The number of people who click on a link on search engine results pages (SERPs) represents the organic click-through rate (CTR). This metric is expressed as a percentage.
For example, let’s say there are 100 searches for “blueberry pie.” A link to your site always appears in the results. Your page receives 10 clicks.
Your organic CTR would be 10% (10 out of 100).
This is the formula:
Organic CTR is an important SEO key whatsapp lead performance indicator (KPI) that you should track to measure your site’s search performance.
The higher your organic click-through rate, the more organic traffic you should expect from Google and other search engines. (This assumes the number of impressions remains constant.)
It is often used as an SEO metric to see if your pages are resonating with search engines.
Is organic CTR a ranking factor in Google?
No.
Organic CTR is not a Google ranking factor , but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
Google uses CTR to test and measure other algorithm changes and the overall quality of search results. But a higher CTR won’t directly improve your page’s ranking.
In other words, you can’t trick Google’s algorithm into ranking your page higher by simply searching over and over again, clicking through to your own site from organic search results.
That would make the SERPs too easy to manipulate.
On the other hand, having a low CTR will not directly hurt your rankings.
Additionally, tracking this metric can give you a better idea of your website’s visibility and performance in search results. If you see that very few people are clicking on your links, you may need to adjust your SEO strategy.
How to determine your organic CTR
The easiest way to determine your CTR is Google Search Console (GSC).
GSC provides raw data on your website’s performance in Google searches and automatically calculates CTRs that you can track in several different ways.
If you haven’t yet set up SGC for your website, follow our guide on how to do so.
Measure the organic CTR of the site
From within GSC, click ” Performance ” > ” Search Results ” .
Note: Depending on your website, you may only have one page called ” Performance .”
This will give you a snapshot of your website’s performance in Google search, including site-wide organic CTR.
It is the aggregate click-through rate for all pages on your site and all keywords or search queries.
It can be a useful metric to understand how your entire site is performing in search.
But be careful.
Website CTR can be a misleading KPI . Even if your website CTR is declining, it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong.
In fact, it could mean that things are going very well.
For example, let’s say your site has just started ranking for a lot of new keywords. But it keeps moving up in the SERPs.
Right now, you’re primarily ranking in positions 8-12 for the new keywords.
These new keywords are likely to have a lower CTR because they do not occupy the top 3 positions.
Therefore, they will lower your website’s average.
Use Sitewide CTR along with the other CTR metrics below to better understand your site’s performance.
Measure CTR for a specific search query
You can also measure the CTR for a specific query across all pages of your website.
Click the ” Average CTR ” checkbox to activate the CTR column in the following table. Next, scroll down to the “Queries” table to see the CTR for a single search query.
But again, there is a limitation.
Your site may have multiple pages that rank for the same query.
Lower-ranking pages are likely to have a lower CTR. This could lower the average and make it look like your site is not performing well for that keyword.
Pro tip: If you find that you have multiple pages ranking for the same queries, this may be a problem known as keyword cannibalization . Read our guide on how to address it.
Measure the CTR of a specific page
Measuring the CTR of a particular page contents building a subscriber list for travel will tell you what percentage of impressions on that page end up generating a click.
To do this:
Click on the ” Pages ” tab in the table at the bottom of the page.
Remember that this is an average.
This means that your average CTR will be affected by the average position of all the queries that page ranks for.
And your site’s pages can rank for dozens or hundreds of keywords.
You may rank well for a small number of keywords. But you could also rank relatively poorly for many more, which could lower your average.
Measure the CTR of a specific page and search query
The most actionable CTR metric you can analyze is the click-through rate for a specific page and a specific keyword or query.
For example, how does your landing caseno email list page “blueberry pie recipes” perform for the query “blueberry pie”?
This will give you the most reliable measure of your performance on that subject.
To determine this CTR:
Start by clicking on the URL of the page you are analyzing in the table.