One of the most common mistakes Singapore business owners make is assuming that their search engine ranking is the only thing that can make people click. Sure, your position in the search engine does have a whole lot to do with the number of clicks your website gets, but it’s not the only factor. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of sites out there that are getting More Clicks without being in the number one spot.

CTR and Why Your Rankings May Not Matter

Any reputable SEO consultant will agree that the top ranking websites tend to get the most traffic. In fact, this position can get as much as 20% of the traffic. But realistically speaking, even Google’s second page listings get traffic. So the ultimate question is not what spot are you in, but what are your doing with that spot? Let’s discuss a few steps that you can get a higher CTR without being on Google’s first page.

Step 1: Benchmark your industry’s CTR

If you want to know how well you’re doing, then it’s a good idea to compare your CTR to that of others. Specifically, you should compare your click-through rates to the industry standards. So do a little investigating. This will let you know what you can expect. Just keep in mind that there are several things that can influence the CTR. For instance, if you own a car dealership, then you should not expect the same  CTR as someone who owns a restaurant. So always be realistic about your industry.

When researching the industry standards, you should also consider what type of business you own. For instance, if you are a B2B, then compare your business to other B2B’s. If you are a B2C, compare your business to other B2C’s. According to a study, B2B websites usually get higher CTR’s than B2C’s if they rank higher in the search engine.  

Step 2: Create relevant content

Now that you have an idea of what your CTR should look like, it’s time to make sure that your content is actually optimised for the most clicks. It’s important to consider user behaviour and user intent in this case. According to Google, CTR has a lot to do with how relevant the copy is to the searcher. When creating copy you need to be mindful of three things: how informative the information is, how much value the user gains from the information, and how visually appealing it is.

Step 3: Create link copy that converts

If you want to make sure that the user knows your copy is relevant to them, then make sure to craft a great title. It needs to be able to grab their attention. It must be very specific. It must also make a promise to your users. These are the types of things that ensure your copy will convert. The best titles and headlines are those that include numbers, have 5-9 words, have a negative or positive sentiment, have a headline and subheadings, and have a value proposition that is very clear.

Another important factor in high converting link copy is your title tag. It’s important that your title tags are branded, answer questions, and include the most important keywords. As with any SEO marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to A/B test your headlines. Coschedule provides a free headlines analyser.

Step 4: Improve other link elements

Your content and headlines are not the only things you should pay attention to. You should also consider tweaking other elements. Let’s take a moment to discuss a few.

Add a date

There are many top websites that promise great information. However, if the listing does not include the date on which the information was published, it can be hard for users to determine how fresh the information is. This can be especially frustrating if the industry is fast paced. You can get more clicks by including a publishing date. Some searchers will use Google’s ‘Tools’ option and search by date ranges. So this will help a lot.

Republish your older content and add a new date

Have you published content that you believe is still relevant today? Well, why not republish the post and add a new date to it. Simply visit the post and then update the date. If you are on WordPress and use Yoast, then make sure you check the ‘show date in snippet’ option.

Include accelerated mobile pages

Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, is a project by Google which helps to speed up loading on your phone. Users will also notice an AMP stamp in the SERP, next to your listing. You may also place this stamp on your website. It’s even been speculated that Google has plans to allow users to discover websites based on this stamp.  

Include rich snippets

Google tends to automatically give websites rich snippets if they answer a common question. And the interesting thing about it is, these snippets are not always pulled from the top search result. So anyone on page one of the SERPS has a good chance at being featured.

Make sure that you target a question and provide an answer that is accurate, well-structured and authoritative–whether they are in the form of a paragraph or list. Use Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool to find “question keywords.” You can add a rich snippet by either using WP Rich Snippets, All In One Schema Rich Snippets, or Google Search Console.

Create SEO-friendly permalinks

If you want to ensure that you get more clicks, the users must be able to read your permalinks. This means that they should not include numbers and symbols. They should instead read like short sentences. So go back over your old content and check out your links. Make sure to update those that do not illustrate what the user can expect from that page.

Step 5: Include Paid Search

One study found that over half of searchers are more drawn to organic search results. However, paid ads can still take you a long way. This is especially the case if you share common values with the users. Paid ads work best for retargeting.

If you optimise your PPC ad just right, you will be able to secure a low-cost, high CTR experience. You may not be able to get as many results but you will still be able to promote your content and values. Consider using Facebook ads. It’s great for driving traffic and increasing your popularity which inevitably helps your CTR.

Takeaway

If you want users to click on your content, then you have to provide something that is relevant to them. Sure, higher rankings will increase your chances of getting a higher CTR, but that’s not the only thing that matters. Find out what the average CTR for your industry is. Create content that is relevant. Pay attention to your links. Put most of your focus towards answering common questions. Create rich snippets. And take advantage of paid ads.

All of these elements can result in your beating out the competition–even if their ranking is much higher than yours. It all comes down to what you do with your current ranking.