? Hack #1: Optimize your click-through-rate Let me ask you this: If 10,000 people performed a Google search for the term “SEO” and clicked on the number 2 listing instead of the number 1 listing, what would that tell Google? You want people to click on your listing more than the other ones out there. If you can generate more clicks (in a legitimate way) than the listings above you, eventually you’ll notice your rankings climb without having to write more content or build more links. There are a few ways you can generate more clicks on your listing over the competition: Include keywords – people tend to click on listings that include the keyword or phrase they just searched for. Log into Google Search Console, then click on “Search Traffic” and then click on “Search Analytics”: You’ll see a page that looks something like this: Scroll back up to the top and click on the “pages” radio button and “CTR” checkbox: You’ll see a list of results sorted by your most popular URLs and their respective click-through-rate (also known as CTR): Look for pages that have high traffic but a CTR of less than 5%. Those are the keywords you want to focus on in your title tag and meta description. You don’t want people going to your site and clicking the back button… it will hurt your rankings. If you can optimize your website for the optimal user experience, people will be less likely to click the back button. Look at how I’ve gotten over 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. Optimizing title tags – assuming you run successful tests, you can see small results in 30 to 60 days.
I know what you are thinking, this isn’t impossible.
Because the more content you have and the more links you have, the higher your rankings will be.
Although that is true, it doesn’t mean that content marketing and link building are the only ways to increase your rankings.
It doesn’t matter what update Google rolls out, I’ve found that there are a few hacks that consistently work to boost your rankings without creating more content or building more links.
So, are you ready to find out what they are?
What does Google want to rank at the top?
Before I get into the exact “hacks” and tactics that can boost your rankings, I want to first help you change the way you think about SEO.
Do you think Google really cares about on-page SEO and link building?
Sure, it matters to some extent, but that’s not what Google cares about the most.
Google wants to rank websites that people love. If they ranked websites that you hated, then you would slowly stop using Google.
And if people stopped using Google, then there would be fewer people to click on their ads, which means they would make less money.
That’s why Google cares about what you think and they ideally want to rank the websites that you love.
Now let’s dive into some hacks that will make people love your site, which will boost your rankings.
And don’t worry… I am not going to give you some fluffy tactics, I have data to back up everything. ?
Hack #1: Optimize your click-through-rate
Let me ask you this:
If 10,000 people performed a Google search for the term “SEO” and clicked on the number 2 listing instead of the number 1 listing, what would that tell Google?
It would tell them that the number 2 listing is more relevant and that Google should move that listing to the number 1 spot.
Rand Fishkin ran an experiment where he told all of his Twitter followers to perform a Google search for the term “best grilled steak” and to click on the first listing, hit the back button, and then click on the 4th listing.
Within 70 minutes the 4th listing jumped into the top spot.
And that page even started to rank at the top of page 1 for the term “grilled steak”.
The ranking eventually slipped back down because people didn’t really feel that the listing was that great compared to some of the other listings.
Instead, it only climbed because Rand has a loyal following and everyone helped trick Google to believe that it was more relevant (at least in the short term).
But this should give you a sense that Google cares what you think. So much so that they will adjust rankings in real time because they don’t want to show you pages that you feel are irrelevant (no matter how many backlinks the page has or how well its on-page code is optimized).
And Rand wasn’t the only person who tested out this theory. It’s been done a countless number of times and each time it produced similar results.
You want people to click on your listing more than the other ones out there. It’s that simple.
If you can generate more clicks (in a legitimate way) than the listings above you, eventually you’ll notice your rankings climb without having to write more content or build more links.
So, how do you get more clicks?
Well, you have to adjust your title tag and meta description tag to be more appealing.
Anytime you perform a Google search, you see a list of results. And each result has a title, URL, and description:
The link part is the title (also known as the title tag), then there is the URL (which is green in color), and lastly, there is the description (black text… that is also known as the meta description).
If you are running a WordPress blog, you can easily modify your title tag and meta description using the Yoast SEO plugin.
There are a few ways you can generate more clicks on your listing over the competition:
- Include keywords – people tend to click on listings that include the keyword or phrase they just searched for. Make sure you are using the right keywords within your title and description (I will get to this in a bit). This may sound basic, but when your web pages rank for thousands of terms, which one do you include in your 60-character title tag?
- Evoke curiosity – titles that are super appealing tend to generate clicks. For example, if the keyword you were going after is “green tea,” a good title would be “11 Proven Benefits of Green Tea (#6 Will Shock You)”. I know it may seem a bit long, but it works because a lot of people will wonder what number 6 will be.
- Copy magazines – anytime you see a magazine, you’ll notice that they have appealing titles and headlines on the cover. A lot of their titles contain “how to” or are list oriented. Look at magazines for inspiration.
Improving your search listings isn’t rocket science. Where most people mess up is that they pick the wrong keywords or they are terrible at writing copy. Remember, humans are reading your title tag and meta description tag, so they need to be appealing.
If you are struggling writing appealing copy, read my ultimate guide to copywriting.
Now let’s go over the exact steps you need to take to get more clicks.
The first step is to use Google Search Console.
Log into Google Search Console, then click on “Search Traffic” and then click on “Search Analytics”:
You’ll see a page that looks something like this:
Scroll back up to the top and click on the “pages” radio button and “CTR” checkbox:
You’ll see a list of results sorted by your most popular URLs and their respective click-through-rate (also known as CTR):
Look for pages that have high traffic but a CTR of less than 5%.
Click on one of the listings with a CTR of less than 5% and then click on the “queries” radio button:
You’ll then want to look for the keywords with the highest…
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