Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of users who click a search result after seeing it in the SERP.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) in SEO is the percentage of users who click on a specific search result out of the total number of users who saw (were 'impressed by') that result. CTR = (Clicks ÷ Impressions) × 100. For example, if your page appeared in results 1,000 times and was clicked 40 times, its CTR is 4%.

CTR is directly tracked in Google Search Console, which shows impressions, clicks, and CTR for each page and keyword. Average CTR benchmarks vary by position — position 1 typically achieves 30–40% CTR without SERP features, dropping to 15–20% for position 2 and declining sharply thereafter.

CTR is influenced by: position in results, title tag quality (compelling titles get more clicks), meta description relevance, SERP features on the page (they reduce competition for the user's click), brand recognition (known brands get higher CTR), and the presence of rich snippets.

AI Overviews have materially reduced CTR for high-ranking pages. Our research found that position 1 CTR drops by approximately 31% when an AI Overview is present. Monitoring CTR trends in Search Console — alongside impressions and rankings — provides an early warning of AI Overview impact on your traffic.