Do i give up? My Website Nightmare

Hi folks

Quick overview: I started a project a couple of years ago in the finance niche, I've worked on a number of websites in the past so know decent seo practices (whitehat & blackhat) so I have literally done all the work on the site from content > on page seo > off page seo etc. I even learned java programming to make a finance calculator.

I've invested over two years of my life into this website and earn on average around $1500 per month while only paying for hosting.

The site has unbelievable potential to make six figures per year, but it is massively hindered by a CTR of only 0.5%. I have done everything in my power to try and increase it from re-writing content to split testing to meta tags - titles etc with no improvement at all.

I took the plunge during lockdown and hired someone to help me improve the CTR with a goal being a modest 5%, it cost me a pretty penny.

Let’s just say it didn’t help if anything I lost revenue from spending most of my time analysing results that never came.

I’ll be honest I am absolutely fed up, so much time and effort has gone into this site. I’m literally out of options when it comes to improving the CTR and increasing revenue.

Has anyone had any experience with one of their sites or client’s sites tanking when it comes to CTR? Other than Meta titles and descriptions what can I do?

Thank you for taking the time to read my despair your help and guidance is much appreciated.

based on what you wrote, I am afraid any thing I ask, you probably going to say that you have tried it. but here we go: do you have CTA above the fold, in your homepage and your main money pages?

how do you get to this finance calculator? is it a new page or a pop-up that does not help you with CTR?

fb3003 said:

based on what you wrote, I am afraid any thing I ask, you probably going to say that you have tried it. but here we go: do you have CTA above the fold, in your homepage and your main money pages?

how do you get to this finance calculator? is it a new page or a pop-up that does not help you with CTR?

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I dont have any CTA, this site is more of a financial support & information site. The finance calculator has its own page (embedded) i think it helps more with bounce rate than CTR

The calculator page on bing has a CTR of around 60% but only 0.4% on google, but as you can imagine i hardly get any traffic from bing

are you competing with any major brand sites? if so, can you name them?

do you have content like motley fool website that keeps you clicking on internal links because of the content?

What are leaders in the niche doing to engage their visitors?

fb3003 said:

are you competing with any major brand sites? if so, can you name them?

do you have content like motley fool website that keeps you clicking on internal links because of the content?

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Competiting websites are government websites

I do have pillar content that links of to internal pages, but its not huge, only like two to three links per page.

randybishop said:

What are leaders in the niche doing to engage their visitors?

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To be honest i offer a lot more than they do thats the reason i started this venture

Because people already familiar with those big brands for years and this niche left nearly no space for other small websites, and don't forget, this niche is well heavy moderated by real human SERP rater, so I think you had tried your best.

Never put all your time and eggs into one basket.

terrycody said:

Because people already familiar with those big brands for years and this niche left nearly no space for other small websites, and don't forget, this niche is well heavy moderated by real human SERP rater, so I think you had tried your best.

Never put all your time and eggs into one basket.

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I was kind of thinking the same Terry, Thanks for the reply

Very hard niche and you need to continue what you are doing
GSC screen shots not enough to tell more information
Have to look your web site to tell more information

Need more information to say but you can hire people to increase your click-through rates such a Kult Philips

miyuru2u said:

Very hard niche and you need to continue what you are doing
GSC screen shots not enough to tell more information
Have to look your web site to tell more information

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Thanks for the reply

polecat said:

Need more information to say but you can hire people to increase your click-through rates such a Kult Philips

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I've already hired someone, i was looking for more advice then i can do it myself. Thanks fopr the reply

Okay if you just want advice then this video maybe help you . https://www.loom.com/share/a187829780274ae9a8b4037b84d07146

Niche chosen is competitive and you have to work very hard.
you are already exhausted. but keep trying will move further.

polecat said:

Okay if you just want advice then this video maybe help you . https://www.loom.com/share/a187829780274ae9a8b4037b84d07146

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My hat comes of to you sir, thank you for taking the time making that response. Your a credit to blackhatworld

robdenio said:

My hat comes of to you sir, thank you for taking the time making that response. Your a credit to blackhatworld

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Thanks.

Putting the adsense or whatever you promote in the top area can sometimes give you crazy sales increases for example I done it just to see what happens before.

I went from making like £20 a month to like £200 a month by that simple change. since for people on phones, it's more less guaranteed someone will click someone link by accident I am sure I have done it many times myself.

I watched someone a couple of years ago who had very big hands or fingers it integrated me how many times he press the Adsense link by accident in just like 5 minutes I would guess 10 times so each click worth say £10*10=£100 just by someone mistakes.

If I would be you I would start A/B testing the meta title/description to see if there is any increase. At this rate it makes a huge difference if you just increase it by 0.1%.

However, as you said you are competing with official government websites...this is a very crucial aspect. Depending on the topic/niche people will definitely prefer to get information from an official source (govt) than from a third party, especially when they are ranking above or below you.

Do you place internal links, so people stay on your website and you can increase your revenue?

Also

Have you considered selling the website? You could make a pretty good profit I think and then you could start reinvesting the money into other websites or business models.

nakamura said:

If I would be you I would start A/B testing the meta title/description to see if there is any increase. At this rate it makes a huge difference if you just increase it by 0.1%.

However, as you said you are competing with official government websites...this is a very crucial aspect. Depending on the topic/niche people will definitely prefer to get information from an official source (govt) than from a third party, especially when they are ranking above or below you.

Do you place internal links, so people stay on your website and you can increase your revenue?

Also

Have you considered selling the website? You could make a pretty good profit I think and then you could start reinvesting the money into other websites or business models.

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I have split test the titles and descriptions in the past and have never seen an increase in the CTR - The fact I am competing with GOV websites is definitely a big factor. The amount of position 1-3 rankings is just so confusing why the CTR is so low. Your absolutely right when you say just increasing it 0.1% will be huge.

All the content is structured in a way to flow through the site, I generally use 2-3 links per page to inner related content.

As for selling the website, I don’t think I could until I have maximised it’s potential, I know if I can get the CTR issue fixed and increase the traffic who knows where it will end up.

Thanks for your reply

hard Niche. Long term work needed.

try adding more metadata to the pages so google uses it in the snippets.. like maybe "review score"
but most importantly CTR grows when you move to top 3, I guess these spots are taken by the gov sites?

eugenbg said:

but most importantly CTR grows when you move to top 3, I guess these spots are taken by the gov sites?

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100% true. Its just amazing how much the CTR changes just because of one position. The drop of the CTR is so hard if you are not in the Top 3.