The Biggest Offpage Ecommerce SEO Ranking Factor

Intro

How can I get on top of Google, on place one two or three? What's the reason if you don't rank inside the top results at all? Less complicated but more important thing is...

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

So last time we have shown you what a SERP is. What a Search Engine Result Page is. And imagine that most users get to see the same list of results insidethe SERPs. And instead of click, most users clicking on the first result, they click on the second result. That should Google indicate that users want to see that second result as first. That would increase the CTR: The click-through rate. That's the ratio between how many people have seen your website. So have seen impressions of your online store inside Google results and between those who have clicked. So if one out of 100 users decide to click on your website inside the Google SERPs, you have a CTR of 1%. If five click, you have 5% and so on and so on. So if your CTR on place number two is higher than the CTR of the online store ranking above you - in place number one, then that should Google give the signal that your website should be above that website. That is completely true, if we just take one thing in consideration. I will also show you an example how you can optimize your CTR. Just to understand it: if you have a higher CTR, and users are mostly satisfied with your online store and buy the thing they have came for, then your CTR will influence that you will rank higher in the next update, in the next Google calculation. But if your competitor on place number one has a lower CTR than you, but they come to your store, are not satisfied and go back to Google, which is the worse sign ever. So you have a high CTR, people believe you, they come to your website, are disappointed and go back to Google. And go to the result above you or beneath you, then that is an indicator that people were not satisfied. So only CTR is not enough. But if all online stores, let's say you have three online stores in top three, they have the same conversion rate meaning the same amount of potential customers become customers at the end, and the only difference between those three results is the click-through rate, then you will rank higher than your competition. So that's the first thing to know about CTR. I will later show you how we can optimize that CTR, what are the parts of a CTR and so on.

How to Get to the Top of Google Search Results?

Now let's take a look what we can do if we ranking inside top 10 results in Google. We get certain amount of traffic but we are not having enough knowledge enough power to rank inside the top three results which should be more important. So how can I get from position 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 as an online store for a category keyword like "washing machines", how can I get on top of Google - on place one two or three? So again, there is a topic called link juice. It's hard to explain in two sentences so you need to watch it later in the one of the next lessons. So that page needs to get enough link juice to be able to rank inside top 10 and then needs even more link juice to rank inside top three. Think it about how much love you are giving to that category page inside your online store. So does it appear in the menu, is it often linked, does it appear in some other parts of the website and so on. If you're giving a category much love inside your online store, that should be an equal to link juice. As simple as that, but it's complicated and we will talk about it later. Less complicated, but more important thing is the CTR - the click-through rate. Let's take again a look at the formula for CTR. So we are dividing the clicks we get inside the Google results through the amount of impressions what we get, and we get the percentage. So we need to multiply it by 100. So we have then a percentage. So if we get all the clicks for a certain keyword inside Google, then we have a CTR of 100%. If every user clicks. If we let's say rank for washing machines. We have 110,000 people in the USA and everyone, really everyone clicks on us, we have a CTR of 100%. That won't happen. In the first lesson you have learned that in average, the position number one gets in average 20% of all clicks meaning has a CTR of 20%. So if you number one you can expect that out of 110,000 people 22,000 will click on you if you're number one. So if you're number three, the number is lower, let's say five or 6%. So you can make four times more money from jumping from position number three four to place one or two. So it's quite difference and the only thing, beside link juice, which decides if you are going to make it into the top three is the CTR. So let's take a look what makes a CTR, how we can influence it and what you can do to make it right. So let's take a look at our dearest washing machines.

Analysis of the Top 10 Google Results for the Keyword "Washing Machine"

The SERPs look like this and let's take a look at the top three results what their results look inside Google. So we have the title and the description. So you should know that this title is called title tag and this description is called meta description and you can influence it on your website. Let's see what is written here. So Home Depot is writing "washing machines, washers and driers browse our online aisle of washing machines. Shop the Home Depot for all your appliances and DIY needs". And has also some additional links which you can also influence if you have a lot of authority which are called cite links. We will talk about them later on. Best Buy says only "washing machines and shop at Best Buy for washing machines let us help you find the best washing machine for your laundry needs". Okay. And Lowes is writing "washing machines at lowes.com. Find washing machines at Lowes today. Shop washing machines and a variety of appliances in store or online at Lowes". So the difference is between those three that Lowes is using their branding inside the title tag but has the most lame description not giving anything more to the information for the user. Best Buy is trying to indicate that they will help you find the best washing machine, so they're promising to give you some kind of guidance to get the right washing machine. But if you look at their website that isn't true at all. So they have kind of a buying guide below their results which they don't even point to from the section above. So you need to go all the results down, be maybe disappointed or not sure where you should go next, and you have a small buying guide to help you to understand which you should buy. So they don't completely lie here with this promise, but it's not that they satisfy that need. Those buying guides can be more extensive, much bigger and help really people to understand which product they should buy. And in the first place is Home Depot "for all your appliances and DIY needs". So nothing much said here. So if we are clever enough we could write at least a better meta description to rank higher to get into those places, especially if you're number four and so on. So Home Depot is here going with its power, with its authority, but in the end those title tags and those meta descriptions could be way better. So any competitor has the chance to go beyond that. So Amazon is also using something lame "shop through wide selection of washers at amazon.com, free shipping and free returns on Prime eligible items".

