What is click-through rate (CTR)?

What is CTR?

CTR = (Clicks ÷ Impressions) × 100

It measures what fraction of searchers who saw your page actually clicked on it. Google Search Console shows this per page and per query.

Why it Matters

A high ranking alone doesn't guarantee traffic. If your listing isn’t compelling, you could be missing out on 70–80% of potential visitors. A low CTR (the “CTR gap”) means there’s recoverable traffic waiting to be captured by fixing your title, meta description, or snippet.

Approximate Benchmarks

  • Position 1: ~28%
  • Position 2: ~16%
  • Position 3: ~10%
  • Position 5: ~5%

(Actual values depend on query intent and SERP features.)