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Improve CTR in articles

by gdrg
13 replies
Hey guys,

I'd really like to improve my CTR in my articles. English is my second language so I struggle from time to time, but I get by.

I'd like to run a few numbers by you for comparison purposes. Are these numbers good, bad or average?

I currently have 12 live articles on EzineArticles - my first article was posted on the 19th of this month, which is 8 days ago.

My total amount of article views is 791 - out of 12 articles of which 7 have been submitted this week. Is this number relatively high?

The total CTR, however, is only 3,3% - I'm guessing this number is low and therefore I'm doing something wrong which I'd like to improve on.

If any of you guys have any tips, I'm open to any criticism, feedback or suggestions. My author profile can be found @ Guy Droog - EzineArticles.com Expert Author Bio

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
-Guy
#articles #ctr #improve
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Your English looks fine in the articles, so I do not believe this is the problem.

    BUT...

    I only read one of your articles, and I'll say this. I was bored. You need to hit hard, you need to hit fast, and you need to hit the pain points, not give lots of information no one cares about.
    Example: Sweet Pickup Lines Will Never Work

    Are you one of those guys who always uses the sweet pickup line which will never work? Stop it!! Are you some kind of fool? If you keep using sweet pickup lines girls are going to believe you are some weak, ineffective, sappy guy. You need to become the kind of man they really want.
    You can then go ahead and maybe give them one simple idea, but don't offer too much information, stress the reason they want a solution, why they are failing, create a desire for the solution.

    Then, do not conclude your article, finish it in your resource box, by telling them "You can solve this problem by visiting HERE"

    Don't tell your readers about yourself in your resource box, it is wasted words. If you want CTR, then close the deal.

    Last suggestion, go a little shorter on the article, to try and bring the click above the bottom of the page.

    Just my quick suggestions. If you are really lucky Zues66 and Alexa Smith will drop in and give you their comments. (I already know Alexa will tell you long can be good, and she's absolutely right, if you can write really compelling stories.)
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    • Profile picture of the author vicone
      Guy, I had a look at the top three listed articles and your English expression is fine.

      However, as KansasDragon said, your style is not very gripping, especially for this particular niche. I think that a lot of readers may not read through to the end.

      Also, the resource box is not very compelling. The reader doesn't really look forward to learning more and going to your website to get it.

      The number of views depends very much on the time of year and the keywords you choose. For instance, I submitted about 12 articles just before Christmas and one of those received 42,000 views in 7 weeks. A few others managed 20,000 views in that time. However, that was the Christmas period when demand for certain keywords is very high.

      You've chosen topics which should have year round appeal and my keyword tool (MNF) confirms this. I had a look at some keyword analysis of the main keywords for your first three articles. These are viable choices, especially the second one which has high demand and only 108 backlinks are estimated to be needed to get on the first page of Google. The other two require fewer than 10 backlinks to achieve this.

      I would pay special attention to backlinking your articles, especially by submitting to other article directories and maybe converting the articles into videos and submitting those to video libraries to get back links and possibly traffic. If you have a copy of the article listed on your website, jazz it up and push the backlinks to your website pages.

      I normally aim for 15% or better as a CTR to guide me with how effective an article has been written. Others may do better or worse but that works for me.

      However, a key principle to follow when structuring an article is to provide useful - but incomplete - information. This encourages the reader to click through to my website. For instance, I might tell a story in the article and not provide the outcome to the story.

      On my website is a fuller version of the article - with the ending which had piqued their curiosity. The resource box in the directory-based article focuses on the extra details (story ending, pictures, customer comments, etc) they can get at my website. I don't provide biographical details at all.

      Remember, if you boost the ranking of the page on your website, the CTR of the article on the directory isn't really that important as your web page will be getting 100% of the traffic it attracts. However, CTR is still useful as a guide to how well (interesting, etc) your article has been written.

      Ivan
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    • Profile picture of the author imintern
      Try a short single sentence resource box with a couple of good anchor texts. Make the reader feel that there's more to the story they have just read.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkFreeman
    The resource box is the most important part for click through in my opinion.

    I always try to tap into the emotions of the reader. In just a few short sentenses you need to cut to the emotional trigger point and then offer them some salve for thier emotional pains (your site).

    However doing this without sounding too cheesy or forceful can be a bit of an artform.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slin
    Space out your sentences more. Also use bold font to lead the reader to your biobox.