Although Amazon is playing with its brand and trying to impress you with the free shipping and free returns, it does not have that part of a buying guide inside that and people know that and by searching for washing machines they want to have some kind of guidance. It's not about cell phones, so you know which cell phone you want to buy or any other product which you are related to. It's a washing machine. Most of the users don't know more about it so Whirlpool writes "shop Whirlpool washers for your laundry needs, choose from top and from load washing machines with many features, sign in and save 15% off". So they don't have a chance to rank higher because they're selling only their own washing machines. Users want to have a variety of products they can choose from and at least some kind words to help them find the right washing machine for them. So Reddit could help here, right? So we see that Reddit is ranking for to buy the washing machine from Home Depot or Lowe's, and they have a discussion about it. So maybe users will visit the discussion, read it, see some user experience, they need it. Then we have an article "10 best washing machines of 2024". And then Walmart. So Walmart has here the opportunity to go higher, or any other online store, it doesn't need to be Walmart with that authority. We need a different title tag, different meta description to get into it. With that meta description here they won't come far. So it's it's the time you invest inside those small pieces to get better results, and it's worth it, because a keyword with 110,000 search volume is considered a high search volume keyword and you should put all the effort you can to optimize it.

Optimizing the Title Tag and Meta Description

So let's see if Best Buy wants now to overtake Home Depot or Walmart wants to get higher from position, what where there 10, from position 10 to rank higher. We need to optimize our title tag and meta description. How can Best Buy do that? Inside Best Buy they have already done a few things. So the thing you can see here: that title tag is the same thing which appears if you mouse over the tab in your browser. And you can find the title tag inside the source code of the page. Don't be scared when that now comes out. You just search for something, that title, it's called title. And the title, as you see, is at most times at the top of the search code. You look inside the title and see "washing machines Best Buy". And now we need the description. So we have a description. Here is a meta description. So Meta name description and the content is exactly what is said there: "shop at Best Buy for washing machines. Let's us help you find the best washing machine for your laundry needs". It's what is written here. So if you change those two things: the title tag and the meta description which is easy to change in any any online store management system, shop system, then you can rank higher.

