Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of impressions that turned into clicks: how often people who saw your site in Google’s results clicked it. It is clicks divided by impressions, shown as a percentage. CTR comes from your Google Search Console, so it is measured, not estimated.
Where you’ll see it
On the Keywords and Pages screens, the CTR column sits next to Clicks, Impressions, and Rank. It covers the last 28 days and shows a Connect GSC button until Search Console is connected.
CTR covers searches in all countries. CTR by country covers only the country you chose when you created the project - usually the one to compare with your other figures in RankDots.
What a normal CTR looks like
CTR depends above all on position. Most clicks go to the first few results, and the share falls quickly as you move down the page - so there is no single “good” CTR, only a good CTR for a given position. RankDots uses typical rates by position when it estimates potential traffic.
How to read it
Compare CTR with what your position should earn. A low CTR at position 8 can be normal; the same CTR at position 2 is a warning.
Below normal for your position usually points to the title. When a page ranks well but is rarely chosen, the content is not what people are judging - they see only the title and the short description. Rewriting them is often the quickest win. This is the pattern behind the title recommendations in Opportunities.
Check two other causes first. A crowded results page with SERP features lowers clicks for every regular result. And a title that promises something different from what searchers want - a guide where they want to buy - loses clicks, however well it is written.
Above normal is a strength to protect. Change that title only with care.
How we get it
RankDots reads CTR from Search Console with your clicks and impressions, per keyword, for the last 28 days. A page’s CTR is the average of its keywords’ CTRs. The figures are not refreshed automatically; start a rescan from Opportunities to update them.
What it doesn’t tell you
- Whether visitors stayed. CTR stops at the click.
- Much at all on small numbers. A keyword with one impression and one click shows 100%. Read CTR alongside impressions.
- Which keyword drives a page’s CTR. A page’s CTR is a simple average, so a keyword with very few impressions counts as much as a busy one. Check the keywords in the page’s details.
- Why a results page is crowded. Look at its SERP features and the Google Top 20.
What next
- What are impressions and clicks?
- “Optimize title” and “Rewrite title” recommendations [link is coming]
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