Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The click-through rate (CTRThe click-through rate (CTR) indicates how many users click a search result relative to the number of times it is shown (impressions). It reflects how appealing a listing appears in search.Open glossary entry →) is the ratio of clicks to impressions in search. If a result gets 100 impressions and 5 clicks, the CTR is five percent.

CTR depends heavily on position: top spots usually receive far more clicks. But it is also influenced by:

• the title tagThe title tag is an HTML element in the page that defines the page title. It appears in the browser tab and can be used as the clickable title in search results.Open glossary entry → and meta descriptionThe meta description is an HTML element in the page that briefly summarises the page's content. Google can display it as the description in the search result.Open glossary entry →,
• the match with search intentSearch intent is the goal behind a search query: does the user want to learn something, buy something or reach a specific page? Content only ranks well if it matches this intent.Open glossary entry →,
• SERPThe Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the page a search engine returns after a query. Besides the organic listings it often contains extra elements such as ads, featured snippets or AI Overviews.Open glossary entry → features such as featured snippetsA featured snippet is a highlighted answer excerpt that Google displays above the classic results. It answers a query directly and is often called position zero.Open glossary entry → or AI OverviewsAI Overviews are AI-generated answer boxes from Google that appear above the classic search results. They summarize information from the web and can change click distribution.Open glossary entry →,
• the number of ads.

An important distinction: if the CTR drops while the position stays stable, the problem usually lies not in the ranking but in the snippetA snippet is the compact display of a result in the search results, usually made up of a title, URL and description. It is what users see before clicking.Open glossary entry → or the SERP layout. Better titles and descriptions are then often a quick lever to win more clicks from existing rankings. CTR is measured most reliably over a longer period in Google Search Console.