{"id":12920,"date":"2017-08-09T00:09:40","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T00:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/?p=12920"},"modified":"2024-05-23T07:42:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:42:35","slug":"marketing-activities-to-increase-your-google-serp-ctr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/blog\/marketing-activities-to-increase-your-google-serp-ctr\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Marketing Activities to Increase Your Google SERP CTR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keyword rankings used to be more important than they are today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vast majority of clicks went to the first few positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

So getting into the first three positions meant everything. Even the third position would receive exponentially more clicks than positions six through ten.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, that\u2019s all starting to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

SERPs are personalized to each individual. They\u2019re also evolving to include a variety of different layouts, placements, sponsored listings, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the real kicker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today you can get more clicks than people ranking above you.<\/span><\/p>\n

All without changing positions necessarily.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trick is to focus on increasing your SERP<\/a> click-through rate instead of swapping rank positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studies show that organic CTR<\/a> data <\/span>can make an impact<\/span> on Google\u2019s rankings. Therefore, if you focus on your CTR, first, higher rankings could follow later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why your ranking isn\u2019t as big of a deal as you might think. And why you should focus your marketing activities instead on raising your Google CTR. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Relationship Between Ranking and CTR<\/b><\/h2>\n

AJ Kohn<\/span><\/a> first reported his informal findings on how SERP click-through rate can influence ranking signals. <\/span><\/p>\n

He included a couple of eye-opening quotes to back up his claim, like this one from former Google Engineer Edmond Lau:<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s pretty clear that any reasonable search engine would use click data on their own results to feed back into ranking to improve the quality of search results. Infrequently clicked results should drop toward the bottom because they\u2019re less relevant, and frequently clicked results bubble toward the top. Building a feedback loop is a fairly obvious step forward in quality for both search and recommendations systems, and a smart search engine would incorporate the data.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

More evidence started pouring in from the unlikeliest of places.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, the <\/span>Wall Street Journal got access to an FTC document<\/span><\/a> that explained the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

“The (search engine result page) ranking itself is affected by the click data. If we discover that, for a particular query, hypothetically, 80 percent of people click on Result No. 2 and only 10 percent click on Result No. 1, after a while we figure out, well, probably Result 2 is the one people want. So we’ll switch it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Historically, this was never the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, images like this have been used forever to explain how CTR changed based on SERP position:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(<\/span>image source<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

The CTR you could expect would fall as your position was lower on the page.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human behavior at the time meant that people would naturally gravitate towards the higher listings.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, all of that is beginning to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible now to invert those numbers above. You could get a higher CTR even though you ranked lower.<\/span><\/p>\n

That would be like position #3 getting a 30% CTR while the second position only received 20%.<\/span><\/p>\n

So even though you technically \u201crank lower,\u201d you\u2019re getting more traffic and visibility than the guy ranking above you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(<\/span>image source<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

If that\u2019s happening consistently, it will give you another bonus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those excellent results could serve as a sign to Google that those two results should be flip-flopped.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rand Fishkin conducted one of the most popular <\/span>tests of how SERP CTR can influence Google’s search results<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

He wanted to see if click-through rate, alone, could move rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n

So he asked people to click a specific link to his blog post that was sitting firmly in the seventh position.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(<\/span>image source<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

The short influx of clicks did, in fact, launch his blog post up to the first position in Google.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(<\/span>image source<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

However, these were only temporary changes. The short-term ranking boost eventually fell back down to Earth as clicks died off.<\/span><\/p>\n

The inflated CTR wasn\u2019t natural, so results eventually regressed back to the mean.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s just like how you can\u2019t increase your <\/span>AdWords Quality Scores<\/span><\/a> simply by clicking on your own ads a few times. This is the oldest trick in the book, and it just doesn’t work. (Sorry.)<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it does show that there is a direct correlation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Increasing your CTR can not only bring you more traffic, but it can also increase how and where you\u2019re showing up in the result pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best news of all is that increasing SERP CTR with marketing activities is almost always easier than doing the hard, time-consuming work of improving your ranking by getting more high-quality links, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how this process works.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Raise SERP CTR to Skyrocket Traffic<\/b><\/h2>\n

Larry Kim\u2019s data<\/span><\/a> highlights two important takeaways about how all of this stuff works:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Higher than average SERP CTR can eventually lift your position. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. While lower than average SERP CTR can also drop your position.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So there\u2019s an upside when you get things right. But a downside when you screw it up.<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can\u2019t afford to screw it up.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Here are three tactics from Larry\u2019s research and our own that will help you find the page click-through rates that are already sabotaging your results. <\/span><\/p>\n

    1. Start with Your Low Hanging Fruit <\/b><\/h3>\n

    Most people want to focus on their <\/span>new<\/span><\/i> content or <\/span>new<\/span><\/i> blog posts. They think that\u2019s what\u2019s driving the most traffic and leads over the past month or so.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But that couldn\u2019t be further from the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In reality, it\u2019s the old stuff that\u2019s driving most of your results.<\/span><\/p>\n

    That\u2019s good news believe it or not. It\u2019s often easier to go back and update old stuff than to put all of your resources behind cranking out the new.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So let\u2019s see how to find your old \u2018low hanging fruit\u2019 for a quick ROI.<\/span><\/p>\n

    First, start by making sure you have <\/span>Google Search Console<\/span><\/a> setup. Then integrate it with Google Analytics, so they share data back and forth.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now, head over to the Acquisition section inside Google Analytics, click on the \u201cSearch Console\u201d drop down, and then finally hit \u201cQueries\u201d towards the bottom.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Your queries report will tell you most (some) of the search queries people are using to access your site. The reason it doesn\u2019t show all of them is because of Google\u2019s removal of keyword referral data. <\/span><\/p>\n

    There are ways to <\/span>unlock not provided keywords<\/span><\/a>, but we don\u2019t have the time or energy to cover that right now as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So back to the Queries report. Here, you will not just see clicks and impressions, but the CTR number we\u2019re after.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Look for the queries that send you the most traffic, but have the lowest CTR and position.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    You can check out the actual SERPs for those keyphrases to determine how competitive each will be. Otherwise, the trick will be to focus on rewriting your title tags and descriptions to not just focus on keyword optimization but driving more clicks. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s how to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

    2. Treat Your Organic Copy like AdWords<\/b><\/h3>\n

    Here\u2019s how you used to write title tags to rank well in search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n