5 SEO Strategies to Improve Your SERPS Click Through Rate

Getting that all-important click in the search engine results page (SERPS) is a vital part of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). People will naturally judge a book by its cover in the same way they will judge your article by their first impressions. Even if you have the greatest article in the world, it won’t necessarily attract any readers if it is not presented properly! You only have a couple of sentences to convince the searcher they need to read your article, so how can you optimise your chances of getting that click?  How can you improve your click through rate?

• Baiting Your Hook with Juicy Titles

  The title is often the first text your readers’ eyes will be drawn to, making this a vital element to get right!  There are several important factors to consider:  Besides the obvious inclusion of poignant keywords, just how interesting is your title anyway? Sometimes it is the subtler, psychological factors that determine who gets clicked.  A good copywriting tactic is to include one known concept and introduce one unknown which will integue your reader.  Curiosity killed the cat!

• Carefully Crafting and Sculpting URLs

  Both your domain name and page address gives the searcher a clue about how informative your article is likely to be and how authoritative you are on a topic. URLs need to be as concise as possible, while including important search phrases that accurately describe the content of the article. Although most people will not be consciously aware of it, the URL also helps indicate your area of expertise and will have an impact on your SERPS click through rate.

• Marketing to Popular Trends

  Socio-economic factors will influence both peoples’ searches and clicks in the same way it will affect shopping habits. Being aware of this before you write your article will help you better tailor your message to the widest audience possible:

  Short Term Search Trends

  
  Imagine this week brings some news that has everyone talking. This will stimulate  more searches and clicks for this topic.  Is there anyway this trend could benefit your site? Could you somehow mention or make reference to the topic or find a way to incorporate this into your news or blog entry? Be careful not to go too far and end up with a title that has nothing to do with your article, or this will increase your bounce rate!

  Long Term Search Trends

  Some factors will cause trends that will be felt much deeper and over longer periods. For instance, consider the current state of the economy. Over a period of many months there has been a gradual increase in the number of searches relating to ‘cheap’, ‘budget’, ‘affordable’, ‘economy’ and ‘bargain’ phrases.  Some trends are slower to change and will last longer.

  Because SEO is a relatively slow process (especially for static web pages!) you are best using your static pages to target long-term search phrase trends, and news or blog articles to vacuum up some of the briefly-trendy search terms.

• Comprehensive Descriptions

  Try to give as much detail as you can in your META description, feature as many keywords as you can and avoid turning it into a mindless list of stuffed keywords. Also remember to keep it fairly brief. Google will show the searcher up to 70 characters from your description in the search results page, but it will also ’scroll through’ your description to ensure the most relevant section is visible to the searcher for their search terms. If your article deals with multiple topics, it would be a good idea to ‘cluster’ the key phrases in similar ends of the description and not to double back on yourself.

• Avoid Anything That Might Look Like Spam!

  It may sound obvious, but even subtle oversights can easily turn a well-meaning document into an apparent piece of spam.  Try not to repeat keywords more than a couple of times, and ensure that the grammar has not suffered due to crow-baring keywords into the sentence!  Keyword stuffing in this way is a false economy and risks putting your potential visitors off, having a negative impact on your SERPS click through rate!

Tags: bounce rate, click through, domain, manchester seo, page, search terms, SEO, seo strategies, serps, spam, titles, trends, urls