Improving your CTR and Conversion rate -Simple optimization tips you should definitely follow!

Today’s eCommerce world is driven by three indispensable requisites — Round the clock accessibility, quick turn around and easy one-touch access. Consumer expectations are growing each and every day and there actually facilitating constant improvements in the online services offered. And hence if you do not provide a good shopping experience, it is easy for them to jump to a competitor. And this is as simple as within a single click in Google.

So in such a competitive world, how do you win your audience? How does your business survive? You might’ve created a wonderful website, listed awesome products — you think you are doing everything right. But you may not be getting enough visitors. Fewer visitors means fewer people visiting products and even fewer visitors making a purchase. But nevertheless, many eCommerce retailers do so well, so there must be something they’re doing right. The best way to find this out is data!

A study of past experiences clearly states that there are ways to optimize your eCommerce store to not just survive but thrive. Here, we focus on increasing organic click-through rate (CTR) as it is vital in increasing conversions, and ultimately, increasing revenue.

What is Click-Through-Rate?

Click-through-rates are the number of times people click on your website’s link compared to the number of times it appeared in search results or in advertising impressions. Your store or product may appear in SERPs (Search Engine Page Results), but not a guarantee that visitors will click the link. Hence you need to entice the consumer into clicking on the link to visit your page.

Even if you’re ranking high on Google’s search results, it’s no good if you have a low CTR. But on the other way around, a greater CTR leads to a higher quality or relevance score. This helps to increase SEO ranking for your store and save on cost-per-click rates. So now that we know a little more about CTRs, let’s get to making it work to your advantage.

Here is a list of simple tips that you should incorporate to increase your click-through rate.

1. Write effective Titles

This is the most important and direct factor that influences the CTR. This is because, whether or not the user clicks on the link largely depends on what they see first. This may seem simple but titles have a huge impact on readers. Forget the boring generic titles and try to be creative and make them compelling.

Image Source: Vecteezy.com

Optimizing your title involves some basic study and understanding of the visitor mindset.

finding out what your user really wants, or what problems they face, and design your title accordingly.

2. Make your URLs descriptive

Now, the second step is to ensure your URLs are SEO friendly. Do not compromise with the URL readability. Ugly URLs don’t do well when it comes to click-through rates. We recommend using a URL that’s easy to read by the user and search engines! Simply match your URL to the title and remove any unnecessary words and keep it short.

3. Focus on Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are the short descriptions or snippets that appear under the page title in SERPs. Meta descriptions should typically explain what the readers can find in detail on the landing page. You need to give the reader everything important they need to know about what they just searched for. Consider meta descriptions as an opportunity and highlight the best parts of your content or your product.

Also, follow the ideal practices with respect to the length and word count. They cannot be too short, too long or a duplicated one. Use online tools to keep track of the length of your title and meta descriptions. You can use plugins like Yoast SEO to make your meta descriptions perfect. Yoast SEO plugin also suggests other optimizations to gives your site or content a boost to rank higher on Google using an SEO best practices checklist.

4. Use rich snippets

Links attached to the snippet have a maximum click-through rate. They enable retailers and marketers to display their reviews and ratings that will give a good perception of their products and services. These snippets help draw the user’s eye to the result and give them a clear idea of what they can expect from the site. This makes a great difference to CTR.

High CTR is a good sign to high conversions

Now that we have learned some of the optimization practices to improve the CTR, and we have visitors clicking on our link. The job is definitely not over here as It continues on to getting the customer to make a purchase. A high CTR alone doesn’t directly result in a high conversion rate.

A visitor generally lands on the eCommerce store following a link which he/she is interested in. If relevant products aren’t displayed or if the page isn’t categorized well the visitor will bounce off from the store. This again is going to negatively impact your store ranking in the Search Engine Results Page. Always remember to match the title and description in the contents of the landing page.

It is important to categorize your products in dedicated pages as this practice will ease the visitor's journey to discover their products of choice. Next, these pages should have a proper title and description. The product page should also address all the visitor requirements in order to achieve the conversion goal.

So once the customer is in, you need to ensure these things are in place:

• Display relevant products: If a visitor searched for “Cotton Trousers”, the products displayed should fall under that category. Displaying items that closely match the search would be acceptable.
• Use high-quality, use-case images and videos: Images easily attract visitors and entice their interest. Unlike in a physical store, online visitors cannot touch and feel the products. Hence use-case images and 360-degree videos help them to visualize the product better.
• Detailed Product descriptions and benefits: Give visitors all the details of the product that would help them figure out the right one for them. considering the same example“Cotton Trousers”, it would be helpful to the visitor to know the exact dimensions, color, material, etc. Also if you offer additional benefits such as warranty, free shipping etc, you should definitely highlight them in the product pages.

eCommerce solutions like Tagalys help you to get complete control of your visitor’s experience, right from clicks to conversions. Tagalys helps improve conversion rates by enhancing user experience through meticulous curation in site search and category pages of online stores. It displays relevant products that capture the customer’s attention and are most likely to convert to a purchase.

eCommerce is a challenging game with the competition around, but if you have the right tools and tricks of the trade, you’re bound to be a cut above the rest!

Guest Post by Tagalys

Tagalys maximizes conversion rate & gives merchants visual control of products displayed in Site Search, Category Pages & Product Recommendations at their online store. To know more about their solutions and features, get in touch with them now.