Click Through Rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the ratio of the number of times a listing appears on a search engine results page (SERP) to the number of people who click on the link. You can use Google Search Console to view CTR reports for your website.

Factors Affecting CTR

The CTR is influenced by several factors, such as the type of query, search intent, and industry. Therefore, there are no clear guidelines on what is considered a good CTR. However, there are some basic figures to keep in mind:

• The first position in Google search results typically receives the highest CTR, with estimates ranging from 20% to 40%.
• The CTRs for positions 2-10 in Google search results decrease progressively, with the second position receiving around 10-15% CTR.
• The tenth position will receive less than 2% CTR.

Keep in mind that these estimates are not a guarantee, and the CTR for any given search result can vary widely depending on several factors, such as the SERP features, search intent and the quality and relevance of the content on the page.

Reviewing CTR Performance

Two vital factors for monitoring CTR are the query and position. A URL can rank for multiple queries, but you should focus on CTR for a single query. Check if the page serves the query intent.

When considering the CTR benchmark, focus on the position. For example, if a page ranks 1st but the CTR is 8%, this could be seen as poor, but good for position 4. Review if the title is prominent against competitor titles.

However, measuring CTR can be challenging because the algorithm may rewrite the page title. Additionally, the page title may be show with a large number of SERP features like featured snippets, image packs or shopping ads.

One final note is that it becomes a lot harder to measure CTR for informational and possibly commercial search intent because the answer can be on the SERP as a featured snippet, etc. Therefore, it’s crucial to focus on providing relevant and high-quality content that matches the user’s search intent, which can improve your CTR in the long run.