Search Engine Rankings are not Enough – Does your Page Title Invoke Action?

Congratulations on your top 5 ranking in Google for your targeted, “high traffic” keyword.  All that hard work has paid off.. and you are now getting a torrent of traffic and sales right?  Or possibly not.

Its important to remember that for every search result there are at least 10 choices for the searcher to click on (only 7 to 8 organic results “above the fold”).   So your great ranking position does not guarantee traffic, in order to do that – you have to stand out from the other links on the search engine results page (SERP).

You need to be considering two elements on your web page to improve the “click through rate” (CTR) of your organic pages:

1. Page Title

The page title is one of the most important “on page” attributes that can influence your search engine rankings; but you need to remember that it becomes the “headline” of your organic SERP “advert”.  

Here’s some tips on how to write a better page title:

1. Ensure you use the main keywords – helps your with your SEO but also reinforces relevance to the searcher.

2. Make sure you have a clear “call to action” (CTA) – you want people to click on your link and not one of the other pages, give them a reason to do so.

3. Give the ads some visual appeal – you are naturally limited in what you can do, but adding pipes (|) and arrows () can help your result stand out.

4. Capitalise strategically – It is better to capitalize the first letter of every word.

2. Meta Description

The text that is displayed in Google search results below the page title is known as the “snippet”.  The text that is displayed will always be the meta description of your page if it includes the searchers keywords.  If not, Google will find other text on your page that does.  This means that you have the ability to directly change the “snippet” of your ranking by simply changing your meta description. 

This is the “body” of your advert.  It should support your page title and also encourage people to click on your link.  Please think about your description – think about your target audience, what do you need to say to really get them to click on your organic SERP “advert”?

Great search rankings will not guarantee traffic or sales on your site – it simply places you in the right place at the right time.  You need to take it one step further to truly get the most from your search engine marketing campaign.  So please don’t forget that SEO is marketing and not simply web development or programming.  Ensure that your page title and meta description are compelling and “action oriented” and you will gain far more from simply being there.