-Through Rate which means the percentage of users who click on your website page to the total number of displays on search results.

Which factors impact CTR?

How your page is displayed in terms of topic, Meta description and usage of Rich Snippets by standard markup are the important factors that affect CTR.

Does increased CTR affect my rank on search results?

Yes or no! CTR means the number of users who click on your webpage link, when searching for a specific subject. This means more attention to your website from users, that is a positive point for Google to rank your website. On the other hand, if users don’t stay on your website and leave it instantly, due to not liking your website appearance or inappropriate content, it means poor UX to Google! This is more important for Google to rank your website on the search results. As a conclusion, high CTR is necessary but not sufficient for a high rank on Google.

Are Robots effective to increase CTR?

Absolutely not! Google algorithms analyse online user’s behaviour to distinguish if they are a real user or a robot. Robots doesn’t have important information such as IP, Geographical location, age, sex and any online search history, so it’s easy for google to get them identified. Be careful that if robots were effective, they wouldn’t have been that cheap in price.