Serps Booster - Increasing Click Through Rates (CTR)
CTR represents the number of search engine users who have seen your company URL and have subsequently decided to click the link and visit your website.
Your current CTR at the URL or Search Term level will be available in your search console or chosen analytics package.
But if you wish to calculate your CTR from raw numbers here’s how you do it: –
- Take the total number of clicks (for the URL or Search Term), then divide it by the number of impressions you have received (we recommend doing this every month to plot seasonal interaction.
- To convert this to a percentage multiply it by 100
- Clicks x 100 = CTR (divided by impressions).
What is CTR?
CTR represents the number of search engine users who have seen your company URL and have subsequently decided to click the link and visit your website.
Your current CTR at the URL or Search Term level will be available in your search console or chosen analytics package.
But if you wish to calculate your CTR from raw numbers here’s how you do it: –
- Take the total number of clicks (for the URL or Search Term), then divide it by the number of impressions you have received (we recommend doing this every month to plot seasonal interaction.
- To convert this to a percentage multiply it by 100
- Clicks x 100 = CTR (divided by impressions).
Why Click-through Rates Matter in SEO
Each of the Search Engines businesses revolve around providing quality results (Paid and unpaid – with unpaid gaining user trust). Their goal is to present the most relevant results to the right user for each search query.
Its logic and openly stated by Google that they understand users are more likely to click on higher-ranked results, which is why the ranking of a result is so crucial!
Fact: Click-through rates (CTR) tend to decline as you move down the rankings.
CTR’s for Non-Branded Terms: -
The first position often captures over 30-35% of clicks (or impressions performed), especially
The second position may drop to around 10-15% dependant on brand weighting and media exposure.
The third to roughly 3-5 %. Thereafter the trend continues downward. This pattern shows how significantly CTR decreases with each ranking position.
The impact of a position 1 rank over a position 3 rank is 6-fold increase in the traffic!
Now, consider a situation: –
- The 4th-ranked result has a 5% CTR!
- While the 5th-ranked result has a 10% CTR!
Consider: The lower-ranked result is attracting more clicks than the higher-ranked one!
Impact: This indicates that users find the URL ranked 5th more relevant and /or engaging!
Search Engine Interpretation: Google and the other Search Engines algorithms are trained to recognise that the 5th result is more appealing to searchers than the 4th!
Result: Swapping of the positions to ensure that the more popular result is given greater visibility to the user base.
Fact: This, dynamic approach, helps Google and the other Search Engines continually improve search quality by adapting to user behaviour and preferences.