Definition
CTR (click-through rate) is the share of people who click a result or ad after seeing it: clicks divided by impressions.
CTR explained
CTR is used in both organic search and paid search. In Google Search Console, it is the clicks your pages received divided by the number of times they appeared in results. In Google Ads, it is clicks on your ad divided by its impressions, and expected CTR is one of the components of Quality Score.
Organic CTR depends heavily on position and on the rest of the results page. A first position under an AI Overview, several ads and a map will get fewer clicks than the same position on a plain page. Titles, descriptions, rich results and brand recognition also make a difference.
Look for pages with many impressions but a low CTR for their position. They are often the quickest wins: a clearer title, a more specific description or eligible structured data can lift clicks without any change in ranking. Remember that some queries are answered on the page itself, so a low CTR is not always a problem to fix.
Example
Search Console shows your “pet insurance for older dogs” page appearing thousands of times but rarely clicked. You rewrite the title to mention cover for pre-existing conditions, the question owners care about, and clicks rise from the same position.
Why it matters
CTR converts visibility into visits. Improving it gets more value from rankings and ads you already have.
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Related terms
- Title tagA title tag is the HTML element naming a page, which search engines often use as the clickable headline in results and browsers show in the tab.
- Meta descriptionA meta description is an HTML summary of a page that search engines may show under the title in results, influencing clicks rather than rankings.
- Zero-click searchA zero-click search is one where people get their answer on the results page, from a snippet, AI Overview or other feature, without clicking a result.
- Quality ScoreQuality Score is a 1 to 10 Google Ads diagnostic comparing your ads with competitors' on expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience.
- Impression shareImpression share is the percentage of impressions your ads received out of the total they were estimated to be eligible for.