So what and how should we change? First of all, there is a rule, especially for Juniors. But to be sure in Ecommerce it's the best way to go almost always - to put the keyword, the right keyword at the beginning. So what others have done wrong, we already investigated it - they, let's see the title tag of Kenmore, let's look front, top and twin load washing machines. Wrong! Because washing machines are in the end. And Samsung, LG and Electrolux are using washers. The wrong keyword. So all of them should change their keyword at the beginning and call it like it should be called - washing machines. So that would be the first thing. We change the title tag to "washing machines". But Best Buy can also give more information about that. So they can say "washing machines from trusted manufacturers" or "washing machines" then in brackets, (238 washing machines) or "washing machines with a buying guide" that would be most impactful. So if they want to get attraction from the user when searching, if they say, beside here, that they will help you and tell you "washing machines with a buying guide" or "washing machines" and then in brackets how many and then minus "buying guide". It will attract more eyes, it will get more traction and also will feel more attractive if we talk about this product. So they could optimize it like that. So "shop at Best Buy for washing machines". Users want to know a few things beside that you make them sure that they're not on the wrong wrong way. "Shop at Best Buy for washing machines" is a great first sentence. The second sentence is a room for indicating about the quality, so here you can write "shop at Best Buy for washing machines with trusted manufacturers" or "with manufacturers like LG, Samsung" and so on, Miele, Bosch or "shop at Best Buy for washing machines with 27 different brands", from 27 different brands, which shows the user: okay, I can have all the brands on one website and I can compare them and hopefully give them the reason to click to see that your variety of results is really covered inside your page. And that's really the case for Best Buy, because they have different brands here: 2 4 6 8 10 12 14. They could write "choose your washing machine among 14 World leading washing machine manufactures" or "between 236" (or how many uh 200 uh what was the amount of) "243 washing machines" and so on. So that can be improved. And in the last sentence or in the last part of the meta description you can write something about delivery. So if you have free delivery then you can write it, if you have free same day delivery you can write it. Especially outside the USA, it is important in some other countries to write that you deliver it to the whole country, not for just certain regions. Especially in developing countries it is important to tell them we deliver to every city, we we deliver everywhere in our country and free delivery. Others choose to use that space to say to the customer what payment methods you can use: credit cards, PayPal, wire transfer. What is everything possible Apple Pay, Google Pay. What you want to stand out in that period of living on on Mother Earth. So you can choose between those. So those are things you would expect from the competition. So I would expect from Home Depot, Lowe's and Best Buy to have already everything there, to tell us that they will help us, how many products we have, that we have some big Brands there, that we have free delivery and that there are some payment methods listed inside it. So in the US all people consider, almost all people consider it's standard to be able to pay with credit card or PayPal and something. There is no need to write it. Free delivery is almost always the case so people start leaving it out. But when making a decision inside Google, it makes sense to underline, at least, the delivery part. To list the brands so you are doing co-branding with those brands. If you tell us that in your shop you have LG, you have Samsung, you have Bosch, you have Miele and General Electronics and so on. If you list those brands in your meta description, because they trust those brands - they will trust you. And if everybody is doing that, you need to stand out with an USP - Unique Selling Point. So if everybody does that what I have said, you need to analyze for that keyword the environment you listed into. So if you are, for example, here at position number 10 as Walmart, and see that you're surrounded with an article and a review page, then it's clear that you want to stand out with "shop washing machine" or "buy a washing machine" or "washing machines from Walmart" and so on to get out of this. And if you get out of this you you will be listed among Amazon and Whirlpool, and then you will see that Whirlpool is selling only their things and you need to write a better title tag and meta description then Amazon. So it's everything about that and there are some rules which you should follow when writing those title tags. Some may imagine that you can write a title tag as long as you want. No, that's not true. And especially not for the meta description. What what happens if your meta description is too big? Google is showing the part which fits in and then at the end three dots to say okay there is more but we cannot show it everything.

So for washing machines, for Whirlpool washing machines I can go again into the source code, search for the meta description, so here this description. Meta description content and you will see that there is really an end of this. There free, you see free delivery. They have written it - "free delivery if you buy $399 or more" and that exactly has happened here, is free and the free delivery part didn't fit in, so they cut it out. Roughly, we are talking about 155 characters including spaces. That's the standard of considering it, but professionals are measuring it in pixels, because not every letter has the same width, therefore it cannot take as much as space as others characters. So imagining an "I" and an "M". "M" is taking a space of three "I". So you cannot write 155 "M", but you can fit almost 170 "I" into it. So it depends on what you are writing and the length of the sentence is measured by pixels, so you can have there, 900 roughly, 920 pixels. And for the title tag you have roughly 550 pixels to write it or, in other words, the maximum amount of characters should be 65. So because Google, most of the time, is showing your brand at the end of the results you need to leave that space. So here for Walmart, it could be that Walmart doesn't even have Walmart written in their title tag and that Google is adding to it. But if Google is not adding to it, you can add it. Depends now on the update, sometimes they show it for big brands, sometimes they don't show it for big brands, but it is better to leave the space for it, meaning write a title tag which is 55 characters long if your brand is about 10 characters. Leave the suffix, the last part of the title tag, that Google is able to show your brand there. So you have 55 characters to get out what you want to let the user know. And in the meta description you have 155 characters to be sure that everything will be shown there. You need to experiment and don't forget always to watch it in the mobile results. Watching it on mobile results, I cannot do that with that, so that's wrong. So I will show you the same in Germany. In Germany, "washing machines": it's almost the same as in the US. And we can see also here "brands listed" and you have here some additional things. And in mobile results, what I wanted to show you, it's also the same, but you see that the title tag is shown in two rows and the amount of characters showing here is also 155 to be sure.

So there is no difference between what you have written and what Google is showing between devices. It's almost always the same. And often it happens, we will talk about it later, that you write a new title tag and it doesn't appear in Google. That you write the new meta description and it doesn't appear in Google. For the title tag, most of the times, when the Googlebot visits your online store, they will change it, but the meta description may take a while to be changed. So give them roughly two weeks to change it and if they don't change it, or you, it's better to say, you didn't see the change, then you need to change the meta description again. What happened there? Google tested your new description, it didn't work, so they took the old one. So if they're visiting your new online store. They have never visited your online store, or you have a new category and you have written in that category some meta description, and it's totally crap, then Google will write its own meta description. So every time if you visit the SERPs of Google and you know you have changed the title tag and meta description, and the meta description isn't changed after two weeks, it means you need to write a new one. The newest version you have put in wasn't good enough. Google is helping you getting the best version out of you in order to get the user the best experience, to like Google and to grow again. Google wants to satisfy need of the customer.

