Publisher growth tactics for election season | WEBINAR
Publisher growth tactics for election season | WEBINAR
This module helps explain how CTR analysis and optimization can benefit publishers by improving traffic and conversion outcomes once a content piece goes live.
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Materials
Ready-to-use templates
Resources
Reports and Resources
CTR stands for click-through rate, a metric used to measure an editorial strategy’s success. Compute it by dividing the number of clicks on a search result page snippet or link by the number of times it was shown. CTR is an important measure of success since it helps gauge the effectiveness of a campaign and helps inform audience development and editorial teams on decisions about how to optimize future campaigns.
Analyzing ranked pages’ click-through rates can help determine how many estimated visitors from the search engine results page (SERP) arrived at the page, providing a basic forecasting model. Although appearing as the first SERP result may seem like a success, it is not the only factor contributing to SEO; rather, what matters is the amount of qualified traffic and conversions the page receives.
For this reason, click-through-rate optimization is critical when gauging SEO efforts. Multiple studies demonstrate that the click-through rate significantly increases as a site’s page ranking improves. Therefore, generally speaking, higher rankings lead to higher click-through rates. Another study by Sistrix found that the first three search results have the highest CTR from the top 10 ranking pages, indicating that they receive the lion’s share of organic traffic from the SERP. Therefore, a crucial factor affecting the CTR of an organic search result is its position in the SERP.
The CTR of an organic search result can be impacted by numerous factors such as ranking position, presence of ads, SERP features, type of query, and the appearance of the snippet. Larry Kim experimented with comparing CTRs of 1,000 keywords from the same niche on both paid and organic searches. He noted that something unusual was occurring and hypothesized that RankBrain was elevating the rankings of pages with higher organic CTRs.
Ultimately, Kim concluded that there was an existing relationship between CTR and ranking, although the exact nature of it remained shrouded in mystery.
Google has confirmed that CTR is used in conjunction with other measures of engagement when conducting search quality tests. However, Google’s Gary Illyes clarified that CTR is not a ranking factor in a Pubcon Las Vegas 2016 presentation.
There is no evidence Google considers CTR as a direct ranking signal in its search engine algorithm. It is a metric that can be used to measure the success of your content.
Go to SEOTesting.com and navigate to the below options to find opportunities:
After finding the articles, look for the improvement which can be made. Some of the areas below as a starting point:
List the existing performance in the CTR Test Management under the ‘Hypothesis/Notes’ tab.
Record the improvements/suggestions listed in point number 2, ‘Improvements to be made’ in the ‘Hypothesis/Notes’ tab.
Get the improvements implemented on the site and record the implementation date under the ‘Date Updated’ column.
An SEO split test is conducted by taking multiple pages of the same type and splitting them into two groups; a control group and a test group — showing impressions and clicks data in GSC.
The control group remains unchanged, while the test group is subjected to some alterations. Both groups are then monitored to observe the results of the changes in the performance of the test group compared to the control group based on the impressions and clicks.
To track the effectiveness of your changes, first record the clicks, impressions, and other metrics for at least two weeks. This provides a baseline metric to compare against and measure the success of changes.
Use SEOTesting.com to easily set up an SEO split test and track the results daily. Use it to calculate the testing period’s differences, benchmarks, and averages. Once you have made the necessary changes to your test pages, get started as mentioned below—
In the Control URLs text area, paste in the pages from your control group, with each URL on a new line. Do the same for the Test URLs text area.
Once you have collected the baseline data, monitor the results of the test group compared to the control group to check the effectiveness of changes.
Calculate the following for each day —
Daily Difference = Average[test group clicks] – Average[control group clicks].
Get the pre-test baseline number to avail the average of the daily difference.
In addition, utilize the CTR tracking sheet to monitor any qualitative observations and impact.
It may take a while before Google’s crawlers notice changes made to a specific page. Therefore, wait before measuring the impact of the changes.
Ideally, follow a timeline before determining whether your goal is achieved. Monitoring progress towards a goal and regularly assessing the situation can help ascertain whether success has been achieved.
