What is pogo sticking?

Pogo sticking is a term in SEO that was introduced by Google. Now, what does it indicate? It describes the situation when a user enters your site through the snippets of SERPs but exits instantly and clicks for the next search result. So, pogo-sticking gives a clear sign that users are not happy with visiting your site. It creates a red flag for your site as Google takes it as a serious issue for SEO ranking.  

So, in this blog, you will learn about why pogo sticking matters for SEO and how to fix it.  

Why is pogo sticking considered a serious issue in SEO?

You already know that pogo sticking is a clear symbol that tells that your users are unsatisfied with your site. When Google views a pogo-sticking on a site, it punishes the site for creating a pogo-sticking problem. So, it modifies the ranks of the sites on the SERPs. As a result, if your site contains this issue, it will drop to a lower ranking by Google.

 Though John Mueller of Google has confirmed that pogo-sticking doesn’t directly affect the rankings on SERP, still there is a possibility of hurting your SEO placement by pogo-sticking. As there are some serious causes behind this issue, you should not take it lightly. 

So, let’s learn about what are the actual issues behind the pogo-sticking. 

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The causes behind pogo-sticking

• Weak user experience

It doesn’t matter how valuable content you have put on your site if the users get frustrated after entering it. A wider range of users suffer from poor videos and animations on the sites. Also, there are poor technical SEO issues such as slow website speed, complexity in smooth navigation, unresponsive website, and other UX factors. 

Most of the users don’t have the patience to wait for your site for more than 2 or 3 seconds when they don’t acquire what they are looking for. Thus, these factors create issues like pogo-sticking. 

• Clickbait content

Clickbait content is those which have some enticing titles to attract users. However, after clicking on the search result, the users will be disappointed easily, as these contents create no value at all. 

For example, content may have a title like ‘What is the meaning of pogo-sticking in SEO?’ But when the user clicks it, they find something about a pogo stick game! Naturally, the users will exit from the site and search for better content again. Thus, clickbait is a crucial factor behind the pogo-sticking issue. Hence, SEO writers should focus on creating content that is well-aligned with the title. 

• Locked information

Sometimes, the users have to struggle to find out what they are looking for on your site. But what do when they have to face difficulties? There are some specific reasons behind it. Maybe there are a lot of obstructive elements on the site, the relevant information becomes deprived by unnecessary information, or the content was placed behind a pay wall.  

These scenarios are common for websites that want to attract users by creating meta information and adding the answers to the search queries. 

• Casual browsing

Apart from the above-mentioned causes, there are some causes which remain out of your hands. Casual browsing is the kind of cause that you can’t fix from your side. In this case, the users just jump from one search result to another and compare which one is better. 

But Google always prioritizes the users’ needs. Thus, casual browsing may affect your site’s ranking. So, you need to focus on creating valuable content that resonates with the users. 

 

Strategies to prevent pogo-sticking

• Keep your content up-to-date

One of the best tricks for eliminating pogo-sticking is to refresh your content as much as possible. Make sure you have included all the relevant data in your up-to-date content. When you have created updated and relevant content, the users don’t easily bounce from your site. 

• Use proper structure and visual elements

Ensure that your content incorporates proper structure. So, you have to include the basic elements of holistic SEO, such as – headings, primary keywords, secondary keywords, meta descriptions, bullet points, tables, etc. to create valuable content. Also, you have to focus on the spelling, grammar, CTA buttons, fonts, color schemes, etc. 

Additionally, you have to add relevant visuals like images, videos, pie charts, infographics, and more.  

• Use internal links

Internal linking is one of the most important key factors for holistic SEO. It helps to improve your SEO strategy and encourage your readers to spend more time on your site. These interlinks provide valuable and relevant information for the users. As a result, they prefer and trust your site. Thus, interlinks help to reduce pogo-sticking.  

• Improve user experience

You should follow these tips to improve user experience –

1. Most of the users leave your site if it doesn’t load fast. So, ensure your site has a good loading speed. Also, remove large files and images from your site which causes hindrances for loading speed. Moreover, you can use Google Analytics to improve your page loading speed. 
2. Implement the mobile-first approach for your site. But ensure that your pages load quickly and the page navigation for mobile screens is easy. 
3. Another significant strategy to improve UX is to remove obstacles like unnecessary ads, pop-ups, notifications, or other elements in your content. These distract the users and they easily get bored over your content. So, place your ads carefully and eliminate the unnecessary elements from your site. 

• Add FAQs

Though you have put the major answers in the content body, by adding FAQ sections you can strengthen the SEO of your site. FAQs provide quick answers to the user’s queries stop them from frustratingly visiting anywhere and reduce pogo-sticking. But you have to create to-the-point answers for the FAQs. Also, you should incorporate primary and secondary keyword to make the answers more relevant. 

Conclusion 

So, Pogo sticking is a significant matter of concern that affects the SEO ranking. So, you need to understand the causes behind pogo sticking and implement effective solutions to get relief from it. Creating valuable, compelling, and unique content can reduce pogo sticking for your site.