Do CTR's Really Affect Organic Rankings?

2. 2 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. What Have Previous Tests Told Us? My Test The Results Too Summarise What It Means For Your Clients The End! The Agenda. Why I Did This Test

3. 3 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. About Me. • SEO’er for around 5 years. • Currently Head of Organic Media at Climb Online. • Specialise in Technical / Onsite SEO. • Worked With Clients in a Range of Industries. • Working with Budgets from £250 - £10’000 per month. • Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I tweet more about delayed trains than SEO..

4. 4 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Why I Did This Test. • It has been on my agenda for a few years. • Other similar tests. • How it works in a common SEO environment. • Could it provide a new value for clients? • Is it a viable part of an SEO strategy? • How much resource would it take?

5. 5 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Previous Tests / Reports • Moz – May 2014 • Search Engine Land – August 2015 • Moz - April 2016 • Forums Google – Every Month, Every Year

6. 6 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Moz – May 2014 • Rand Blog – Search Term – IMEC Lab • Position 7 6:03pm • A tweet asking people to click – around 200 clicks. • Position 1 9.01pm • Evidence suggests clicks increase rankings.

7. 7 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. SEJ – August 2015 • Bartosz Góralewicz – Search Term – Negative SEO • Position 2. • Bot traffic with engagement of 2-4 minutes including clicking on internal links. • Stayed at Position 2. • Two Months Later – Ranking started to drop.

8. 8 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Moz – April 2016 • Larry Kim Blog – Rank Brain • If You Beat the Expected CTR – You Rank Higher • If CTR is Lower than Expected – You Rank Lower. • Want to Move up a Position? Increase CTR by 3%. • Evidence suggests Rank Brain takes into account CTR and can increase rankings.

11. 11 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. My Test • Keyword: FREE SEO AUDIT. • Bot Traffic With Engagement. • Initial Ranking: 29 • Real World Environment – Minus Backlinks. • We Also Shared This on Social Media.

12. 12 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 1! • Traffic: 150 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute + • Internal Clicks: 2 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 30 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 40 seconds. Position 29 Position 23

13. 13 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 2! Position 25 Position 19 • Traffic: 250 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute 30 seconds. • Internal Clicks: 2 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 50 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 40 seconds.

14. 14 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 3! Position 19 Position 12 • Traffic: 750 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute 15 seconds. • Internal Clicks: 3 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 30 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 25 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 20 seconds.

15. 15 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. SURPRISE TEST! Position 11 Position 1 • John Bull appears on Dragons Den last Sunday • Showcases a tablet stand called Plinth • Pocket Design Stand – Very Simple • Notes in pitch about rankings at the top of page 2 / bottom of page 1 • I check on Sunday night to see if claim is true • By Monday the website is position 1 for search term “Tablet Stand”

16. 16 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. The Answers. • Is it sustainable? • Is it a viable part of a strategy? • Does increasing CTR actually increase rankings? • Should you use a bot to do it? • How can it become a natural part of an SEO campaign?

18. 18 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Naturally Increasing CTR • Where you rank is one thing; getting people to click is another. • Page Titles & Meta Descriptions are EVERYTHING. • Good: • Bad:

19. 19 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. What Makes an Engaging Result? • All Text Displays in Full. • Snappy and to the point – relates directly to the search intent. • Where Appropriate – Use Emotive Words. • Features a competitive call to action. • Eases an issue for the searcher.

Do CTR's Really Affect Organic Rankings?

Sam Thomas

Do CTR's Really Affect Organic Rankings?