Introducing an incremental learning framework can help measure the success of your SEO efforts. However, to do this effectively, it is important to identify symptoms (with metrics) and solutions you can use as growth levers for realizing incremental improvements.
Let’s explore this in detail. with some of SODP’s learning rubric of the symptoms (with metrics) and solutions, you can tackle them as a starting point for your test/s.
| Low CTR/Low Impressions
Reasons:
Possible solutions: Content quality improvement (refer to content optimization): Enhancing content quality requires creating engaging, informative, and keyword-rich content. Try complementing the written content with compelling visuals, multimedia assets, and more. Structured data: Structured data can help improve SERP visibility and CTR by providing a more organized way to present information to users. Try the following — FAQ schema: Provide answers to common questions, enabling users to find the information they are looking for. Introduce Review/rating schema: This can compare products or services, allowing users to quickly see what other users think of your business offerings. Pros/Cons schema: Enable users to quickly compare the advantages and disadvantages of different offerings. Newsarticle schema: Up-to-date information about topics that are relevant to users. For more, you can explore schema.org
Time stamps: Adding timestamps to content show readers that the content was published first, giving them the confidence to trust your site. And the more users visit your page, the better your SERP will be. Publishers can use Blockchain technology to timestamp published content that protects ownership rights. |
Low CTR/ High Impressions
Possible solutions: Check for top queries missing from metadata. Check your top queries from GSC and ensure including those in your metadata. Consider including — – Popular search terms – Regional keywords – Long-tail keywords – Relevant keywords Search intent How well does your writing answer the question posed by the keyword? (i.e. what are searchers looking for when they type that keyword into Google). Ensure crafting a compelling content that complements your primary keyword and is a 1:1 match for search intent. Striking distance keywords A keyword that has the potential to rank highly on a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) with a bit of effort and dedication to rising the ranks to page 1. Use this guidebook to get started. Publishing dates Publishers often post an article and track its performance. What they can do more is to keep updating it and change dates. The article will still have the ‘first published on’ date along with the ‘updated on’ date. Therefore, check for the latest stats or updates in the industry to provide recent content that is relevant for users and vis-a-vis search engines. Cannibalization To combat this issue, one can manually search for cannibalized keywords or use automated tools such as Yoast and Ahrefs to change content and update keywords. Alternative fixes include changing internal linkings, consolidating the two pages, and planning future content to avoid such cannibalization. However, if the rankings and CTRs are already stable, it may be best to leave it and monitor the situation closely. |
| High CTR / Low Impressions
Possible solutions: Keyword volume Consider how much is the search volume of your keyword. Chances are, you are tracking keywords that interest some user segments but have low search volume. Use Google Trends, Adwords, and other SEO tools to find keywords with the utmost relevance and search volume. Relevant content Publish content on evergreen topics that are comprehensive and relevant. Ensure adding details, images, and a proper structure ( <H1 > H2 >H3) to encourage engagement. Internal links and placement Internal links involve linking other pages on the same website. Placement refers to putting up content within a website where it appears concerning other content. By strategically placing internal links and content, website owners can optimize their website and make it easier for users to find the information they are looking for — resulting in more impressions to access the content users easily need. User interaction and design A great user experience includes easy navigation, intuitive design, clear visuals, relevant content, and features that encourage user engagement — contests, polls, surveys, and other interactive elements. Such a design helps enhance brand recognition and trust which can further increase impressions. |
New Opportunities.
Check your performance data based on CTR, impression, bounce rate, top-performing search queries, page ranking for keywords, etc. Leverage such data to create new content, addressing the roadblocks to high CTR and impressions. Creating new content includes —
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In this section, we go through additional tests that can inspire improving CTR and diagnosing performance.
A successful keyword (you previously ranked) may experience a ranking drop that can significantly affect your CTR. Address this by searching for the lost Google rankings. You may even rank for keywords you weren’t targeting.
