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Does Click Through Rate count in SEO?

by MisterMunch
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have a strong feeling that your Click Through Rate count as an important factor when it comes to your seo. I have not heard this mentioned much but based on how important it is in paid ads on Google, you would assume that Google use this as a factor in their free organic listings as well.

Have you ever noticed how some of your articles skyrocket in the search engines once they are discovered, and then lost after a while? I think this is a test period to see if surfers actually chose to click on your link. You will then later be listed based on your CTR and your other factors and work from there with backlinks.

Google AdWords look at CTR as a sign on how relevant your ad is to the search query. Since their goal is to show the most relevant content in their organic results as well, it would only be natural to assume that this is important.

Solution: Since you cant track CTR on your natural listing (if you know how to do this, tell me), I would suggest to test out a few headlines on AdWords and get a high CTR on the ad. Then use that headline as the headline/title of your page.

So what do you guys think? Do you have any experience or resources concerning this.
#click #count #rate #seo
  • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
    You have guessed right. CTR, and user behavior more generally, are absolutely an SEO factor. That is another reason why your page title and meta description are important (although your meta description does not affect your SEO directly, it can affect your CTR and hence your SEO).
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    • Profile picture of the author link-master
      Anyway what is Your CTR of kewords that You have on the first place.

      Mine varies from 36% to 46% - as You can see 1 position can bring You totally different CTR , depending mainly on Your and Your competitors title.

      There is also a lot of theories of how to improve organic results CTR.
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      • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
        Originally Posted by link-master View Post

        Anyway what is Your CTR of kewords that You have on the first place.

        Mine varies from 36% to 46% - as You can see 1 position can bring You totally different CTR , depending mainly on Your and Your competitors title.

        There is also a lot of theories of how to improve organic results CTR.
        How do you measure the CTR on your organic results. I know that on AdWords, the CTR on two ads in the same position can vary between 0.03 and 30.00 % so it is the relevancy that is most important.

        Your title and meta description need to fit the needs and the attention of the searchers.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    Yep, I think you're right about that.

    Not only does CTR count for your articles in particular, I also think CTR is used by Google to determine which links carry the most value on a page.
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    • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
      Originally Posted by JackPowers View Post

      Not only does CTR count for your articles in particular, I also think CTR is used by Google to determine which links carry the most value on a page.
      What is your source or evidence for it?
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  • Profile picture of the author jamieludlow
    Yes I must agree with Jack here, although I know of no evidence, I am pretty sure Google is smart enough to use CTR to determine the quality of the links, linking to a specific page and if they are smart enough to do this and it help improve the quality of their search engine then you can bet that they will implement it.
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    • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
      Originally Posted by jamieludlow View Post

      Yes I must agree with Jack here, although I know of no evidence, I am pretty sure Google is smart enough to use CTR to determine the quality of the links, linking to a specific page and if they are smart enough to do this and it help improve the quality of their search engine then you can bet that they will implement it.
      Nope. If there are no G'Analytics or other Google gadgets embedded in the pages and if the user is not using Google Chrome, Google has absolutely no way of knowing which links on which site are getting clicked. And even with Analytics / other gadgets, I doubt very much Google cal easily tell which specific links are being clicked.

      Guys, when you say Google, are you sure you don't mean God?

      I am pretty sure Google is smart enough to use CTR to determine the quality of the links.
      No offense, it's not obvious that this is a smart way to determine the quality of links.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    There was some debate over this on some SEO blog, I forgot which. Apparantly, Google themselves offered that explanation as how Page Rank is calculated. Basically, the link that is most likely to get clicked should theoretically carry the most PR.

    Some people do not think there's any difference in where you place your link, but nothing says paid link, like a footer or sitewide 'resources/partners' link. So a footer link may carry less value. That is no different than basic SEO knowledge, which says, put your keywords closer to the top.

    Now, I don't worry about these things for my affiliate sites, but you bet I would if I was working for a corporate client, where it's relatively easy for Google to figure out who is doing their SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
      Originally Posted by JackPowers View Post

      There was some debate over this on some SEO blog, I forgot which. Apparantly, Google themselves offered that explanation as how Page Rank is calculated. Basically, the link that is most likely to get clicked should theoretically carry the most PR.
      This is correct but does not involve measuring CTR. Google just assumes (correctly) that the higher the link appears in the page, the more likely it is to be clicked.

      Some users conducted this experiment in the SEOchat forum:
      Experiment to test user behavior – please participate - SEO Chat
      It showed that a high CTR on search results moves a site upward in the SERPs.

      That was quite some time ago. Meanwhile, I am preparing a new experiment to similar effect here:
      Google clicks experiment - SEO Chat
      There is little doubt that the result will be similar. You guys should come help us click!
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  • Profile picture of the author nettech
    From experience and no source of 'official' evidence, I think that there is a correlation between CTR having an effect on your rankings. Webmaster Tools now has a feature where you can see the CTR of keywords so there must be something in this.

    I always think of my oragnic efforts similar to AdWords. I tend to write my titles, descriptions etc similarly to how I would write my AdWords copy and I think that 'may' have some effect. HOwever, this could be complete rubbish as you'd expect the higher positioned listings to obvioulsy have a higher CTR.
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    Thanks
    Zaheer

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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by nettech View Post

      From experience and no source of 'official' evidence, I think that there is a correlation between CTR having an effect on your rankings. Webmaster Tools now has a feature where you can see the CTR of keywords so there must be something in this.

      I always think of my oragnic efforts similar to AdWords. I tend to write my titles, descriptions etc similarly to how I would write my AdWords copy and I think that 'may' have some effect. HOwever, this could be complete rubbish as you'd expect the higher positioned listings to obvioulsy have a higher CTR.
      They might take that into account. Becuase you are definitely correct in saying that the higher positions will get higher CTR. For example if my site is in the 4th position it is going to have a significantly lower CTR. Impressions are counted whenever your website appears...whether it appears in position 4 or position 1.

      So if they are taking CTR into account they have to make appropriate adjustments based on sites position in the SERPS.
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