6 May 2022
10 Proven Ways to Improve Organic Click Through Rate (CTR)
Do you want to improve the organic click through rate (CTR) for your WordPress blog?
The click through rate (CTR) is the average number of clicks a page gets when it appears in search results. Improving your CTR can assist you in boosting your SEO rankings and driving more traffic to your blog from search engines.
In this post, we’ll share the proven ways to improve organic click through rate (CTR) in WordPress like SEO pro.
What is Organic Click Through Rate (CTR)?
The percentage of users who click on an article in the search result is known as the organic click through rate.
Or it can be said that,
Organic clicks ÷ impressions = Organic CTR
Let’s say one of your articles showed up 100 times in a Google search for a specific keyword. Out of those, ten users click to read your article, giving you a 10% click-through rate.
Why is Organic CTR Important?
Search engine algorithms use organic CTR to measure the performance of your website in search results. The pages with a higher click-through rate are more likely to rank higher in search results.
Many SEO professionals believe that increasing your CTR is the quickest way to boost your SEO rankings.
As a website owner, you can analyze which pages on your site generate the most clicks and then repeat those strategies on other pages.
You may also identify which pages are not getting any clicks and work to improve them so that they have a higher click-through rate.
What is a Good Click Through Rate for Organic Search??
According to the study, average click-through rates range from 3 to 5%.
In comparison, the #1 result in Google’s organic search engine result has an average CTR of nearly 32%.
As a result, it’s fair to say that above 4-5% is considered a good CTR.
How Do I Find the Organic Click Through Rate (CTR)?
The best way to find your organic CTR is to use Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is a free Google tool that allows website owners to track their site’s performance in search results.
If you have not done so, follow our guide to learn how to add your website to Google Search Console.
Simply log in to your Google Search Console dashboard and navigate to the Performance tab. At the top, you’ll see your website’s Average CTR.
To add the average click-through rate as a metric to your report, click on it. Next to it, you’ll have an average position box; click to choose it as well.
Now, scroll down to the detailed report section. Under the Queries tab, you’ll find keywords you rank for, along with their average clicks, impressions, CTR, and position.
You can sort the results by position or CTR by clicking on any column.
Similarly, you may move to the Pages tab to get results for specific pages on your website rather than keywords.
10 Proven Ways to Improve Click Through Rate (CTR) in WordPress
Now that you know how to examine your website’s average CTR scores, the next step is to increase the click through rate of your WordPress blog posts.
Ideally, you should begin with pages that are already ranking higher, have good search impressions, and an average position of 1-10 but have a very low CTR.
After that, you’d go on to the low-hanging fruit. These are the pages that appear on the second or third page of the search results. You may want to improve their CTR to rank higher and get more traffic.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the proven ways that you can use to improve your click-through rates.
1. Use Long-Tail Keywords
The first step to improving your organic CTR is to include long-tail keywords, especially in your headings and title tags. Long-tail keywords are more descriptive than short-tail keywords, and as a result, they better match your content to the search intent.
When users see a descriptive long-tail keyword that is related to what they’re looking for, they are encouraged to click on your URL because they are sure that your article will include the information they need.
How do you find long-tail keywords that are relevant to the user’s intent?
Using SEO tools like Semrush will help.
Login to Semrush and navigate to Keyword Magic Tool. Next, enter the keyword in the input field and click Search.
Next, you will see a list of relevant keywords to your search keyword with intent, volume, KD, CPC, etc.
Now, you will select the keywords that are relevant to your post and include them in your new content.
2. Write Powerful Headlines and SEO Titles
The title or headline of your blog post is the most noticeable thing in search results.
It must be relevant, catchy, and engaging to grab the user’s attention and convince them to click.
But how do you identify which headlines will help you gain more clicks in search results?
Fortunately, there are many headline analyzer tools available that will check your headlines and give suggestions for improvement.
We recommend using the MonsterInsights plugin because it includes a headline analyzer. It is also the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to see where your visitors come from and what they do when they visit your site.
Alternative: You may also use the web version of MonsterInsights’ Headline Analyzer tool or IsItWP’s Headline Analyzer tool to test headlines outside of the WordPress admin area.
3. Use Dynamic SEO Titles for Better Headlines
WordPress uses your page or post title as the title tag in the HTML by default. Search engines use this title tag to display your website listing.
You can use the Yoast SEO plugin to produce better SEO titles for your older blog articles and pages automatically.
It is the best WordPress SEO plugin, with over 5 million users using it to improve search rankings and click-through rates.
First, you should install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin.