Aggregate Rating Schema

So that's it. If you take just another look at products, we need to mention another thing which is being shown only on product pages. If you decide to buy a Miele V1 washing machine: we google it, get the top 10 results and you can see here already Lowe's is showing some stars. Those stars can also be influenced and can be shown. Many online stores are missing out an opportunity to show those stars. Those stars are being shown if you have inside your online store the ability to give ratings. And if you output those ratings through something called schema.org. Meaning by a schema which is called called "aggregate rating". So you need that aggregate rating scheme. I will also give you the that in the description, you can look it up later. So you need a rich snippet. We already talked about it, what the rich snippet is. I will show you later in a lesson about snippets, what kind of snippets there are. We will take a look at the product snippet, which this is and part of that rich snippet for products is the aggregate rating snippet. And if you have reviews and you show those reviews through making it up through that aggregate rating, not making them up. So let them look inside those schema standards. Then Google will possibly show you those stars too. And if you have those stars it's it's an eye catcher. So you get a complete new line where it says what the rating is of your users, how many reviews you have, what the price span is, what the delivery expectation is and if it's free or not free, if you have free returns or no free returns. So much more information than other results. The reason why Miele is ranking above Lowe's online store here is because Miele is the manufacturer of that product and it's reasonable that users, in most of the cases, want to see the product page from the manufacturer, maybe also the manual or they have some issues and don't really want to buy it, they want to see how something works for that and so on and so on. If we take apart results inside a search engine result page we will see that every result consist of the title tag, a meta description and, additionally for products and some articles: so written articles, blogs, Wiki pages and so on, we can also get some rich snippets. And we have also seen we can have cite links, but cite links a topic for itself. So the best you can get is for categories having a title tag, a meta description and four cite links. And the best you can get for products is having the title tag, meta description, then those beautiful stars with additional information.

The Importance of CTR

So those things influence the CTR and if we improve the title tag, the meta description, get some cite links or get some stars and products, and so on, we will increase the CTR, if the written thing appeals to the user. And if our CTR is bigger and we are ranking inside the top 10, top 20 results, you will get higher positions soon. And it's a big ranking factor, also from the perspective it is hard to manipulate that data. It is not impossible. People are doing that, and that's wrong and it's also illegal, but still it is really pricey to do that, and you cannot do CTR manipulation a long time, so they let it go someday. Because it's so hard to influence it and it's so important, it's an important signal for Google if users trust your result, click on it and then never come back to Google - it means they were satisfied with the promise you gave them inside the search results that this title tag and meta description is nothing else than a promise you need to hold on after the user has visited your online store. Then there is nothing more about it. You promise something and you take care that they get it. And do not promise something they will not get, because they will give you the biggest punishment ever and that's returning to Google and clicking on your competitor. So you will then rank lower lower, and lower by lying to your customers. So that's the way to go. One thing not to forget is if your online store category has some possibilities to give some guarantees. So, let's say, all washing machines at Lowe's have a 5 year warranty. Then give that 5 year warranty, write it in the meta description and say "almost all" or "all our washing machines have a 5 year warranty" and so on. Free return rate for washing machines, it's impressive because that's a big cost for an online store to return that washing machine: it's heavy, it's pricey. So if you can get some guarantees inside it and hold to those warranties, guarantees, promises - then that is great.

CTR Checklist

And one additional thing you should know, because having, we mentioned the CTR as the most important factor if you're already ranking and the page type if you're not ranking, but the CTR has already included the four other things. So it has included that you choose the right keyword. That's important, but it's a foundation for ranking. So in our example we had washers and washing machines - you should choose washing machines. Then we have mentioned that the keyword should be at the beginning of the title tag. That is also ranking factor. It depends where your keyword is and usually the keyword should be right at the beginning, assuring the user he is in the right place. And in the meta description, the meta description doesn't need to include the keyword. It's not a ranking factor. As it is important to know what ranking factors are, you should also know what ranking factors are not. So mentioning your keyword in the description, in the meta description is not ranking factor. You can mention it if it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, you don't need to. It won't help you to rank higher and sometimes, like in this results, the Google is bolding keywords inside the meta descriptions, then it might be relevant to get also that bolded statement like others did, not to miss something out. So what makes logic do it, but there is no enforcement. The enforcement is happening in the title tag. The keyword should be at the first place.

