In SEO, small things do make a big difference. Experts would point that out. Experienced mobile SEO services do ensure that these factors are seriously considered.
The Minute Aspect of Optimized Meta Tags
One of these “small” aspects is optimizing meta tags, particularly title tags. You could have tons of informative and research-based content, infographics, images and embedded videos in your blog posts and web pages, but ultimately, they need to be favorably ranked in the search engine result pages (SERPs). That’s how you get clicks and people get to see the informative content in your web pages and blog posts. Optimized meta tags, particularly title tags, play a big role in people wanting to click your page listing in the search results, and this information helps in Google determining how appropriate your web page or blog page is to the query put forward.
The Experiment that Proved It All
Neil Patel quotes research to back this up. He brings to our attention Rand Fishkin’s experiment from a few years back involving the search term “best grilled steak”. He suggested entering this search term in Google. As soon as the search results turned up, he suggested clicking the first link and then immediately hitting the back button. Then he suggested clicking the 4th place result in the SERPs and staying there.
In around 70 minutes, reportedly, when the search for “best grilled steak” was performed again, the 4th place result actually moved to the top. This happened after around 500 interactions by people who followed Fishkin’s suggestion. Since everyone clicked on the original number 1 result and immediately hit the “back” button, Google realized it probably shouldn’t be there.
However, since people kept on clicking the 4th result and remained in that web page, Google felt that one was the most relevant result for the search term and moved it up to the number 1 spot. The experiment also revealed that the original 4th place result had also moved up for another related search term, “grilled steak” where it secured the second spot.
Importance of Google’s User Metrics
While this proved how much Google values user metrics, it also showed that optimized title tags can help make this content compelling for users to check out. There are some tips you can follow to get more clicks. Again, these are all minute aspects that could make a big difference to your click-through rates (CTRs) and eventually traffic and earnings.
What Your Title Tags Need to Instill in Your Readers
There are three main emotions or aspects you need to aim at instilling in readers with your title tags – curiosity, knowledge and the feeling of missing out on something big.
- Questions in your title tags can evoke curiosity. Neil Patel agrees. That can help boost your CTR by up to 14.1%.
- The length of your titles also makes a significant difference. Title tags with a length of 15 to 40 characters tend to generate 8.6% more CTRs.
- You also need to ensure that your URL contains the exact query or keyword people usually search. It also has to be relevant to your content. Such URLs generate 45% more CTRs, according to Neil Patel’s research.
- Power words help in boosting your click-through rate by 13.9%. These could include adjectives such as “amazing”, “unbelievable”, “great”, “result-oriented” etc.
- You also need to factor in the emotional quotient. While power words appeal to the intellectual aspect, you also need phrases in your title tags that appeal to the emotions of readers. They do contribute to raising your CTR. Among these emotions are those that evoke curiosity.
- As we mentioned before, readers feeling there is education to be gained from your post could be motivated to click your link. So, you need your title tags to have verbiage that conveys an educational value.
- Looking at paid ad copy can give you an insight into how to get your title tags right. Paid ads are geared towards getting clicks.
- Don’t forget to add meta description to your pages. Having a meta description contributes to Google adding the right description beneath your listing in the search results pages. That could contribute to more clicks coming to your page.
These minute aspects are something that providers of experienced SEO content writing services focus on. You would realize that these factors do make a big difference.