Focus on regaining keyword positions and ranking that may be affected for the following reasons.
Algorithm updates
Check for the algorithm update that may cause dropped rankings. Keep a tab on this Google Search ranking update to see whether the algorithm affects your SERP.
Check how competitors are faring
If you see a dip in rankings, it could be because your competitors have improved their performance. Run a competition analysis check to dig competitors’ backlink profiles, search for new keywords, and put efforts into link-building to start ranking back in those keywords.
Lost backlinks
Your SERP may take a dip because of the loss of backlinks. Check your backlinks using Ahrefs. Fix this by reconnecting with the website owner and re-linking your pages.
Search engines like Google, Bing, etc. use structured data in the HTML or Javascript of a website to generate rich snippets. Getting featured in rich snippets requires creating structured data like
Reviews
Review schema signals the search engines that the customer-created information is in place. Use it to show reviews, ratings, and other related information, such as the reviewer’s name and the review date.
Search engines display additional information, such as star ratings, next to your website in the search results.
Ratings
Enable search engines to recognize and interpret ratings within a web page.
Show how much your customers rate products/services for search engines to display star ratings next to your website in the search results.
Pros and cons: This schema allows search engines to recognize and interpret the pros and cons within a web page.
It marks up the relative advantages and disadvantages of products, services, or other items.
FAQ
Use search engines to identify, recognize, and interpret frequently asked questions within a web page.
It can mark up questions and answers about a particular topic, helping search engines display additional information, such as FAQs and people also asked (PAA).
How-to schema
Search engines recognize and interpret how-to content within a web page.
This is useful in marking up step-by-step instructions for completing tasks, helping search engines display additional information to help users answer their prospective or related queries.
Visit the schema markup module to explore how to create rich snippets.
Content marketers strive to create content that can generate leads throughout the year. Yet, the holidays and major events often catch people’s attention. For B2B companies, seasonal content can be used to switch up the pace, raise brand recognition, and refocus their audience’s attention.
Here are some ways to brace yourself for seasonal traffic well ahead of time.
Using keywords that the article is already ranking for but that have not been included in the body is a sure-shot way to boost SEO. To identify these keywords, use Ahrefs Site Explorer or Google Search Console and enter the URL for the post.
Instead of creating a redirect to include your primary keyword in your URL, it is often better to focus on optimizing the rest of the page. This way, you can avoid losing your page’s initial ranking.
Look at the top Google results for your target term and evaluate their presence by asking the following question —
Once it is clear that the listicles are the most popular content on search engine results pages, start producing those. This way, you stand a better chance of ranking. Additionally, publishing content ahead of time is beneficial to capture seasonal interest.
SEO best practices involve optimizing your website for both users and search engines and monitoring and adapting to changing trends. Best practices can help increase your website’s click-through rate (CTR). Let’s explore.
1. Rework your titles
Titles are one of the first things readers see that play a crucial role in getting them interested. Also, in what you have to say, encourage them to click through.
Having the page’s title and H1 tag accurately describe the web page’s content is beneficial for both readers and search engines.
2. URL testing by adding CTAs or numbers.
Testing your URLs starts with a hypothesis. It is wise to test changes before rolling them out to all pages by comparing the new tags against a control page or pages with similar levels of impressions and traffic.
3. Experiment with rich snippet schema like FAQs, Ratings/Reviews, How-tos, Pros/Cons etc.
As mentioned above, you can use schemas like FAQs, How-to, Pros/Cons, etc. But, if you are in two minds, it is best to A/B test the schema before implementing it. And, for those looking to implement it, here’s a quick guide with code to get started.
4. Add a custom Table of contents to trigger jump links in SERPs
JumpLinks, also known as Anchor-Links or Bookmarks, are a useful navigational tool for publishers to help their users find the content they are looking for on long web pages. With JumpLink, users no longer have to scroll or search through the page to get to the desired content or back to the top.
Create a custom table of content with anchor links to each page section that acts as a jump link.
Here’s a quick guide that may help.
