The CTR value is most often given as a percentage. In Google Search Console we can, among other things, see the number of impressions and the number of clicks for different keywords. If a website has 400 impressions for a keyword and 80 clicks, the CTR is 20%. To calculate CTR as a percentage, you divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions and multiply by 100.
In Norwegian, the terms klikkfrekvens and klikkrate are also used for this.
What is a good CTR?
What qualifies as a good CTR value depends entirely on your website’s position in the search results, the industry you operate in, the type of website you have, and much more.
The most important thing to monitor is changes in your CTR. If you have a website that ranks in 8th position for a search and has a CTR of 3%, an increase to 4% can be very good. If you have a larger website and a well-known brand name, you should probably aim considerably higher.
Why is CTR important for SEO results?
It’s easy to become fixated on ranking metrics. You can quickly end up focusing too much on creating meta titles and taking other measures to directly target as many search queries as possible.
But even if you perform well on this and achieve a strong position in the SERP, that doesn’t mean people will automatically want to click on your link. This is where, among other things, the meta description comes into play.
You can have a strong domain and a good meta title that helps you rank high in the SERP, but still have a poor, auto-generated meta description. This can seriously hurt your CTR, because the person who performed the search does not get a clear enough understanding of what your website contains.
What does Google say about CTR?
Very few besides Google itself know exactly how the algorithm works to determine rankings in search. Many argue that CTR in itself is not a direct factor, but most SEO experts agree that a high CTR still has a significant indirect impact on rankings.
What reinforces this is that Google engineer Paul Haahr has explained how they use A/B tests to measure changes in click patterns and similar behavior.
In the same article, we can read that former Google employee Edmond Lau says that it is obvious that a search engine uses click measurements to verify that its own algorithm is performing well.
How many users click on a link from the search results is simply a good metric for how interesting that link is.
5 tips on how to improve your CTR values
So what can you do to improve your CTR values? Here are some useful tips:
#1 – Start using structured data
What if your website’s listing in the search results could take up more space than the other websites? You can achieve this by using structured data. Terms that are also used for this are schema markups and rich snippets.
In short, this is about getting Google to display more content from your website in the SERP than just the title, description, and URL. For example, it could be a bullet list extracted from the text on your site, the number of stars/reviews on a product, an image from your article, and so on.
Such listings make your website stand out in the search results and give the searcher even better information about what your site contains. These are things that can clearly increase CTR.
If you haven’t worked with structured data before, it can be a bit challenging to understand all the terminology. Feel free to read more about the key terms at Yoast.
#2 – Language and wording in the meta title
Don’t let all the keywords for your website get in the way of using “natural language” in the meta title.
Remember that it’s people, not algorithms, who will read, understand, and click on your link in the SERP. That means the language in the title needs to be simple and descriptive. You can absolutely include a few important keywords, but also remember to use words and phrases that, for example, appeal to emotions.
Remember that you are a human communicating something to another human through your website.
#3 – Don’t forget the meta description
Many see the meta description as the slightly dull counterpart to the meta title. That’s because the description has no direct impact on how high you rank in the search results.
Still, the description can have a major impact on how the searcher perceives the link to your website. This is where you should use strong wording and phrases that capture attention.
Remember that people usually scroll quite quickly through the search results.
#4 – Think about the purchase funnel and long-tail keywords
Consider this: Does your website appear in the search results because you’ve done a good job targeting single keywords like “bord” or “verksted”, or do you get hits when someone searches for “spisebord til 6 personer” or “Skoda verksted Oslo øst”?
It’s obvious that you’ll get many more impressions if you manage to rank high on single keywords, but it can be more valuable to be visible when the buyer is further down the purchase funnel. If you optimize the page for more specific search phrases, it will undoubtedly appear more relevant to the buyer. This can in turn lead to a higher CTR.
#5 – Use the URL slug to its full potential
It’s easy to forget that the URL itself can also include descriptive words and persuasive messaging.
The URL slug is the part of the URL that comes after the domain name. If you run an online store, it is crucial to have a clear structure in your categories – and this will usually also make the URL slug more descriptive for the searcher.
If you are writing a blog post in, for example, WordPress, you can easily change the slug so that it also entices the searcher to click, in combination with the meta title and description.
Conclusion: Give a good impression of what your website contains
Ultimately, CTR optimization is about giving the searcher a strong first impression of your website and what it offers. Why should the searcher click through? Why is your content a good match for what they were searching for? How do you and your website stand out?
