Click Through Rate
Click Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of users who click on your link after seeing it in search results, ads, or other placements. It measures how effective a link is at capturing user attention and driving traffic.
CTR is calculated as:
CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) × 100
For example, if your page appears 1,000 times on the SERP and gets 50 clicks, the CTR is 5%.
A strong CTR indicates that your link is relevant and appealing to users. Factors like optimized meta descriptions, engaging title tags, and the use of rich snippets can significantly improve CTR. However, zero-click searches, where users get their answers directly on the SERP (e.g., in featured snippets or knowledge panels), can reduce CTR as users don’t need to click on a link.
CTR is also influenced by your URL structure and website architecture. Clean and descriptive URLs, like example.com/seo-tips
, are more likely to attract clicks than confusing or cluttered URLs.