Do you understand what click through rate is, and how it is affected? In this week’s video, we dive into some recent studies and tests that help us understand how to achieve a better CTR; and thus, improved organic search visibility.

Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from Happy Hao Car!

In past workshops, we’ve discussed that there are over 200 ranking factors that have an impact on search results. One of these factors is called click through rate.

In this case, click through rate is defined as the ratio of users who click on a particular link in search engine results to the number of total users who viewed the overall search engine results page.

Click through rate can be impacted at a very granular level, and there are many onsite factors that affect how high or how low your click through rate can be. Today, we’ll discuss how some of these factors can impact this particular metric based on recent studies.

Before we go deep, let’s establish one thing: the higher up you are in search results on page one, the better your click through rate will be; especially if you’re in the top three results. These three places accounts for more than 75% of all clicks, as they are typically above the fold.

What’s more, moving up one spot in search results will increase click through rate more than 30% on average.

So, how do you move up in the search results page to achieve a higher click through rate? We recommend you pay attention to and optimize for the following items.

First, make sure your URLs contain a keyword. Whether it be short-tail and broad, or longtail and specific, pages with a URL that contained a keyword saw a major increase in click through rate – as much as 45% for URL slugs that matched the query exactly; but even a partial match to the query can benefit your click through rate.

Second, focus less on optimizing for specific keywords. Also consider more longtail searches. You don’t wanna get too granular, but something like “Ford Trucks Dallas” or “Honda Service Center Detroit” will likely rank a page better than just “Ford” or “auto repair”.

Utilizing longtail searches such as these may not earn you as many impressions in the search results; but it will deliver a higher click through rate overall.

Third, while meta descriptions don’t directly impact the algorithm, they do affect click through rate. This is because if you’re not utilizing a meta description for each page on your site, the search engine may pull a random snippet from the page to feature in the results.

This snippet may not accurately reflect what the page is about, and may entice a user to click on a different result. So, having even a small blurb in your meta description is better than nothing. Plus, studies show that pages with unique meta descriptions have almost 6% more clicks than pages without.

Finally, be careful of the use of “power words,” such as best, amazing, number one. These can actually negatively impact how searchers interact with your site in search results.

One study found that the use of these words decreased click through rate by almost 14%. Using a power word may seem like a great way to grab a searcher’s attention; but search engines may view it as clickbait and not display the result at all.

That’s all the time we have left for today’s video. As always, if you have questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next week with another Wednesday Workshop from Happy Hao Car.

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Kelcey Drapp is an SEO Manager working at Happy Hao Car since 2015, and in the digital space for nearly a decade. Kelcey enjoys digging deep into SEO research to discover the 'why,' and helping clients realize their potential for success online. In addition to her work in local SEO, Kelcey also likes to volunteer her digital marketing skills for non-profits in need. When Kelcey is not working, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time with her husband, son, & three dogs.

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