5. Analyze content for featured snippet opportunities for image and text
Start with identifying opportunities from within your current content that can be reworked to appear in featured snippets.
As a publisher, you can find potential featured snippet opportunities by looking at the current set of snippets that google shows for a particular keyword.
Next, search for relevant keywords using SEMrush or Ahrefs to identify SERPs with Featured Snippets. For example, by running an Organic Keywords report through Ahrefs, you can filter out any keywords without featured snippets and look to explore them.
Once you know which keywords have featured snippets, you can optimize the content on your page so Google chooses to use it in the snippet.
Moreover, you can also get your images displayed on featured snippets. The best practice here is—
Avoid These Common Pitfalls
Optimizing CTR requires mitigating common pitfalls that hamper your activities. Check out some of the common pitfalls and how you can overcome those.
Discarding a query is unnecessary simply because the CTR is low. This may indicate the presence of other SERP features that need further investigation.
Source: Google Search Console
It is important to examine your industry and the success of your rivals in addition to your past ad work when deciding whether or not this measure is high. Your primary comparison metric should be competing for sites’ click-through rate (CTR) for the same term.
After all, if your page has a lower click-through rate than a competitor’s, Google will consider your business less relevant.
A click-through rate (CTR) of 3%, although respectable in certain contexts, is meaningless if your main rival has a CTR of roughly 5%. This means that the success of your campaign relative to the commercials of your rivals will have a direct bearing on the value you set.
If you are new to SEO, you may be susceptible to keyword cannibalization. This occurs when the same keyword is used in more than one place.
This can lead to confusion for the Google bot and can cause it not to return the most accurate information in search results.
Solution
Follow the best practices outlined in the evergreen content reusage module relating to curating and consolidating content.
It is possible to add annotations to Google Search Console data at the site, page, or query level. These annotations enable tracking changes made on a site and for monthly reporting to clients — all such information is then rolled up into the site changelog report.
Google Chrome extension
The SEOTesting Google Chrome extension provides a convenient way to view your Google Search Console data while you browse your website. Additionally, it includes on-page SEO advice and guidance to help you optimize your pages and content.
Google Data Studio connector
The SEOTesting Google Data Studio connector enables users to view their SEO tests in a Google Data Studio dashboard, whether it is new or already existing.
Examples
What was done: Custom images were added to the articles. All the articles containing definitions of terms were identified. Then, custom images were created for each definition.
Result: Custom images appeared in enhanced reach results for the term.
More than 3.5K clicks coming from Google image search:
What was done: All the listicle articles were identified. After that, a table of contents with jump links was added to each one. The table of contents contained the items listed in the article. Additionally, the numbering was added to the items:
Result: In search results appeared jump-in site links to the list items.
By adding a TOC with links and numbering we improved user experience and gave a signal to Google algorithm on how content is structured and which subheadings have more value in terms of providing information.
What was done: Frequently asked questions section was added along with the FAQ schema to the articles on the website. A list of written articles was made and it was identified which topics written on the website triggered the “People also ask” section in search results. This section also gave ideas of what kind of questions are often searched.
Then, relevant questions with short and informative answers were added to the articles. After adding FAQ sections to the article, FAQ schemas were applied.
Result: More than 64K clicks coming entirely from FAQ rich snippets
Adding all the relevant questions along with short and informative answers to the articles and applying FAQ schema helped the website appear in SERPs as an enhanced FAQ-rich result which increased CTR. The relevancy of the questions made users see that the information they need is covered in the article and they clicked on it.
Actions and Takeaways
To sum up, CTR analysis and optimization is a powerful tool for any publisher to improve the effectiveness of its digital marketing campaigns. By understanding the reasons behind the click-through rate of each campaign, publishers can adjust their strategy accordingly and maximize the impact of their efforts.
Additionally, it can help you better understand the audience and their preferences, enabling you to create more targeted and effective campaigns. Lastly, test different strategies and identify the most effective ones, allowing publishers to make the most of their budget and get the best possible results.
