What is click-through rate (CTR)?
Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who clicked your result out of everyone who saw it. The formula is clicks divided by impressions, times 100. If a page appeared 2,000 times in search results and was clicked 60 times, its CTR is 3 percent.
In SEO, CTR is most useful as a diagnostic. It shows whether your listing is winning attention at the position it already holds. A page ranking well with an unusually low CTR has a snippet problem or is being outshone by SERP features; a page with high CTR at a lower position has a listing people want.
How it works
Google Search Console reports CTR in the Performance report for every query and page, over up to 16 months. An impression is counted when your result appears on a page of results the user sees, even if they do not scroll to it.
What moves CTR:
- Position. Higher results get more clicks, but there is no fixed curve. It varies by query and layout.
- SERP features. AI Overviews, ads, featured snippets, and local packs all take attention from organic results.
- Search intent. Navigational queries for your brand usually have high CTR; broad informational queries often have low CTR because the answer appears on the results page.
- The listing itself. The title tag, meta description, URL, favicon, and any rich results decide whether your result looks like the answer.
Whether Google uses click data as a ranking signal has long been debated. Google has said clicks are noisy and not used directly as a simple ranking factor, while documents from the 2023 US antitrust trial described systems that learn from user interactions. Either way, a better snippet brings more visitors from the rankings you already have.
Example
In Search Console, a guide averages position 3.2 for "pour-over ratio" with 1.1 percent CTR, while similar pages on the site get far more at that position. The query is informational and the title is "Pour-Over Guide | Kiln Coffee". Rewriting it to "Pour-Over Coffee Ratio: 1:16 Explained (With Chart)" and the description to lead with the answer gives searchers a reason to click. Compare the next 28 days against the previous 28.
In WordPress
CTR work in WordPress happens in the fields that build your listing. Hydrogen SEO's SEO Settings sheet has the SEO title and meta description with a live SERP preview, and its schema support can make pages eligible for rich results. Read CTR in Search Console; see meta descriptions that earn clicks.
Common mistakes
- Comparing CTR across different positions or intents as if they were equal.
- Clickbait titles that raise clicks but disappoint visitors.
- Reading site-wide average CTR, which hides the pages that matter.
Common questions
What is a good CTR for SEO?
There is no universal benchmark. It depends on position, query type, and SERP features. Compare pages of similar intent and position on your own site.
How is CTR calculated in Google Search Console?
Clicks divided by impressions for the selected queries, pages, and date range, shown as a percentage.