Do CTR's Really Affect Organic Rankings?
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The document discusses the impact of click-through rates (CTR) on organic search rankings based on various tests and personal experiments conducted by the author, Sam Thomas, an SEO expert. Results from tests show a possible correlation between increased CTR and improved rankings, raising questions about the sustainability and viability of using bots to artificially increase CTR. The document concludes by emphasizing the importance of engaging page titles and meta descriptions in naturally increasing CTR.
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Do CTR's Really Affect Organic Rankings?
- 1. 1 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Do CTR’s Really Affect Organic Rankings? @SAMTHOMASSEO https://uk.linkedin.com/ in/sam-thomas-seo Sam Thomas
- 2. 2 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. What Have Previous Tests Told Us? My Test The Results Too Summarise What It Means For Your Clients The End! The Agenda. Why I Did This Test
- 3. 3 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. About Me. • SEO’er for around 5 years. • Currently Head of Organic Media at Climb Online. • Specialise in Technical / Onsite SEO. • Worked With Clients in a Range of Industries. • Working with Budgets from £250 - £10’000 per month. • Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I tweet more about delayed trains than SEO..
- 4. 4 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Why I Did This Test. • It has been on my agenda for a few years. • Other similar tests. • How it works in a common SEO environment. • Could it provide a new value for clients? • Is it a viable part of an SEO strategy? • How much resource would it take?
- 5. 5 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Previous Tests / Reports • Moz – May 2014 • Search Engine Land – August 2015 • Moz - April 2016 • Forums Google – Every Month, Every Year
- 6. 6 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Moz – May 2014 • Rand Blog – Search Term – IMEC Lab • Position 7 6:03pm • A tweet asking people to click – around 200 clicks. • Position 1 9.01pm • Evidence suggests clicks increase rankings.
- 7. 7 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. SEJ – August 2015 • Bartosz Góralewicz – Search Term – Negative SEO • Position 2. • Bot traffic with engagement of 2-4 minutes including clicking on internal links. • Stayed at Position 2. • Two Months Later – Ranking started to drop.
- 8. 8 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Moz – April 2016 • Larry Kim Blog – Rank Brain • If You Beat the Expected CTR – You Rank Higher • If CTR is Lower than Expected – You Rank Lower. • Want to Move up a Position? Increase CTR by 3%. • Evidence suggests Rank Brain takes into account CTR and can increase rankings.
- 9. 9 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Wordstream CTR Averages
- 10. 10 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. So.. Does it?
- 11. 11 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. My Test • Keyword: FREE SEO AUDIT. • Bot Traffic With Engagement. • Initial Ranking: 29 • Real World Environment – Minus Backlinks. • We Also Shared This on Social Media.
- 12. 12 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 1! • Traffic: 150 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute + • Internal Clicks: 2 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 30 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 40 seconds. Position 29 Position 23
- 13. 13 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 2! Position 25 Position 19 • Traffic: 250 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute 30 seconds. • Internal Clicks: 2 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 50 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 40 seconds.
- 14. 14 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Round 3! Position 19 Position 12 • Traffic: 750 visits. • Time on site: 1 minute 15 seconds. • Internal Clicks: 3 pages • Bot Instructions: Go to Google.co.uk -> Search for “Free SEO Audit” -> Search through top 5 pages -> find http://climb- online.co.uk -> click result -> stay on page for 30 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 25 seconds -> click an internal link -> stay on page for 20 seconds.
- 15. 15 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. SURPRISE TEST! Position 11 Position 1 • John Bull appears on Dragons Den last Sunday • Showcases a tablet stand called Plinth • Pocket Design Stand – Very Simple • Notes in pitch about rankings at the top of page 2 / bottom of page 1 • I check on Sunday night to see if claim is true • By Monday the website is position 1 for search term “Tablet Stand”
- 16. 16 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. The Answers. • Is it sustainable? • Is it a viable part of a strategy? • Does increasing CTR actually increase rankings? • Should you use a bot to do it? • How can it become a natural part of an SEO campaign?
- 17. 17 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. How Can You Apply It?
- 18. 18 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. Naturally Increasing CTR • Where you rank is one thing; getting people to click is another. • Page Titles & Meta Descriptions are EVERYTHING. • Good: • Bad:
- 19. 19 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. What Makes an Engaging Result? • All Text Displays in Full. • Snappy and to the point – relates directly to the search intent. • Where Appropriate – Use Emotive Words. • Features a competitive call to action. • Eases an issue for the searcher.
- 20. 20 www.climb-online.co.uk © 2015 Climb Online Limited. All Rights Reserved. 20 Don’t Forget to Tweet! Thank you @SAMTHOMASSEO https://uk.linkedin.com/ in/sam-thomas-seo