Click-Through Rate.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a result after seeing it, calculated as clicks ÷ impressions × 100. In SEO, CTR measures how effectively a page's title tag and meta description entice searchers to click. In paid search, CTR is a key component of Quality Score, influencing both ad costs and rankings.

CTR Benchmarks by Position

Average organic CTR varies significantly by position. Position 1 typically earns 25–30% of clicks for high-competition navigational queries, dropping to 5–10% for positions 3–5, and below 2% beyond position 7. SERP features like AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and rich results can increase or decrease CTR depending on whether they satisfy intent before the click.

Optimising for CTR

CTR optimisation focuses on writing compelling title tags (under 60 characters, front-loaded with target keyword, including a benefit or differentiator) and meta descriptions (under 155 characters, action-oriented, including supporting keywords). Testing different title formats—questions, numbers, power words—and monitoring CTR changes in Google Search Console is an efficient way to improve organic traffic without changing rankings.