The document discusses techniques for improving organic click-through rates (CTRs) without necessarily improving search rankings. It describes testing the effects of including compelling adjectives, longer meta descriptions, numbers in titles, and pricing/discounts. Some techniques like adding adjectives based on customer reviews and numbers in titles saw CTR improvements of 20-40%. However, displaying pricing saw mixed results and CTR could drop if competitors offered better deals. Consistent measurement of one's own CTRs by position is recommended to assess optimization efforts.
68. Order by position and
then get an average for
each position.
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69. Then create a shorter
sheet just with the
average CTR for each
Position you have data
for.
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70. A full how-to on getting position based
CTR data for your own websites:
https://www.staceymacnaught.co.uk/measuring
-organic-click-through-rate/
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71. Now you have at least some data about
your own query level CTR by position.
This will be a key reference point in assessing
the impact of any CTR optimization work you
do.
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74. My test environment
19 websites in varied sectors ranging from
3,000 to 150,000 monthly organic visits.
Some live commercial websites, others
specifically set up for testing.
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75. My test environment
I don’t have as much data as the studies.
And my test environment almost certainly
wouldn’t qualify as “scientific.”
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76. My test environment
While I’m testing things, other things are
happening in SERPS, Google as a whole and
with competitors.
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77. My test environment
But I often find “tried and tested hands on by
me” to be more useful to me than third party
studies in developing techniques and
experiments.
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81. This is about identifying the adjectives that
your potential customers associate as
particularly positive in the context of your
products and services
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82. Then using them in your page title and meta
description to compel a user to click.
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83. Start by visiting the Feefo or Trustpilot page
for the market leader in your sector.
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86. Copy and paste the reviews into a Word doc
or similar and filter out common phrases like
“review,” “thanks,” “2018,” “insurance” etc
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87. Pop the rest into any word cloud generator
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88.
89. It’s worth adding that this could help you to
uncover new keyword opportunities too:
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90. For speed, test in Adwords.
I tested ad headlines including both “quick,”
and “easy,” and “quick” had almost twice
the CTR in paid search.
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91. CPCs too High for Testing?
Where possible/relevant, run the ads in other
English speaking countries (Canada,
Australia, New Zealand) where CPCs can be
lower.
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92. Budget still an issue?
https://start.usabilityhub.com
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93. Budget still an issue?
https://www.google.com/analytics/surveys/
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94. Impact of adding “quick,” to life insurance
landing page title and meta description
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95. Like for like position 5 visibility increase
of 50%.
CTR for the landing page optimised rather than one specific query as it’s a reasonably medium to long
tail page.
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96. 54% increase in organic traffic and a 62%
increase in organic leads through that
landing page comparing the 14 days prior to
the change with the 14 days after.
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115. An improvement to the opening sentence,
for example, might have had CTR impact
regardless of the length.
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116. But, it makes sense to have control over
what is visible to users in results page.
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117. So, the best advice I can give on meta
descriptions…
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118. Do write original ones.
Do use the 150-155 characters.
Don’t have them tail off if you can help it.
And do test on your own sites!
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