Ready to learn how high click-through rates are for specific Google positions in 2017? In this micro-study, we will cover just that and provide some insight.
There is a lot going on with Google right now.
Because of that, it is an important time to have a good grasp on click-through rates.
In this micro-study, we analyzed 5,000 queries.
Our goal, to find out the CTR for high ranking pages in Google. We also wanted to consider if higher ranking pages had better CTR and determine exactly what those were.
Before I get into the results, let’s take a moment to consider a few things.
Click-Through Rates in 2017 (Considerations)
- Generally higher ranking pages in Google have higher CTR, because people don’t want to scroll, lack of time and often they are good content.
- There has been a lot of talk about CTR being important for Rank Brain, Google’s new machine learning artificial intelligence ranking system. This makes it hard to determine if high CTR result in better rankings, or if it is based on positions. To accurately look at this, we would need to analyze lower ranking pages, track the ones with higher CTR in the same position and see if those moved up the rankings without any additional onsite and offsite factors. We have not done that today.
- Google has been making many changes to their interface lately. Including AMP, local pack ads, custom banners for certain areas, increase in ads above the fold and more… I could go on.
Now, let’s take a look at the data and then we can explore what it means.
Breakdown of Google Click-Through Rates in 2017 By Position
- Position 1 – 20.5%
- Position 2 – 13.32%
- Position 3 – 13.14%
- Position 4 – 8.98%
- Position 5 – 9.21%
- Position 6 – 6.73%
- Position 7 – 7.61%
- Position 8 – 6.92%
- Position 9 – 5.52%
- Position 10 – 7.95%
Summary of Google CTR Data in 2017
As we can see there is a clear correlation between ranking position and click-through rates in Google. There is also a clear decent in CTR in regards to SEO ranking position, until position 10 which has small jump.
Based on this study, we can see that is value no matter where you are on the first page of Google. This is an important point when considering CTR for ranking positions in Google in 2017.
However, the name of the game has not changed. It is still true that the higher you on the first page, the more traffic you will get.
