You’re not the only one who has noticed a decline in your click-through rates (CTRs) on desktop or mobile. This is a worrying trend that can be seen in the U.S. and even Europe. Google is in control of what appears at the top of search results pages. This means that paid clicks and featured snippets have taken over.
What will it mean for the future? Why is CTR decreasing for organic traffic? What does this mean for you and SEO?
In this post, we’ll answer all of these questions. Continue reading to find out what the declining CTR for desktop and mobile means to you.
CTR rates are declining, as shown by the numbers
Paid CTR, meaning paid ads, has risen to 6 percent of the overall haul. According to data from Search Engine Land, paid CTR (meaning ads) has increased to 6 percent. No-click searches have reached 33.6 percent.
Mobile is a much more dramatic trend. Organic CTR dropped from 40.1 to 29.7 percent across all SERPs. Paid clicks more than doubled.
What is CTR?
We’ll take a moment to help you understand CTR.
Search engine marketing is all about CTR (or click-through rate). Your click-through rates refer to how many people click on your website when they see your ad/website listed in search engine results pages. Impressions are the number of times someone has viewed your website or ad.
CTR can be thought of mathematically in terms of impressions/clicks.
Search engine marketing can be viewed as a system with constraints, and CTR is just one of them. You can improve your online marketing success with Google Ads or organic SEO by increasing the number of people who view your ad and click on it and then converting these clicks into sales via your dedicated landing page.
Why you should care that CTR is declining
It will continue to be difficult to drive organic clicks via mobile SERPs.
It is not known if organic CTRs continue to decline. However, it appears that ads and answers are likely to remain the top results in mobile searches. Google’s motivation is to encourage more marketers to use paid Google Ads to answer questions on the SERPs or in Google My Business for those who have physical locations. Marketers will have no choice but to comply if they wish to stay ahead of their competitors.
Why does the CTR for organic traffic decline?
The desktop screen is larger and has more space. This may be the reason why organic CTR on desktops has decreased less than on smartphones.
You have to compete on mobile with ads, carousels, and answers. On mobile, there are typically four ads at the top. A local pack follows these. Organic links then follow these results.
You can see that even if your organic ranking is #1 (which, as you know, there’s no guarantee), that’s a lot of work to do. Google Featured Snippets are the primary culprits in the decline of organic traffic.
Google Snippets Featured
Google’s Featured Snippets are a selection of search results that Google places at the top, below the ads, in the organic search results. These snippets appear in “answer boxes” and are meant to provide an immediate answer to the user’s query. If your brand does not appear in this Snippet, then you will be placed below it.
This is especially true for businesses with a large portfolio of organic content since approximately 15 percent include a featured snippet. If you depend on organic growth for your business, then Featured Snippets will likely eat away at a larger portion of your organic click-through rate.
Local 3-pack
Local 3-pack has replaced the previous 7-pack, which was too long for mobile screens. The Local 3-pack is a group of three relevant results that are shown to mobile users when they make a local search. These results are hyperlocal, and your organic search result will be pushed further down the page if you do not include your business.
Google Ads
Cash is king, and those who have paid for Google Ads can see their results on the first page of search engine results (if they won the Google Ads bid process). These ads also take organic traffic away and have a cost per click. This cost is what makes the ads appear at the top. Google receives money for every click.
What is a good click-through rate?
It is important to rank in the top SERPs for organic searches because many other things appear before the organic results. Users rarely go to the next page when they’re looking for something. If your business isn’t listed on page 1, your customers might not find you.
The average CTR for first-place organic rankings is around 30 percent. From here, the percentage drops. A “good” CTR is 10 percent or more, which means you are almost certain to be ranked within the first three results.
What does this mean for SEO?
CTR is a controversial topic, and there is much disagreement about its impact on SEO. However, it is widely agreed that CTR is extremely useful for bringing traffic to your website. It makes sense since a high CTR indicates that more people will click through to your site. However, it may surprise you that having a high CTR does not necessarily increase your organic search engine rankings.
SEO is not shrinking but evolving. Organic traffic will continue to decrease as many answers are listed in the SERPs under the Featured snippets. Marketers need to change their mindset and optimize their efforts for these Featured Snippets so that your site appears in the answer box.
If you’re a local company, it is also a good idea to optimize your Google My Business account so that you appear in the Local 3-pack. These tweaks can have a significant impact on your visibility and CTR while also helping your SEO.
You can read more about it here:
You should now be able to see that a declining CTR for organic results does not mean the end of the world but rather a shift in online marketing. You can use the strategies above to adapt and implement.
This change of mindset is necessary to keep your ads and business at the top.
