Learn how to improve your CTR (click-through rate) on Google, and discover tips for optimising your ads and organic search results to attract more visitors.
Thomas Haurum
Question: “Where is the best place to hide a body?”
Answer: “On page 2 of Google!”
That’s an old favourite among SEO jokes. Very few consumers move on to page 2 of Google when searching. In fact, most people don’t even scroll to the bottom of page 1. So, you could also ask how long it would take before the body was discovered if it was hidden among the lowest results on page 1 instead.
In other words, all the action happens at the top of the search results.
In this blog post, you’ll get a glimpse of just how much it matters whether you’re in position 1 or position 10 in Google’s search results. Both positions are on the first page, but being on the first page isn’t always enough – you need to reach the top positions before you’ll notice a real difference in traffic.
Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. All searches
Above you can see the percentage distribution of clicks (CTR) by position across all searches. The figures are from January 2019 but remain stable throughout the year. The blue graph shows the distribution for desktop searches, while the red graph shows the distribution for mobile searches. The graphs are fairly similar, except that position 1 has a higher CTR on desktop than on mobile. A couple of factors may influence this: mobile is often used for research before a purchase, after which desktop is used to complete the transaction. In addition, position 0 (Google My Business, Featured Snippets, etc.) is often more dominant on mobile searches.
Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. Brand vs non-brand searches
The graph above shows CTR split between brand searches (blue) and non-brand searches (red).
As you can see, CTR is generally higher for brand searches. This is because users are more likely to know exactly what they are looking for compared to non-brand searches. According to Advanced Web Ranking, a brand search is when the keyword is part of the domain name.
Source: Advanced Web Ranking, CTR Study, January 2019. Commercial searches
The above graph gives us an insight into how CTR is distributed for commercial searches – these are searches containing words such as “buy, price”, etc. The graph closely resembles the others – it’s primarily the first result that gets the click, followed by the other top 3 results.
Below you can see an overview of how CTR is typically distributed across the different positions on page 1 of Google. As you’ll notice, there’s a significant gap between the CTR for position 1 and position 10, so there’s a huge difference in the amount of traffic your website receives – even though you might think being on page 1 is enough.
It’s also worth noting that while CTR is just a percentage, you must also consider the total search volume for each keyword. Ranking number 1 for a search with an average of 10 searches per month and a CTR of 35% will give you 3.5 visits per month. If you’re number 2 for a search with 100 searches per month and a CTR of 15%, you’ll get 15 visits per month. In this case, ranking second for a high-volume keyword can actually be better than ranking first for a low-volume keyword.
However, if you’re all the way down at position 10, you’ll see limited traffic, even for keywords with high monthly search volumes. With 1,000 searches per month, position 10 (with a CTR of about 1.5%) will only bring in 15 visitors per month. If you can move up to position 3, which has a CTR of around 10.75%, you’ll increase your traffic sevenfold. Climbing to position 1, with a CTR around 30%, will increase your traffic twentyfold.
In reality, you’ll rarely see a conversion rate of 100%, so clicks aren’t the only thing to consider. Your conversion rate depends on how you define a conversion. For example, it’s easier to get newsletter sign-ups than to secure final sales.
Below are a few examples of how your position on page 1 may impact your results if your conversion rate is 5%:
Let’s take an example with position 10:
Monthly searches: 1,000
Average position: 10
CTR for position 10: 1.5%
Conversion rate: 5%
Out of 1,000 searches, you’ll get 15 visitors per month.
Of those 15 visitors, you’ll achieve 0.75 conversions per month.
Let’s take the same example with position 1:
Monthly searches: 1,000
Average position: 1
CTR for position 1: 30%
Conversion rate: 5%
Out of 1,000 searches, you’ll now get 300 visitors per month.
Of those 300 visitors, you’ll achieve 15 conversions per month.
The difference is clear in the above example. Instead of getting a conversion every 40 days at position 10, you’ll get a conversion every other day at position 1. Now imagine how much longer you’d wait between conversions if there were only 100 monthly searches instead of 1,000, as in the examples.
The conclusion is straightforward:
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth aiming for the top positions or if you can settle for just being on page 1, even if it’s at the bottom, the answer is yes – it’s worth the extra effort. While it may require more resources to target the top 3, there are far more clicks and conversions to be gained than if you’re simply hovering near the bottom.
The above table and graphs are based on figures from Advanced Web Ranking, which measures the impact of search position each month. Depending on the graph, up to 10,000,000 keywords from nearly 85,000 different websites were included. The study is international, so there may be minor local differences depending on which country you’re targeting with your SEO efforts.
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