I know what you are thinking. It is another list of SEO tips from self-proclaimed SEO experts that will probably have the same points as all others. But don’t worry because we will not bore you with keyword research, link building, and ‘content is the king’ spiel.
In fact, we are not even going to talk about ranking your website higher on Google. Instead, we will talk about smart ways to get more clicks on Google because that is the ultimate objective right?
We have gathered these tips from professional SEO services that aim to increase website traffic for their clients. One of the best things about SEO is that you can use them to get more clicks from your existing rankings. Let us find out how you can do that.
Optimize Your Favicon
Surprisingly, most people do not talk about favicons as a way to boost SEO. It is a small icon that Google displays on the top left-hand corner of every link on mobile phone searches. You may already know that 55.68% of people use search engines on their smartphones.
So you can optimize your favicon to influence the click-through rates. A favicon can make some minor differences in the SEO points. But a well-designed favicon with optimum contrast and visibility can influence the users and attract them to click on your link.
Remember that you have a tiny space to use, so make sure that the design does not look cramped. It should be distinctive and memorable with sharp colors and a strong message. Some of the best favicons belong to Twitter, Amazon, PayPal, CNBC, and LinkedIn.
Optimize Your Breadcrumbs
While you are optimizing your favicon, also take a look at your breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs for your site are displayed in Google searches for both desktop and mobile phones. Make sure that you use keyword-rich breadcrumbs so that it can increase your click-through rate.
Google can acquire the breadcrumbs to display on results pages from several places on your website. It can be from your site URL, schema markup, or the actual breadcrumb present on your webpage. The breadcrumb Google chooses should be ideal for you and contain the keywords of your choice.
One of the best ways to ensure that is to use breadcrumbs on all your web pages and links you use for schema markup. It will help if it matches the URL structure, so make sure you conduct a breadcrumb optimization audit.
Optimize Your Meta Descriptions
The point may seem obvious and old school to you. But surprisingly, only 30% of websites use meta description. That is because Google writes the meta description automatically for the other 70% of websites.
But automatic Google-generated meta description may or may not contain the keywords used by a person on search engines. So make sure you include a well-crafted meta description for your website with the right keywords that can compel a user to click on your link.
Use the Current Year in Content Titles
Using the current year is one of the easiest ways to make your title search-friendly. Adding a year in the title increases its ranking and also compels users to click on it. For example, you may have clicked on this article because you saw that it is for 2021.
Most people want to read something current, and therefore would be tempted to click on a link that has a recent month or a year. However, do not overdo it or fake it, as that might increase your bounce rate. You would not be happy if you clicked on a link with 2021 in the title and then realized the post is actually from 2017.
Test Your Boilerplate
Have you ever considered a boilerplate audit for your title tags? Are you even aware of what a boilerplate is? A boilerplate is a part of your title tag, usually with your company's name that gets repeated every time your link appears on search engines.
Instead of using a generic style of boilerplate, test a few to find one that generates maximum clicks. You want a boilerplate that provides unique value to your title, so we suggest that you experiment with a few to find one that works the best. We have noticed that sometimes removing a part of your boilerplate can increase the click-through rates.
Include an FAQ Schema
Google has helped companies by introducing questions in search results. It helps users find the information they are specifically looking for on search engines. Therefore, you should include an FAQ schema so that your website can appear under the questions on a search page.
Sometimes it also helps to include a how-to schema because it can influence users to click on the result when they expand the schemas. But make sure that your web page actually has those FAQs when it appears in the schema.
The magic of SEO is that you can win in different ways as long as you can provide something that a user is looking for. The tips we shared may not work for everyone the same way. But everyone can use them to increase their website traffic without bothering too much about ranking on the top on search engines.