Once finished, you need to visit Yoast SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the Content Types tab.
From here, you can create dynamic SEO titles and descriptions for all of your posts, pages, and other post types. This SEO title will be used when a post or page does not have its own SEO title or description.
You can also change the SEO title and description of any post or page on your WordPress site. Simply open the post you want to edit and scroll down to the Yoast SEO meta box below the post editor.
You can add a custom SEO title to your post or page from this page. You’ll see a live preview of how it’ll appear in search results.
Once you’ve finished editing your post, don’t forget to Save and Update it.
4. Write Effective Meta Descriptions
Most search engines automatically generate the description text when showing search results, so the most relevant text shows in the snippet.
However, for certain results, they would just display the description given by the website owner. This is why you should include an SEO description for each of your posts and pages.
If you’re using the Yoast SEO plugin, you can simply add your own SEO-friendly description to each post and page.
Make sure your SEO description contains your target keywords and explains what readers will see when they visit your site. This helps your readers to understand your content and encourages them to click more frequently.
5. Use Descriptive URLs
Your page URL is one of the most important pieces of information shown on SERPs. As a result, you must optimize it in order to improve your organic CTR.
One way to do this is to make it as descriptive as possible.
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Try to include your keyword naturally in your URL. This will reinforce the primary topic of your post, showing users that your content is relevant.
Another tip for optimizing your URL is to make it as short as possible. This makes it more attractive to the eye. As a result, more people are likely to click on it.
If you’re using WordPress, you may change your URL in the permalink settings.
6. Use Images in Posts
Using images in your posts is a normal tactic, but did you realize it may improve your organic CTR?
Images in your content are an effective method to increase engagement. They’re a must-have if you want your content to show up in the featured snippets and other SERP infoboxes.
Not only that, but it increases the chances of your URL being clicked when users search for images in the images section.
To make this work, you must follow image SEO best practices, such as properly naming your images and adding alt text.
7. Try to Appear in Rich Snippets or Answer Box
What could be better than being ranked first for a search query?
The answer box is Google’s attempt to provide more detailed answers to users’ search queries right on the search page.
According to studies, answer boxes have a whopping 32.3% CTR on average.
However, there is no straightforward way to rank as a rich snippet for a search term. The most popular method that has worked for most websites is to create high-quality content.
8. Set Up a Schema.org Structured Data
If you’re unfamiliar with structured data, it’s what allows you to create rich snippets with more information about your content. It includes images, ratings, prep time (for recipes), and breadcrumb navigation. If done correctly, this may increase your organic CTR by 30%!
Furthermore, structured data is used by search engines to display information on the results page, generally before organic search results. That is why it is time to take advantage of it by integrating structured data into your WordPress website.
When you use Yoast SEO, the plugin automatically defines your pages with WebPage Schema and your posts with Article Schema. You may change these defaults in Yoast SEO’s Search Appearance settings.
9. Improve Your Website’s Speed
The speed of a website is critical in determining the success of a CTR. If your website takes too long to load, visitors may become frustrated and leave before seeing what you have to offer.
In mobile, a little wait of 1 to 5 seconds can increase the bounce rate by 90%.
Site speed is also a key factor for page rank, and you must be very careful about making your website fast and reliable. You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site speed.
Here are some suggestions for improving page load times.
- Use a better WordPress hosting provider.
- Install an Effective WordPress Caching Plugin.
- Optimize images for faster page loads.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN).
- Improve your core web vitals.
Check our WordPress speed optimization guide with step-by-step instructions to optimize your WordPress website.
10. Use A/B Tests to Improve Your Click Through Rate (CTR)
Your headline is the most crucial aspect of your content. It is what encourages readers to click on it, so make sure it is engaging enough to do so.
The headline that generates the most engagement wins and should be used.
A/B testing works best if you have a large audience on social media as it gives the most accurate results.
You can’t do A/B testing if you have a small email list or small social media following.
Conclusion
There you’ve it. The ten proven ways to improve your click-through rate (CTR) and drive more organic traffic to your website. Here’s my advice for that: Focus on the user!
When you do keyword research, you have to know your core reason. The essence is not to stuff keywords onto your title tags and meta descriptions.
But to understand the user intent and optimize for a great user experience first. And, of course, high-quality content will position you as the go-to expert in your industry.
There are no shortcuts. Your content has to be great, or your organic clicks and visitors will bounce off the moment they arrive. Be wise!
We hope this article helped you improve the organic click through rate (CTR) for your WordPress blog. You may also see our other articles for more info related to WordPress resources and tutorials.
