An excellent User Experience is at the heart of everything they do at Google. So if you are continually optimizing for keywords and keeping aside everything else, then you need to rethink your strategy. Since, User Behavior is also an important ranking factor that can escalate your rankings in SERP.
Performing well in User Experience metrics will benefit you in many ways. It will not only help create a loyal fan base, but it will also please Google. And as a token of appreciation, Google will reward you with Good “Overall Quality Score”. This metric is a bit complicated, as just a few bad pages can ruin the ranking of your entire website. So ensuring excellent user experience for a maximum number of pages will lead your website to the apex of search results, eventually!
Below are a few tips on user behavior metrics that you should employ:
1. Click-through rate (CTR)
There is no predefined CTR for any search. However, Google expects it to fall under a certain range, depending on the type of query. For instance, for popular keywords the click-through rate for leading results is around 50%. While CTR for top results of non-popular keywords should be around 33%, it must be about 15% for those in the second place and 10% for the ones in the third position. If your website’s CTR gets outside this range, Google may re-rank the results.
How to improve CTR
Identify the web pages that show a downfall in CTR using Google Analytics webmaster tools and work on them ASAP.
Get rid of duplicate descriptions and titles, optimize them for keywords and ensure that your meta descriptions and titles fit the technical aspects.
- Try to keep the URLs readable and fair. Use breadcrumbs for longer URLs.
- Your meta description should compel the user to click.
2. Bounce rate
If a user quickly jumps back from the website he just entered, it’s an indication that the website is not relevant and that Google will reduce the website’s ranking.
How to reduce Bounce rate:
- Reduce page load time.
- Clear out pop-ups and other distractions.
- Enable site search so that, a user can search for what he wants within your website instead of bouncing back to the SERP.
3. Dwell time
The time duration between entering your website and going back to search results is called dwell time. The longer the dwell time, the better the outcome; since it clearly indicates that your content was useful to the user.
How to increase dwell time:
- Remove broken links at any cost. They are your enemies!
- Content is the king and the realm of every king should be unique.
- Keep the user engaged by providing them with a link to additional information on the same subject or a related one. For instance: – Ecommerce websites use “You may also like” to encourage a user to keep exploring.
Conclusion
It’s vital to use White-hat SEO techniques and practices to enhance user experience. Gaming Google with bots is not something a smart website owner will do. Genuinely focus on helping the user with their search and enjoy the perks.
If you have tried everything from your end and still can’t see any progress, then there might be user experience issues which need to be fixed immediately. Write to us at sales@ebrandz.com or call 1-888-545-0616 (Toll-Free) and let us assist you with conversion optimization.