    Keep the articles short and have 1 to 3 tips in them.

    It sounds weird, but the more information you provide, the more turned off your reader will be.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
      Your articles don't flow - They don't lead the reader where you want them to go, and they don't call the reader out enough...

      I'm going to break one of your articles down, OK?

      you wrote:

      If the thought of bettering yourself and learning how to have more success attracting girls has never crossed your mind, it's time to start thinking about it now. Trust me, every single one of you guys will at one time desire a girl you can't have or think you can't have - this happens to all of us sooner or later. Chances are some of the things I'll go over already sound familiar to you and are things I have spoken about already but that's because they are absolute facts and need to be remembered.


      If I were writing it, I would have written:


      Listen guys, if you are straight, red blooded, and have testosterone, there is no doubt you have an interest in attracting girls. If you didn't, I'd be a little worried about you. Here's the deal, there is a ton of advice out there about how to attract girls, I'm going to break down a little fact from fiction for you, and let you know what's what, deal?


      You wrote:



      Keep this in mind; men go for looks, girls go for character. I will never generalize anything but it's usually that simple.
      I've said it before and I'll say it again; confidence is the most attractive trait you can have to attract girls. For you to become good at attracting girls, you must learn how to be confident in every situation. I'm not talking about the shallow "look at how cool I am" kind of confidence, I'm talking about a guy that's 100% in control of his own life. A couple of important aspects of this kind of confidence are:


      I would have written:


      I think it is fairly widely accepted that men are into looks, while a majority of women will look at character first. Everywhere you look, there is some fat, balding, ugly guy rolling around with a hot babe on his arm. You can be that guy, but only if you can master a couple of simple things which I'm going to go over for you real quick, they are:



      =================================================

      There are two completely different writing styles that you should employ online...

      1. Trusting style - This is where you want to show that you are the master. You prove how much you know, and why someone else should listen to you. This style should be reserved for a sales page.

      2. Just click my link already style - When someone finds your article on the internet, especially on an article directory, it's important that you identify what their "sensitive" spots are, and hit them HARD.

      Try to make your content entertaining, intriguing, and maybe even offensive to the point that the person has to see what you have to say.
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  • Profile picture of the author GSX Enterprises
    One problem may be that people simply aren't getting to the end of your articles, this could signal that they are boring or aren't compelling enough to keep them reading. Keep them enticed, break up large blocks of text and use more "call to action" keywords in your links!

    -Safe Travels
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  • Profile picture of the author gdrg
    Why is this topic moved? Isn't this the definition of a copywriting topic?

    Ontopic; wow, guys, seriously.. thanks so much for the positive feedback. I can really improve a lot starting next week. Whenever you start out all people tell you is "unique and quality content is key" - so I figure stuff you articles with as much information as possible. Guess I should focus more on my sales skills. Jeremy, Ivan, thanks for the long descriptions and examples, I can really work with those.

    Would you suggest editing all my current articles or just write new ones?

    Thanks again, this is great.
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  • Profile picture of the author gdrg
    Alright.. I'll look into both definitions. I figured since the copywriting description says learn how to move people with words it was the right place to go.

    Either way, it doesn't matter. Ive got alot of good feedback.
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  • Profile picture of the author mlord10
    Here is a tip that has always helped me. I agree after reading a few of your articles that you need to do a better job of grabbing the reader's attention. However, I want to talk about how you can improve your CTR with a specific focus on the resource box.

    You do not want to end your article abruptly, but want to lead your reader into your resource box instead. This is an art that you can master fairly quickly using some psychological triggers.

    For example: If I write an article giving three tips to reduce credit card debt, this is how I would end the article. "These three tips are great, but if you really want to reduce your credit card debt substantially then you need to do exactly what I did."

    After that sentence transition immediately into your resource box and say something like this: Do you want to learn the exact methods that I used to reduce my credit card debt by 57% in just 30 days? Visit (Your website) for instant access!

    It all revolves around the concept that you lead the reader where you want them to go, which is to your website or blog! This method has increased my CTR from around 10% when I first started article marketing to around 30%.
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  • Profile picture of the author surgeryhouston
    Man, sounds like some good advice to me in the first article I read. Maybe you are giving away too much of the information though as some before me have said. You have to make them believe that you are really holding something back for your home website.
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