Search Console shows your clicks, impressions and average CTR, but not whether that CTR is any good. Here is how to calculate organic click-through rate step by step, what is normal for each position in 2026 according to a published study, why AI Overviews pull it down, and seven practical ways to raise it, starting with the pages where it matters most.
To calculate your organic click-through rate, divide clicks by impressions and multiply by 100. In Google Search Console, open Performance, then Search results, and switch on Average CTR. For example, 90 clicks from 6,000 impressions is 90 ÷ 6,000 × 100 = 1.5%. Then compare it with the typical CTR for your average position.
Who this is for: Coaches, consultants and founders who see clicks and impressions in Google Search Console and want to know if their CTR is normal and how to raise it.
Organic click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who saw your page in Google's normal results and clicked it. The formula is CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100. An impression is counted each time your link appears on a results page someone loads, whether or not they scroll down to it.
You do not need to do the sum yourself, because Google Search Console does it for you. Here is where to find it:
A worked example. Say your page about coaching packages had 6,000 impressions and 90 clicks last quarter. That is 90 ÷ 6,000 = 0.015, and 0.015 × 100 = 1.5%. Out of every 100 people who saw it in Google, one or two clicked.
Look at CTR per query or per page, not for the whole site. A site-wide average mixes your brand name, which people click a lot, with hundreds of searches where you sit on page 3. That average tells you very little. If you want the sum done for you and compared with what is normal for your position, put your numbers into our organic CTR and traffic estimator. For email, ads and landing pages, use the general CTR calculator.
It depends heavily on where you rank. The figures below come from Advanced Web Ranking's 2026 organic CTR study (published September 2026), which uses anonymised Search Console data from millions of US search results. This snapshot is for desktop searches in July 2026, across all types of query. The second column is CTR on results pages where Google showed an AI Overview at the top.
| Position | Average CTR (all results pages) | CTR when an AI Overview shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20.02% | 9.69% |
| 2 | 10.36% | 3.69% |
| 3 | 3.89% | 1.7% |
| 4 | 1.71% | 1.27% |
| 5 | 1.08% | 1.02% |
| 6 | 0.73% | 0.55% |
| 7 | 0.46% | 0.35% |
| 8 | 0.47% | 0.34% |
| 9 | 0.54% | 0.47% |
| 10 | 0.58% | 0.43% |
| 11 | 0.67% | 0.61% |
| 12 | 0.7% | 0.6% |
| 13 | 0.82% | 0.71% |
| 14 | 0.88% | 0.91% |
| 15 | 0.8% | 0.7% |
| 16 | 0.67% | 0.69% |
| 17 | 0.64% | 0.66% |
| 18 | 0.55% | 0.56% |
| 19 | 0.52% | 0.54% |
| 20 | 0.27% | 0.22% |
Three things stand out. First, position 1 gets about twice the clicks of position 2, and roughly five times position 3. Second, the curve flattens after position 5: everything from 6 to 20 sits below 1%. In this sample, results on page 2 even edge slightly above positions 7 to 10, so treat small differences down there as noise rather than a rule. Third, an AI Overview roughly halves the click rate for position 1, from 20.02% to 9.69%.
Other studies give different numbers, because they use different data. Backlinko's study of around 4 million Google results, last updated in April 2025, put position 1 at 27.6% and found the top result was 10 times more likely to be clicked than the one in tenth place. On mobile, Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 figure for position 1 was 35.74%, but only 12.02% when an AI Overview showed. So use any curve as a rough guide, not a target. Curves also change by type of search: Advanced Web Ranking notes that transactional searches, where someone wants to buy or book, are the exception that loses least to AI Overviews.
A low CTR usually has one of five causes. Check them in this order.
Your position. This explains most low CTRs. If your average position is 14, a CTR under 1% is normal, according to the table above. Nothing is wrong with your title. You are just on page 2, where few people look. The fix is ranking higher, not rewriting the snippet.
Your title. If you rank in the top 5 and still sit well below the typical figure, the title is the first suspect. Titles that are vague, cut off, or do not use the words people typed get skipped. Backlinko found title tags between 40 and 60 characters had the highest CTR in its data.
AI Overviews. When Google answers the question at the top of the page, fewer people scroll down to click. Advanced Web Ranking puts the drop at position 1 at roughly half. If your page answers simple factual questions, expect this to hit you hardest.
Branded vs non-branded searches. People searching your name click you a lot. Advanced Web Ranking says branded queries have always out-clicked unbranded ones, and Google seldom shows an AI Overview on a brand search. So if most of your clicks come from your name, your average CTR looks healthy while your non-branded pages struggle. Filter them apart in Search Console with a query filter that excludes your brand name.
Rich results around you. Ads, maps, videos, "People also ask" boxes and competitors with star ratings or other rich results all take space and attention. Your listing can be in position 3 and still sit below the fold on a phone.
