Click-Through Rate (CTR) is one of the most important metrics when it comes to online marketing and advertising. It can be pretty difficult to increase CTR, depending on the method you use. And, increasing conversion rates can dramatically increase the revenue your business drives. These methods also differ based on the marketing channel, whether its paid or organic, or how much brand awareness you have out there. As you start to figure out what message works best for your target audience, you start to understand what makes them click, literally. Here are a few organic ways you can try:
1. Improve on Shortcomings
Start by analyzing the performance of your content and keyword focus. There’s no need to touch top performing pages, content, and keywords can, as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, reverse that process and look at your content with the worst performing CTR and try to understand whether it’s the messaging, the keywords, ad titles, etc. You have to analyze this and look for ways to take the worst performing CTR and make them top performers as well. Depending on the magnitude of the traffic and clicks your getting, you could increase it 10x.
2. Get Creative with Titles
A common mistake marketers make is stuffing keywords in the titles of pages. While it is an effective SEO practice, it doesn’t work if you put it there blatantly rather than organically. The focus here is on organic, so make sure the title reflects the content on the page. If the keyword fits naturally in the title, then go for it. Otherwise, be creative with titles. This will give you a better chance of capturing the attention of your target audience.
3. Write for Humans
Believe it or not, but content is still the king when it comes to SEO. If you want to attract clicks, you have to provide content that offers value to the readers. The savvy customers of today aren’t likely to buy from you just because you promise to offer the best quality in the market. They want you to demonstrate how you can solve their problems. For this, you need to come up with content that is relatable and more importantly, written for human readers and not just for SEO robots. Pick a specific perspective to write from and you are good to go.
4. Offer Lists
Did you know you have close to 40% greater chance of getting clicks if you number your points? That’s right, offer your content in the form of a numbered list and you will attract clicks more effectively. In fact, that’s the reason why this article features numbered subheadings! Coming back to the point, offering content in digestible chunks rather than large blocks of text will be more effective. Therefore, break the content down into a numbered list!
5. Be Meta Savvy
You have to leverage the meta title, keywords, and description to generate maximum traction for your content. The key to making this work is following the ideal template for your page titles. To ensure optimal engagement, start your title with a number followed by an adjective and then the subject of the article, for instance 7 Organic Ways to Boost Your CTR (and you did click on this post, right!). For the description, use words that capture the attention of your prospects, for instance premium or incredible.
6. Build an Emotional Connect
SEO is not just a science, there is a lot of artistry going on behind the scenes. You have to tap your artistic side and try and build an emotional connect with your audience. You can do this by adding an emotional hook to your content. Try and influence your readers’ emotional side and this will help you build a connection with them on a more personal level. They are more likely to be engaged by your content and also trust your brand if they feel this connect.
7. Create Effective URLs
It’s quite simple to come up with a generic URL for your landing page or web pages. However, according to Microsoft, you can get 25% more clicks on your pages if your URL describes the content of the page. This is easier when you are using WordPress or a similar website management platform. Make sure all new blogs and posts you create have a descriptive URL that gives the visitors a clear indication of what they can expect to find on the page.
These 7 simple yet highly effective organic ways you can use to boost your CTR. Keep in mind that you have to combine these tips with SEO and other online marketing techniques to generate the results you are looking for. The key to making this work is creating effective content and writing for humans instead of SEO robots. Appeal to readers on a personal level using an emotional hook and they are more likely to connect with you.