If your page or website has a low CTR (or if you simply want to increase it above average), there are many strategies you can follow to generate more clicks.
1. Why perform a website audit?
First, use the Semrush Site Audit tool to telegram data analyze your website’s performance. This practice can also help you identify potential issues affecting your SEO efforts.
For example, your pages may take too long to load, which can negatively impact user experience. Or you may have duplicate title tags, 4xx errors, and other technical issues that could hurt your rankings.
To get started, log in to your Semrush account and click on “ Site Audit ” under “ On-Page Technical SEO ” on the left side of the screen.
Next, click ” Create Project ” and follow the instructions provided.
You’ll need to enter your website URL, select your preferred crawl source, and set a limit on the number of pages checked per audit. You can also configure crawler settings and other parameters.
Then click ” Start Audit ” and check the results.
The Semrush Site Audit tool will show you a detailed overview of the health of your website and the pages crawled, as well as the main issues affecting their performance.
From here, you can select “ Crawled Pages ,” “ Topics ,” “ Statistics ,” and other relevant categories to learn more. Semrush will also make recommendations based on the issues you’re facing.
Let’s say one or more of your pages are showing a 404 error. Click ” Why and how to fix it ” to learn more about this issue and how to fix it.
Start by addressing the issues listed under ” Top Issues ” on the ” Overview ” page. Then, investigate those listed under ” Warnings ” and ” Notices ” in ” Issues .”
2. Purpose of featured snippets
Featured snippets are a feature of Google’s SERPs designed to provide users with quick, concise answers to their queries. These text snippets appear above Google’s organic search results for maximum visibility.
We often refer to featured snippets as “Position Zero.” This is because they appear above all other organic results. This is a valuable commodity that can attract a significant portion of clicks.
So how can you get your website into that coveted zero position?
Surprisingly, you don’t have to be in first place.
The vast majority of featured snippets come from pages ranking anywhere on the first page of Google. So even if your website is in the fourth or fifth position, you can still get featured snippets.
But only 20% of SERPs have a featured snippet.
So, you need to find out which topics and keywords contain a featured snippet. Then, optimize your content to try to rank for the top spot.
If you’re looking for the CTR of a single page or keyword, do the search manually.
Is there a featured snippet? Great. Optimize your content to target it. (More on this in the infographic below.)
If you’re looking for a site-wide strategy, use the Organic Research tool .
This will help you discover keywords that meet three criteria:
- You are already on page 1
- There is a featured snippet in the SERP
- Your site no longer occupies the featured snippet
First, click on the “ Organic Research ” tool from the left sidebar of your Semrush dashboard. Type your site’s URL in the text box. Click “ Search .”
Next, go to ” Charges “.
Then, click on the ” Ecological ” filter.
Finally, click on the ” Pos. ” filter drop-down and choose ” Top 10 “. Click ” Apply “.
Next, click on the “ SERP Features ” filter. Hover over “Non-Ra… Domain” and click on “ Featured Snippet ”.
The result is filtered for keywords where your website ranks in the top 10 but does not have a featured snippet, even though it is present in the SERPs. All of these pages are potential optimization opportunities.
In this example, the first result in the list is in position #2. But there is also a featured snippet at the top of the results.
How is it captured?
You’ll need to optimize for featured snippets .
Depending on the exact type of snippet that appears (paragraph, list, table, etc.), you can craft a section of your content to try to match the formatting and style of the result.
You can also reverse engineer the process.
Instead of updating existing content, you can create new content specifically targeting searches that contain featured snippets.
You can perform an SEO competitive analysis to see what keywords your competitors are ranking for that include a featured snippet.
Or use Keyword Magic to generate a list of keywords that you can filter by the presence of a featured snippet.
There is only one caveat to this whole process.
Many featured snippets lead to increased CTR.
But some featured snippets actually reduce your CTR.
In particular, whenever the full answer to a query is displayed directly in the SERP (think of the definition of a word), users are less likely to click on the link and visit your website.
As in this example:
Any time a user performs a search without clicking on any results, it is called a no-click search .
When identifying which featured snippets to target, consider context and whether a searcher is likely to click on the source displayed in the snippet.
Find the best performing entries
with the Organic Research Tool
3. Optimize title tags
Your page’s title tag is probably the first who have had unforgettable experiences thing a searcher sees when scanning the SERPs. And it can greatly influence the likelihood that they’ll click.
Backlinko’s experiments confirm that optimizing your title tag can improve CTR . Sometimes, just adjusting the length of your title tag is enough to get more clicks.
Optimize your page’s title tag by following these best practices:
- Aim for 6-9 words: Studies have found that titles with six to nine words tend to have the highest CTR. Also, make sure your title is under 60 characters total, or it won’t appear in full in the SERPs.
- Include your primary keyword: Use the page’s target keyword in the title. This will tell the user that the page is actually about the topic they’re searching for. And it will often appear in bold in SERPs. Plus, it’s good SEO practice.
- Describe the content: Make sure your title describes the content of your page, whether it’s a guide, a list of tips, or a review.
- Don’t stuff keywords: Using your target keyword once is fine. Using it multiple times (or stringing together numerous synonyms) is excessive and can drive users away from your site.
4. Improve Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions help users better caseno email list understand the content of your page when reviewing search results.
It is not a Google ranking factor, so optimizing your meta description will not shoot you to the top of the SERPs.
But it can help convince someone to click through to your site.
It’s kind of like the subtitle of your page’s ad.