Definition

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of times users clicked a result after seeing it. In Google Search Console it's calculated as `clicks ÷ impressions × 100` for any combination of query, page, country, or device.

CTR depends heavily on ranking position, search intent, and how compelling the title and meta description are. A lower-than-expected CTR for a page that ranks well often indicates a mismatched title or description; very high CTR on rare queries usually reflects branded searches. Google has stated CTR is not used directly as a ranking signal, but it remains the headline engagement metric in the Search Console performance report.

Examples

• Search Console performance report

  A blog post earns 2,500 clicks from 100,000 impressions for the query "how to file taxes online" — a CTR of 2.5%. The site rewrites the title tag and CTR rises to 4% the following month at the same average position.

Sources

• Google Search Console Help — Performance report (clicks, impressions, CTR)

Related terms

• SERP
  The page a search engine returns in response to a query, including the list of results and any features such as ads, knowledge panels and rich snippets.
• Meta Description
  A short HTML attribute summarising a page, often used by search engines as the snippet shown beneath a result's title.
• Organic Search
  Search results that aren't paid for by an advertiser, ranked by the search engine's algorithm based on relevance to the query.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Google Search Performance
• Meta Title Optimisation