Heading Structure in Ecommerce SEO

And to get you a little preview for the next lesson, let's see also another thing which is called H1 So every website has some headings. So headings are rated from heading number one, which is the biggest heading, to handing number six which is the smallest heading. So looking from the importance and that importance should correlate with the visual experience you have on a website. So if you take now here that Walmart washing machine category, the H1 - the biggest headline should be this one. So this one should be because it's the biggest headline. There is no bigger headline around us. That should be in H1 and as you can see here it is a H1. So it is important to have in category pages and everywhere else, including product pages, homepage, blog articles, that you have only one H1. So only one main heading and that one main heading should have the keyword, you can guess it, at the beginning. If you take a look at Best Buy. This one should be H1. Also on mobile, you can check it later on your devices, so H1. Again, this isH1 heading and we have only one H1 on that page, right? We can check it with our Chrome browser free extension called "Detailed". I click on it. You have an overview of what the title tag is, what the meta description is. So you don't have to dig into the source code and understand how it's built. You can use this plugin and it will find it for you. So you can double check what your title tag is, what your meta description is and also your headings. And you can see H1 washing machines followed by this H2 and so on. At the end we have a summary where it says we have only one H1. That's the right way to do it. So now you have learned what's the reason if you don't rank inside the top results at all. You have the wrong page type. If you rank inside it, what you can do to improve your CTR. So you can optimize your title tag by putting the right keyword at the beginning and doing some USPs afterwards and rewrite you meta description that is appealing to users, giving them more information, pronouncing out loud what brands you care about about, giving them guarantees, warranties, free deliveries, and so on. Everything what is true on your website. So what is true to title tag is true also for H1 - the keyword should be at the beginning. We almost always say that the title tag and the H1 should be the exact same thing if you're a big brand. If you're not a big brand, then the H1 and title tag should only differ in that at the end of the title tag you're writing your brand. And many of you will ask what is better to use as a divider at the end for the brand. So, is Lowe's doing it right by writing at Lowe's or is it doing better, let's say what we have, Walmart within the dash, or is it doing someone else with the pipeline. What's the best divider for your brand and your title tag? It doesn't matter at all. So you can use what you like and what Google is using more often, if they put it on their own, is the pipe, but we can also see experiments with the dash. So use whatever you want, whatever makes sense, but divide your brand somehow like here. "Miele" should be written here instead of "learn more". Bosch is doing it right. Washing machines "dash". Bosch is the right one, if they just have written "washing machines made in Germany" or something like that which appeals to the user or "washing machines of high quality of high endurance or with 7 years guarantee, warranty". It doesn't matter, that would be better. But you get the point.

Summary

So think about standing out of your competition, like always in your life. You also need to take care about this. Remember, a CTR or your title tag and meta description, are like a teaser in a newspaper on the front page. You get a big newspaper with a lot of headlines and you decide to open page number seven and read certain article. That's the same here. But if the teaser isn't good enough you won't open the page. So it doesn't matter what you do inside your online store, what is happen happening, what magic you have built or your client or your employer. It doesn't matter if they don't click and therefore CTR is the most important factor. If you get more people to click on your result, make it appealing and holding up to your promise, giving them some mega good experience, user experience and they enjoy buying your products, like buying an iPhone at apple.com, or buying a Tesla at tesla.com. It's just like buying candy. And if that all fits together, you have done a great job. But that journey begins with the CTR, it begins with your title tag, it begins with your meta description. Therefore I always say that for important categories inside your online store you need to write those manually, you need to invest time into it. So investing less than 15 minutes into a meta description is suicide, it's not good. You need to analyze your environment to see how you can stand out, try certain things out, play with your title tag, play with your meta description to gather higher CTR, because if you have a great shop to show, but nobody visits it, it's just a waste of your effort and time. And it's sad for the user, maybe he would enjoy your online store, he would enjoy your user experience, your prices, your customer support, everything you can give it to him, but if the CTR is not good enough that's it. You will find on the internet people telling a lot of things about the most important SEO ranking factors out there. Remember, we are talking about Ecommerce SEO only, we're talking about online stores and the world from that perspective looks quite different.

Next Episode Preview

In the next lesson we will address the most important onpage factor. That factor is considered the main reason why online stores don't rank in the top 20 results for a transactional query. Become a SEONAUT at seolaxy.com and join others who are learning Ecommerce SEO right now. Get access to important resources and MASTERCLASS lessons. Feel free to use the comment section or the SEOLAXY SCHOOL group in our community to ask theoretical questions. Practical questions can be asked through the "ask a question" section inside SEOLAXY. If you got value out of this lesson, please consider subscribing to our youtube channel and giving a thumbs up. See you next time!