Updated: November 29, 2022
Google is the largest driver of commerce in the United States, with over 270 million visitors per month¹ proactively seeking something. And yet, its virtual nature makes the way transactions are driven tougher to conceptualize. People arrive on a web page, then what?
It all begins with a click. Google’s search engine presents a variety of “results” in the form of web page summaries, ads, videos, images, questions, knowledge boxes, and other elements. Deciphering how frequently each type of result is clicked provides insight into where to invest marketing dollars.
Recently, our team conducted a meta-analysis, combining research on click-through rates (CTRs) within the Google Search environment and presenting the results in a unified form. In this article, we begin by labeling the CTR of each result on a typical Google Search page. Next, we share the same information in table form. Afterward, we break down the CTR for every possible element on a Google Search page, including snippets and question boxes. Finally, we list the CTRs for Google My Business / Local search results specifically.
2023 Click-Through Rates (CTR) on Google Search Results Pages
| What changed in 2023: Changes in organic clickthrough rates since 2022 have been slight, but showed that people are trusting the higher results slightly more than last year (39.6% → 39.8% CTR for Position 1; 18.4% → 18.7% for Position 2). In Paid Search, the main difference was that the average clickthrough rate for the top 3 positions decreased slightly (1.7% → 1.6%), meaning fewer people overall are clicking paid search results as compared to organic search results. |
2023 Click-Through Rates (CTR) by Google Ranking Position
The table below lists each of the standard organic and paid results on a Google Search page and its corresponding CTR. These CTRs apply to Google Search pages with no other elements on them (e.g. no maps, images, videos, or shopping results).
| Google Search Feature | CTR |
| Ad Position 1 | 2.1% |
| Ad Position 2 | 1.4% |
| Ad Position 3 | 1.3% |
| Ad Position 4 | 1.2% |
| Search Position 1 | 39.8%* |
| Search Position 2 | 18.7%** |
| Search Position 3 | 10.2% |
| Search Position 4 | 7.4% |
| Search Position 5 | 5.1% |
| Search Position 6 | 4.5% |
| Search Position 7 | 3.4% |
| Search Position 8 | 2.6% |
| Search Position 9 | 2.4% |
| Search Position 10 (if present) | 2.2% |
* If snippet, then 42.9%
** If snippet, then 27.4%
2023 Click-Through Rates (CTR) by Google Search Page Element
The table below lists the average click-through rate (CTR) for every element found on a Google Search page in 2023. These CTRs represent elements within Google’s “All” Search category only – not Maps, Images, News, or Videos.
| Google SERP Feature | Example | CTR |
| Snippet |  |
42.9% (1st) 27.4% (2nd) |
| #1 Organic Result |  |
39.8% |
| Ad Result |  |
1.2 – 2.1% |
| Image Result |  |
1.4% – 4.9% |
| Video Result |  |
2.3% – 6.4% |
| “People Also Ask” Box |  |
3.0% |
| Knowledge Panel |  |
1.4% |
2023 Click-Through Rates (CTR) by Google My Business Listing Type
The table below displays CTR for each type of Google My Business / Google Maps local search results, both paid and organic.
Top-of-Page Ad Boxes look like this:
Local Packs look like this:
| GMB Listing Type | CTR |
| Top-of-Page Ad Box – Left | 3.1% |
| Top-of-Page Ad Box – Middle | 2.7% |
| Top-of-Page Ad Box – Right | 2.5% |
| Local Pack Position #1 | 17.8% |
| Local Pack Position #2 | 15.4% |
| Local Pack Position #3 | 15.1% |
Notable Google CTR Statistics
- The top 3 organic search results receive more than two-thirds (68.7%) of all clicks on the Google Search page.
- A snippet, which takes the place of the #1 organic search result, is the search result with the highest overall CTR at 42.9%
- The #1 organic search result receives, on average, 19x more clicks than the top paid search result.
- The #1 organic search result receives more clicks than results #3-#10 combined.
- The top paid search result has a 40% higher CTR than the #2 paid search result.
If you would like a copy of this report, you can request it here.
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Sources:
Backlinko
Sistrix
First Page Sage (Internal Data)
Wordstream
BrightLocal
LocalIQ
Danny Sullivan
Search Engine Journal
