Analysis by Backlinko revealed key findings to help better understand organic click-through rates. Five million Google search results were evaluated to narrow down ten main key points regarding organic click-through rates. Factors such as title tag length, sentiment, and meta descriptions were considered based on how they affect organic click-through rates.
Here is an outline of the key findings regarding organic click-through rates.
#1 The Average Click-Through Rate For The Top Result in Google’s Organic Search is 31.7%
The number one result in Google’s organic search results has a significantly greater click-through rate than any other result. However, this average tends to decrease for search results further down the page.
#2 The 1st Organic Google Result is 10 Times More Likely to Receive a Click as a Search Result in The 10th Spot
Organic searches are typically limited to ten results per page. Compared to the first result, the tenth one receives around 3.09% of clicks. Consequently, it is ten times less likely to be clicked than the top-ranking result.
The findings also revealed that results on the second page suffer a substantial drop in their organic click-through rate. For example, 0.78% of searchers clicked on a SERP result found on the second page. Therefore, appearing on the first page of Google is critical for CTR and SEO.
#3 Organic Click-Through-Rate For Positions 6-10 is Relatively The Same
While the click-through rate is comparatively the same in positions #6-10, a noticeable CTR increase begins with #5. Suggestions for the increase may be that users do not scroll past the 5th search result; therefore, moving up in search results from position #6 to #5 produces a powerful CTR boost.
The top three organic Google search results obtain 75% of the clicks. Therefore, the goal of ranking on the first page of Google should be proceeded by ranking #5 or higher, proceeded by ranking in the top 3 results.
#4 Moving Up 1 Spot Can Increase CTR by 30.8%
Statistics have discovered that moving up a single position in Google increases CTR by 30.8%. However, this statistic is solely based on a position in Google search results. The greatest CTR increase comes from moving from #6 to #5 with a CTR boost of 53.2%.
#5 Title Tags With a Question Earned Above Average CTR
Comparisons were made between results that included question titles and those that were not a question.
Titles with questions had a 14.1% higher click-through rate than titles that are not a question. The increase in CTR regarding this key finding may be because when someone is searching for information on Google, they are looking for an answer to a question. Thus, a title that is a question may confirm to searchers that your site has the answer to their question.
#6 Title Tag Length Influences Organic CTR
Titles that have between 15 to 40 characters have the highest organic CTR. Titles inside this range have an 8.6% better average CTR than those outside of the 15 to 40-word character range.
Etsy tested multiple title tag variations during a large-scale SEO experiment. They discovered that shorter title tags performed better than longer ones.
#7 Keyword-Rich URLs Correlate with Higher CTR
There is a distinct correlation between keyword-rich URLs and high organic click-through rates. A ‘keyword-rich URL’ is any URL address that includes either an exact search term or something similar. When the keyword in the URL matches the search term completely, the CTR is 45% greater than pages with no search term matches in the URL.
#8 Titles with Power Words Decrease CTR
Power words are a series of different words that are commonly used to make titles stand out. Examples of this include words such as ultimate, insane, amazing, secret, etc.
These words are used to tempt users into clicking on results. However, data found that power words decreased CTR by 13.9%. Therefore, while power words seem ideal for catching one’s attention, they can also seem like clickbait and deter searchers from clicking.
#9 Emotional Titles Can Boost Organic Click-Through Rates
Titles can be positive, negative, or neutral. Statistics show that emotional titles have a 7.3% higher click-through rate compared to non-emotional titles. Titles with a positive sentiment earned a 7.4% higher CTR than neutral titles, while negative sentiment titles earned a 7.2% increase.
The key takeaway from this particular key finding is that emotional titles can be used as a technique to boost CTR. Therefore, businesses that use power words should consider switching to emotional titles to influence users to click the links.
#10 Meta Descriptions Lead to a Higher Click-Through Rate
Meta descriptions are small snippets to summarize the content on a web page. Pages with meta descriptions had a 5.8% higher click-through rate compared to pages without a meta description.
Google will pull snippets from your site to fill the meta description. Writing your meta description will ensure that the information included is well-written and appealing to searchers.
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