Search engine traffic tends to be the highest percentage of traffic that websites receive across the whole internet. From my experience with my websites, I see that organic traffic can reach as high as 85%, which really does put emphasis on having good SEO. However, getting a high ranking on Google involves doing one thing, whilst getting a click onto Google involves something quite different. In this article, I will be sharing some ways you can increase the click through rate (CTR) of your organic search results, so that you ultimately will receive more traffic for the same ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Make Attractive URLs

An area people commonly overlook optimizing with organic traffic is with the URL itself. Considering that it’s one of three elements to the organic result, it is a necessity to make sure the URL is:

• Attractive – don’t make it too long or too short. It is a good idea to reword the title in the URL, keeping the keywords and removing joining words such as ‘and’, ‘a’, ‘the’, etc.
• Short – the longer the URL is, the higher the chance it will be cropped, which is never a good look on SERPs. Try and keep the URL as short and too the point as possible

Use Numbers

Numbers are an effective way to get clicks onto the title. This is because:

• It provides an idea as to how long the article is. For example, ’10 tips on’ means it won’t be too long a read, which could come across as attractive for the web user to click onto the link.
• It provides an idea as to how useful the article will be. If you only have one tip in your article, they are less inclined to click on it if they know this, and click on something with 50 tips etc.
• Numbers are to the point and concise in a search title.

Add a Meta Description

There are two types of descriptions that appear for organic results. The first is a naturally produced description from Google. This is achieved by Google scanning the content and producing a description that they feel best will suit the description area of the organic result. However, although Google thinks its the best they can do, it does not always provide the best incentive to click onto the search result. For this reason, it is a good idea to use meta descriptions. This is a way to over-ride Google from automatically producing a description and supplying one yourself. With this, aim to give a little information over, whilst expanding on the title.

Evoke Emotions

Emotions are a great way for people to connect. If one person can understand the feeling another person is having, that ability to relate to one another provides a connection where both parties like to explore. The same applies to the organic title – if you can relate to the emotion the web user is feeling from reading the type of content they are searching for, they will more likely click on it, since they relate to it more. For example, if a web user is searching for a security plugin for WordPress, a title such as ‘Top 5 Security WordPress Plugins to Put Your Mind at Ease’ would work well.