Short answer: Average CTRs on Google Search can range anywhere from 2% to 30% for the top 10 positions. Keep reading this blog to find out more about CTRs and how you can improve it for your website.
The click-through rate is one of the major metrics many businesses track. This rate is also some of the most difficult ones to improve across the board, which is why most brands, even ones high on top of their game, focus considerable resources on click-through rate optimisation.
But before you shoot for higher CTR, it’s important to assess your current situation and see how your efforts are paying off presently. And you can only do it if you understand how the click-through rate works, and what’s a good average to strive for.
You might also be interested in HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING ROI?
What Is a Click-Through Rate?
In marketing, the click-through rate is the rate at which your links or ads are clicked. It’s calculated as the number of people who view the ad or link divided by the number of people who click on it.
Though it’s more prevalent to worry about the CTR in the context of paid advertising, organic efforts are just as much influenced by the CTR. When your brand appears on the search engine results pages, it’s worth knowing what kind of CTR your link is scoring.
Not for nothing, but even if Google does give you a good rank, if your CTR is low that’s a clear sign users are somehow not rushing to click on your link, and maybe move closer to your competition. To see this kind of CTR, we need to turn to Google Search Console.
What Is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a tool created by the search engine to allow business owners and marketers to get a better sense of website performance. The reports in the Console provide data combined with that gathered through Google Analytics, giving you a full view of the consumer journey from the moment they need your link in the organic search, to the moment they reach your site.
Here are the main types of metrics you can track through the Google Search Console:
- Search queries – the number of impressions your website URLs gathered;
- Clicks – the number of clicks your URL scored from a search engine results page;
- Average position – the average ranking of your URL;
- The click-through rate – calculated as clicks/impressions * 100
The data here is different from that you gathered through Google Ads, as the Console simply tracks your organic efforts.
Now before we dive into the topic, let’s make one thing clear. There is no definitive answer to what a good CTR is in a search console; what we are answering today is; what is a good CTR in a search console if you are ranked in X position.
What’s a Good CTR?
Before you improve your CTR, it’s worth answering a very important question: what is a good CTR, anyways?
A 100% CTR seems to be the obvious answer, but that’s pretty much impossible to achieve. When you have impressions and clicks, it’s really unlikely to assume all impressions will naturally convert to clicks, as you’re bound to lose a few people along the way. So, the next best answer is as high as possible.
With CTR, specifically, the idea of a ‘good’ CTR generally depends on a lot of different factors. when looking at the state of organic CTR, Backlinko found some rather interesting information:
- 27.6% was the average CTR for the top result in Google search;
- The top 3 results get around 75% of all clicks;
- #1 organic result is 10x more likely to receive a click compared to #10 spot
You can use the 27.6% CTR as a good benchmark to analyze your current efforts, even if you’re not at the top of the search queries yet. For comparison, here are the average organic CTRs for the top 5 search results (links):
- 27.6%
- 15.8%
- 11.0%
- 8.4%
- 6.3%
If your organic CTR is around 2-30%, you’re generally doing a decent job at making users click on your links. But, of course, there’s always room for improvement.
How to Boost Your Organic CTR?
Let’s quickly go over how the CTR is created. A user will type a particular search term looking for products, services, or information. They will then look through the Google Search Results and click on a link (sometimes more) to find what they need.
But, how do they make their decision? Well, it can be a few different things:
- Trusting Google – users intrinsically trust the 1st link to be relevant to the search queries, since they know Google focuses a lot on the accuracy of its search results;
- Brand recognition – users might click on a link, even if it’s not no.1 simply because they know or have heard of a brand before;
- Reading between the links – lastly, users may rely on headlines and meta information to see if a particular link might be useful for them.
Considering these factors, it stands to reason that the ways to achieve a higher CTR would be a combination of digital marketing efforts that will simply make your URLs a) more visible and b) more convincing.
Here are a few ways to do just that:
1. Have a Good SEO Strategy
Search engine optimisation is one of the best ways to achieve a high CTR. the higher your URLs rank in the search results, the more likely target audiences will click on them to visit your site.
SEO is a long-term effort that includes a variety of moves, such as:
- Content marketing
- Link building
- On-page SEO optimisation (such as improving page load speed)
- Improving user experience, etc.
Average CTR for the top three results gather the better bulk of all clicks from a SERP, so focusing on SEO is simply the best way to improve your CTR.
2. Target the Right Keywords and Make Them Visible
Target keywords your audiences use in their search queries and try your best to make them visible on the SERPs. When a user sees the keywords in the headline, description, or even the URLs themselves, it serves as a reinforcement your page is relevant to what they are searching, making it more likely for them to click on it.
Be sure to target a combination of keywords as well, such as location keywords or long tails to ensure you’re ending up on the right SERPs.
3. Focus on the Meta Information
People often give more attention to the content that’s on the page, than the metadata of the page. However, Google will use title tags and meta description to accompany URLs in the search results.
And these extra descriptions can help you convince a user to click on your link. Consider them as opportunities to:
- Provide more information
- Make them curious
- Give them an incentive to click
Over to You
If you need to improve your average CTR, we at Australian Internet Advertising are happy to assist Sydney business owners with their digital marketing efforts. We’ll work together to optimise your SEO strategy and content to make sure your URLs score as many clicks as possible from organic searches. AIAD can be your trusted partner for reaching your business goals through smart digital marketing strategies.
If you want to work with us, feel free to reach out online now, or call us directly at 1300 304 640 for a chat.
