If your business already ranks for some search terms then you’re off to a good start. But how do you get more clicks from organic searches?
There are a few things you can do to get more clicks and make them count even more.
If you’re at the number one spot then you’re lucky because you’ll get over 40% of the clicks from search results (SEO Profiler). Not everyone ranks in the number one position though and there’s always opportunity to optimize for even more views when you’re not at the top spot.
I see a lot of data about where the best place is in search results if you’re not number one. Sometimes you can’t break down search engine results pages as data and numbers. Every click and every view has a person behind it and that person always has a goal.
People before data.
With these three parts of optimizing your website, your business will capture more views. They all revolve around people rather than data.
Before you can even begin to look how you appear in search engines you need to be sure your content is amazing.
Good content gets people to stay
Ranking higher in search results and getting more clicks always comes down to your website content. If you have thin content that’s unhelpful for answering a search query, you’re unlikely to ever rank.
For these tips to be helpful you must at least be ranked for some keywords and already getting traffic. That means you at least have minimally decent content (hopefully better).
Getting clicks isn't enough if your content doesn't exceed visitor's expectations in quality and content. Click To TweetYour content can help you capture even more clicks though because visitors find what they’re looking for. Whether a visitors stays on your page or immediately backs out does have an effect on how your website ranks.
One part of a strategy used to rank pages higher in search is to create content that’s 10x better than your competitors.
If you’re going to rank for a search term and capture eyes for longer than a split second the content of the page needs to meet (or exceed) searchers goals. A good website that meets all the necessary requirements of a business website is more likely to serve visitors needs.
Now you need to get people to your content.
A good title captures attention
If someone clicks on your website on a search engine results page it can’t always be boiled down to data.
If you’re in the 10th place as opposed to the 6th place that doesn’t automatically mean the 10th place is better (that’s what the data says by the way).
A good title for each page has more weight on whether it’s clicked or not once you start scrolling down a search results page. It does matter for the top positions too though.
If you can capture attention and give searchers what they’re looking for on the search engine results page then you’re likely to capture a higher percentage of clicks than the pages listed around yours.
Never write a title for the search engines because that’s a sure way to fail in search. It’s important to always remember to write your titles for people.
If your title in search is intriguing and informative then people are more likely to click it.
Your meta descriptions tells the full story
Your title captures attention but your meta description tells the rest of the story. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of both the title and the meta description for search engine optimization.
Recently Google gave us another tool for capturing visitors attention with the meta description too. Up until recently Google cut our meta description off at about 160-165 characters. That’s been changing recently though as Google has been extending the meta description sometimes up to 320 characters as explained in this Moz whiteboard Friday.
Search engines often grab the meta description to show people in search results right under the title. This will help show searchers what’s on a page and if it’s what they’re looking for. Give them a good reason to click and your page will rise on the search engine results page.
There’s room in the meta description to get creative and promote certain aspects of your business or the article in order to “sell” your business a bit more.
Keep on optimizing and testing
There’s always more to search engine optimization. That’s why it’s an ongoing topic that I regularly write on.
These three things will help you get more clicks from organic searches. There’s always more to optimizing your website to benefit more from organic search engines but this is a start.
A good way to see if you’re on the right track with optimizing your website for search is to see how your business online presence is currently doing with a free report. Working with a professional who understand the intricacies of search engine optimization will help your website rank faster and better.