Google’s mission is to optimise all online information and display the best at the top. Their second aim is to provide users with answers to their searches, be this in the form of a product carousel, news carousel, company details, frequently asked questions or a train times listing.
“49% of Google searches result in no clicks to websites” – This is the shocking statistic that could see many online businesses fail if they don’t adapt their search engine optimisation and marketing.
After recent analysis on Google clickstream data, provided by marketing analytics firm Jumpshot, showed that zero-click searches on Google have steadily risen over the past three years.
“Click-through rates on organic searches have fallen as paid ads are increasing.”
Search Engine Land
“If you’re in a field Google has decided to enter, like travel, hotels, flights, lyrics, etc., the search giant is almost certainly cannibalizing your market and removing a ton of opportunity,” – Rand Fishkin
What are organic search engine results?
Organic search results are the links that show up on the web page listing which are most closely matched with what the user searched. It’s very much based on relevance. Ranking higher on organic results is what SEO is all about. You can see the difference between organic and paid results, as paid listings are shown at the top and bottom of the page and have “AD” next to them. Google has recently changed the look of the ad sections so they look more like the search results.
What are Paid Ads?
Paid ads are becoming increasingly popular due to the fact that they yield faster and bring in higher returns, which can be a great starting point for beginners who are looking to enhance their SEO campaign. Paid advertising can rack up to a lot of money as you pay every time someone clicks your website link. If you want your Ad to be seen more then you will find you have to pay higher prices. If your Ads quality score is improved you often see a reduction in the cost per click.
How Do Google Widgets Affect Website Click-Through Rates?
For any website that may be about travel, lyrics or accommodation, you might find that google widgets have taken over!
For the searcher, these widgets make life easier when results for train times leaving your closest station shows up without you having to view a website.
While this is great for website searchers it can be very damaging for website owners. The 49% drop in organic website traffic means that your website optimisation needs to be fantastic or you have to pay more in pay per click marketing to be shown above the widgets in the top ad section.
A factor that affects the click-through rate (CTR) is your pay per click ad position. If you aren’t spending the top of page bid then searchers are less likely to scroll down and visit websites. Your ad will be missed because they will choose the first relevant result, which in this case will be the Google Search Widgets as these offer time-saving value.
3 Ways To Improve Click-Through Rates For Google Ads
- Create urgency with countdown timers
- Put your focus keyword in the first URL section of your ad
- Use Ad Extensions so your Ad takes up more space in the search results. Examples of Ad Extensions are:
- Telephone Extensions
- Address Extensions
- Call-Out Extensions
- Site Link Extensions
- Product Extensions
- Service Extensions
- Using things like ad extensions or offer countdown timers are a small change that can massively improve your click-through rates.
- Creating urgency causes the searcher to act on impulse and curiosity. You are more likely to click on something to view it if you knew it wouldn’t be there in a few days time.
By putting the main keyword in the URL provides the audience with a bit of trust. They have seen that the URL is relevant to what they actually searched for, and know the ad isn’t just going to lead them off-trail.
Using symbols grabs people’s attention much quicker than without the use of symbols. An example of such symbols includes ™. That extra bit on the end just makes you look at that particular ad first rather than looking at others.
For more ways to improve your Adword CTR visit https://www.acquisio.com/blog/agency/improve-your-adwords-ctr/
Why Is Relevance Important For SEO?
SEO is a crucial part of marketing as it helps you get your brand name to the top of the results list. Without optimising your content, you might as well not have any content at all.
When you get SEO right, you can reap the benefits of increased traffic, more conversations, improved lead generation and boosted sales. Because search engine optimisation is an investment it takes longer to see results but those results will continue to benefit you.
The most common things search engines pick up on is optimised keywords, dwell time, click-through rates and conversion rates.
- Optimised Keywords are the phrases people type into Google to not only find your website but are more likely to buy.
- Dwell time is how long people stay on your site for, 3 minutes is considered a good length of time.
- Click-through rate is a percentage showing how many times your website was clicked in the search results.
Making sure you think about the littlest things, like optimising your images to increase site speed, is very important. SEO is relevant to anyone who is looking to have good online visibility and strong website rankings.
SEO alone cannot help you reach your full marketing potential. That is why it is best to use other forms of online marketing such as social media and branding as well alongside SEO.
With the right mix of marketing tools, you can achieve your desired goal of getting on, not only the front page of google but getting put as the first shown result.
To see just how many other ways SEO can help you then see the link below. https://searchengineland.com/the-ultimate-list-of-reasons-why-you-need-search-engine-optimization-121215
Why Is Meta Data Important?
Metadata itself is a series of micro-communications between your site and search engines. Without it, you weaken the ability to show relevance to search engines and this, in turn, lowers ranking and reduces the number of consumers.
Nearly all metadata is invisible to website visitors, as it works behind the scenes in the HTML of web pages. It is always helpful for website optimisation to use page title tags, page description tags and ALT attributes to describe images. They are small things that can help search engines optimise your website further.
How We Can Help
At Lacey Tech Solutions, not only can we assist you with your general marketing needs, but we can also help your business to increase its own opportunity to market itself.
We can help you with local SEO, whereby more online exposure in your business service is provided within your target markets. Local SEO is different from your average SEO campaign because it has a geographical component. It is the practice of optimising the website and building signals of relevance around a specific location.
We can also provide you with website SEO audits. This is a great way to access previously hidden information on your website. It can help you identify problems which stop you from reaching the top of search pages.
To find out more about how we can help, call us on 01252 518233 to speak to our Specialist SEO Consultants.
We aim to respond within two working days from when you send off for your free quote.
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Disclaimer:Lacey Tech Solutions publish blog articles to help small businesses. We are not liable for any damages if you choose to follow the advice from our blog.