Work through these in order. The first one decides where your effort goes, so do not skip it.
In Search Console, sort your pages by impressions and look for ones ranking roughly 3 to 15 with a CTR below the typical figure for their position. These are where a better listing or a few places up pays back fastest. A page with 20,000 impressions and a 0.5% CTR is a far bigger opportunity than a page with 300 impressions. Ignore pages ranking 40th; no title will save them. Put each one into our organic CTR calculator to see if it is above or below typical.
Open the Queries tab for the page and see which searches bring impressions. If people type "how much should I charge for coaching" and your title says "Pricing frameworks for practitioners", they will not recognise it as the answer. Put their phrase, or something close, near the start of the title. Google also highlights matching words in bold, which helps your listing stand out. This one change often does more than anything clever.
Once the words match, the title needs to promise something specific. Say who it is for, what they get, or how fast. "Coaching packages: 3 ways to price them (with examples)" beats "Thoughts on coaching packages". Keep it roughly 40 to 60 characters so it is not cut off, as Backlinko's data suggests. Run your draft titles through our headline analyzer to score them and get better versions built from your own words.
The description under your title is not a ranking factor, but it is the second thing people read. Write one or two plain sentences that answer the question or say what the page gives them, using the searcher's words. Google sometimes shows its own text from the page instead, so make sure your opening paragraph is clear too. It is often the part that ends up in the snippet.
Structured data (schema) is code that tells Google what the page is: an article, a product, a review, an event, a course. Where Google supports it, it can show extra details like ratings, prices or dates under your link. That takes more space on the page and gives people more reasons to pick you. Only mark up what is genuinely on the page, and check it with Google's Rich Results Test. It will not help every page, but it is cheap to add.
If an AI Overview sits above you, aim to be one of the sources it links to. That means answering the question clearly in the first lines of the page, using simple headings that match the questions people ask, and being mentioned in places AI tools read. It is the same work that gets you recommended in ChatGPT and other AI search tools. We explain it step by step in our guide on how to get recommended by ChatGPT.
The biggest CTR jump comes from position, not wording. Going from 12th to 3rd can multiply your clicks several times over, while a better title at 12th might add a handful. So for pages on page 2, improve the content itself: answer the question better than the top results, add examples and fresh details, and link to it from your other related pages. Then rewrite the title. After any change, wait about 4 weeks and compare the same date range before and after.
CTR is a means, not the goal. Clicks only matter if the right people land on the page and some of them get in touch. A page with a 1% CTR that brings in two enquiries a month is worth more than a page with a 10% CTR that brings in none.
It also matters less in a few common cases. Your brand name will always have a high CTR, so there is nothing to fix. Searches where Google or an AI Overview fully answers the question, such as a quick definition, will always send few clicks; being named as the source is the realistic win there. Pages ranking below 20 have almost no impressions that count, so CTR there is noise. And a page that ranks for a phrase it was never meant for will have a low CTR for a good reason.
If you sell coaching or consulting, the number to watch is enquiries per page, not clicks. Look at CTR to find pages with room to grow, then judge the result by leads.
You can do all of this yourself in an afternoon. Pull the last 3 months from Search Console, pick the 5 pages with the most impressions in positions 3 to 15, and compare each one's CTR with the table above. Rewrite the titles of the ones that fall short, write down the date, and check again in 4 weeks. For pages on page 2, put the time into the content instead.
If you want to know what moving up is worth before you start, our organic CTR and traffic estimator turns search volume, position and your conversion rates into extra leads and revenue each month. It usually shows that most of the gain is in getting from page 2 into the top 5.
A done-for-you studio fits when you know search could bring clients but there is nobody to do the rewriting, the content and the follow-up week after week, or when the traffic arrives and still does not turn into calls. That is the work we do at Unbury. If you want a second pair of eyes on where your site and funnel are losing people, book a free audit and we will show you what we find.
It depends on your position. In Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop data, position 1 averaged 20.02%, position 3 averaged 3.89% and positions 6 to 20 were all under 1%. A good CTR is one at or above the typical figure for your average position, on searches that are not your brand name.
Open Performance, then Search results, and click the Average CTR box at the top. Scroll down to the Queries or Pages tab to see CTR for each search or page. Use a 3-month date range so short spikes do not skew it.
A click curve is the average CTR at each ranking position, drawn as a line. It falls steeply from position 1 to 5 and then flattens. SEO people use it to estimate how many extra clicks a page would get if it moved up.
Yes. Advanced Web Ranking found the reduction at position 1 was roughly half when an AI Overview showed, from 20.02% to 9.69% on desktop in July 2026. Transactional searches were the exception that lost least.
Usually because the page gets few impressions. A 10% CTR on 200 impressions is only 20 clicks. That often means you rank well for a small search, so the next step is ranking for bigger, related searches rather than changing the title.
Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is leaking customers and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.