Many businesses have become reliant on search. They either spend top $$$ on paid search or endless hours optimising to achieve those business relevant top rankings on Google and other search engines. However what happens when you achieved those top #10 rankings that drives traffic to your site?
Don’t assume search volume converts into traffic to your site
Assuming you have done your keyword research and you have optimised your site for search terms which are highly relevant to your business, the click through rate (CTR) should be high? At least 10% – 20% of the total traffic estimated for the targeted keyword if you achieve #1 ranking. If not you better improve your page titles and descriptions so they correlate with the searchers terms used and their intend.
The same logic applies for paid search (Adwords) too. Titles and descriptions need to closely match the searchers intent otherwise you won’t get the click even if you command top advert positions. Obviously with Adwords you only pay for clicks you get but that does not make it right to loose possible traffic that could convert.
Most searches are informational
With roughly 90% of all searches either informational or navigational, transactional searches are less than 10%. In plain English this means most people looking for information rather than buying a product or service. If your site is purely informational, not selling anything, searcher intent is less of an issue. However most sites these days have some kind of commercial purpose, hence CTR are important for both natural and paid search.
Focus on searcher’s intent
The trick is to appeal to searchers intent, get them to your website and than convert to a sale or a lead with compelling content and offers. Both your page titles and descriptions play an important role in this process. Both are shown together with your URL on the natural search result page or in you paid search ad. If you can match searchers intent with you brief summary of your offering you will be guaranteed a high CTR.
Optimise page titles and descriptions
For example if a person searches for ‘compare Audi A4 models’ you will achieve higher CTR if you have following title and description:
Audi A4 models compared
We review and compare all Audi cars and all models from A1, A4, A6 and A8. Expert advice, road tests and price comparison on all Audi cars…..
Spending some time understanding intent and defining page titles and descriptions accordingly will lead to higher CTR. Searchers will find your listing more relevant to their search and will be more likely to click on your listing. The first step towards conversions and a transaction.
Don’t waste your search traffic, natural or organic. Search volume alone won’t get you transactions.