Meta Data, Microdata, and Sitemaps:  How to increase the clicks to your website from the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

There are thousands to millions of results for every search on the web. You've worked hard to get your website listed towards the top of the results page for some of your search terms. But it seems like you still are getting the traffic you'd like.

Just because your site is showing up in search results, it doesn't mean that searches are going to click through to your website. Getting a good ranking in search results is important, but how can you optimize your listing to be the one that people click on?

How to get your website to stand out in search results:

Meta Data

Many people, SEOs or not, have heard of Meta data, or meta tags.  These are the tags inserted into the site's code that direct search engines on how to organize the website. You can view any web page tags by clicking on your browser tools and View Code. Don't be afraid to see what your competition is using for their meta tags.

The important meta data for you to be aware of when talking about click-through are: Title Tags and Description Tags.

Title Tag: The title tag plays a big role in SEO. Using important key terms here will help you rank better for those terms.  But the title tag is also going to be Title of your website that appears in the search engine results. Make sure it is brief and accurate (like the name of your company, for example).

Description Tag: The description of your website will often be the brief paragraph below the title. This is an important place to tell the user exactly what your site is about while enticing them to click through. Pick what you think is the best summary of your business, or like the ApogeeINVENT example, your most popular services that are being searched.

Microdata (Rich Snippets)

Microdata, or rich snippets, allow you to describe the content in your site so the search engines can organize these snippets in search results.  For example, reviews, person information, or events are types of microdata.  Events can be described even further using the description properties, venue, starting time, name, and category.

When you use microdata in your website, the search engines will pull this information and display it in your search result listing.  This gives people more information, and will increase the click through potential. It is also a way to ensure people are seeing your information, even if they don't click through to your website. 

Sitemap

Submitting a sitemap is another great way to increase the probably of people clicking through from your search listing to your website. A sitemap not only is great for SEO, it also allows people to see a quick summary of the most important parts of your website.  Like the example below, someone searching for technical information on Versi-foam will be able to see that the RHH Foam website includes that technical information.  By making it easy for users to find the information they are looking for, you will increase the click-through rates to your website.

Increase your clicks by trying these techniques.  Get more information from Google Webmaster tools on how to implement these for your website.  Need some help? That's what we're here for- contact us!