How To Whip The Competition In Organic Search Results
You know what organic search results are, right? That’s the listing that comes up when a user types in some keywords into google’s search box. It differs from PPC campaigns, such as the intrusive adword ads you see in the sidebar.
Middle last year, I’ve been experimenting with ways to increase clicks on my organic results. This included
- Using startling headlines in the Title Tage
- Using benefit statements in the metatags
- Using directives and imperatives to visit in the body text.
They worked well- but then I discovered something far more powerful by April of 2007. Okay, to begin with, I already rank in the top five for many critical keywords for some of my sites. Key in “maximum persuasion” and you’ll see that one of my sites is number 2. But you know what? Since I’ve applied a special technique, my google organic traffic exploded.
My trick is simple. Use all caps in the Title and Meta Tags.
Check out the organic result in google for “maximum persuasion” Which of the two links invite more clicks?
The first one: http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ or the second one: http://www.xtrememind.com/
Chances are you’d say the second. Not just because I used startling headlines, but also because my text is in all caps.
I’ve measured this quantitatively as well. Weblogs indicate spikes of traffic 3x what it used to be since I implemented the change. Perhaps you want to whip the competition as well? Modify your sites with this recommendation. Let’s see if you can handle the traffic.
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Comment by Goran Website on 28 April 2008:
I am not too sure which of the 2 I would click now that you point it out to me. I like the Upper case in the Title, but not in the description.
This is not to say I wont try. If it worked for you then it must work for me.
I will give it a go on one of my sites.
PS for those above this is not about SEO its about onpage conversion optimisation.
Pingback by Improving Clickthrough rates on SERPs • Tim Nash UK SEO Blog on 26 April 2008:
[...] link from Als weekly round up on Self Made Minds to an article on improving organic click through rates got me thinking. Sadly the article fails to indicate how they quantitatively measured their [...]
Pingback by Friday Links » Self Made Minds on 25 April 2008:
[...] Using all UPPERCASE in your title tag may look spammy but has good results in organic searches according to Connect Internet. [...]
Comment by Kurt Schmitt on 24 April 2008:
@Jenny web -
The technique in the article is for increasing clicks, and therefore traffic, not increasing rank. In other words, all things being equal (including ranking), you will get more traffic by using all caps. It is not, therefore, an “SEO” technique as much as a technique for increasing CTR at the SERP level. The obvious answer as to why one site ranks over another is that, from Google’s point of view, one site’s page is more relevant than the other. From a website owner’s point of view, it means that the higher ranking site has fewer weaknesses than the other.
Comment by Jenny web on 24 April 2008:
I feel the usability of titles and descriptions in caps are not good enough. why “www.maxpersuasion.com/” ranks the first, “while http://www.xtrememind.com/” ranks the second?
Comment by Kurt Schmitt on 24 April 2008:
Interesting. Thanks for the update. I think I’ll try it out.
Comment by Joseph Plazo on 24 April 2008:
I’ve always had two or three entires listed for certain keywords. That, I’m not sure why.
I asked tech support at google if this violates any quality guidelines. Their reply? No. While they prefer small caps, because large caps looks like a SCREAM, they have no objections to it.
So I’m keeping it. My traffic is off the charts.
Comment by Deca on 24 April 2008:
I’ve never heard about using all caps having an effect to SEO. I will give it try
Comment by Kurt Schmitt on 23 April 2008:
Questions:
1. For the example given, I notice that you own two entries on the first page. I know that the Stompernet guys have shown that this causes a dramatic increase in traffic over having just one listing (possibly instilling more trust from the visitor). Did you always have those two entries as well, or is that new? Have you factored that into your improved results?
2. What are the odds that SE’s will start looking at all caps as spam and adjust the algos? It wouldn’t be that hard for them to do. I’m all for improving results, but having to go back and adjust all your pages would be no fun.
Comment by Forest Parks on 22 April 2008:
Wow this is interesting?
I guess in Wordpress I can just type the Uppercase title into the SEO Wordpress plugin option for each post.
Any idea how I would do this for my blogger blog?