what is CTR in SEO?

If you have an ecommerce or an online business, you will have heard about SEO positioning, being well positioned in Google results is very important, but, do you know what CTR is? Don't worry, in this post we tell you all about it and why it is important that you take it into account for your positioning strategy.

what is SEO positioning?

Let's start by quickly introducing the concept of SEO. SEO positioning, whose acronym is: Search Engine Optimisation, is the positioning within search engines, that is, it refers to a set of actions and techniques that improve the positioning of a specific website within the list of results when searching on the internet. All of this is based on an algorithm that orders the different pages that appear when performing the search in question and that changes from time to time.

The results of SEO positioning are organic, which means that they appear naturally without the need to invest in paid advertising, so their relevance has to do with their importance with respect to the search carried out by the user. These visibility techniques can be developed by any company or individual, there are specific keys to be able to position themselves among the first and today there are many websites and programmes that are specifically dedicated to helping companies to do so.

what is the CTR?

The CTR, whose acronym is Click Through Rate, is what we call the number of clicks that a link gets in relation to the number of impressions, that is to say, the CTR is a metric that is always calculated as a percentage and its objective is to find out the impact that a digital campaign has had.

This percentage is obtained by dividing the number of clicks a link has obtained by the number of times it has been seen by users, all multiplied by 100.

For example: If our Google page has been viewed a total of 4000 times and has had 200 clicks, the CTR would be calculated as follows:

• CTR= (Clics / Impressions) x 100= 200/4000 x 100= 5%
• The CTR would be 5%

This metric is not only used for SEO, you can calculate it within an image, a banner or even a link that you have placed within an article on your blog.

This metric has a great utility, which is obvious, if we are optimizing a keyword in question, we will want to know if that strategy is having good results, with the CTR we can get this information so we can correct our strategy in case it is not working. If the calculated CTR is high, it means it is working, if on the contrary the CTR is low, we will have to analyze why it is not working and what measures to take to solve it.

what would be an optimal value?

It is very easy to talk about "if you have a low CTR..." but we have to explain what exactly is a low CTR, well, as with most KPIs there is no exact value that can help us differentiate between high and low or good and bad, it depends on many other factors, let's see the most relevant ones to generalise SEO positioning projects:

1. Position in search results
   The position of the link in the search results has to do, if we are at the top of the page, we are much more likely to be clicked than if we are at the end. Users are more attracted to the first positions because they feel it has more relevance or has more quality than the following ones. According to studies, 90% of clicks are taken by the first 5 searches.
   
   
2. Market sector and user profile
   The CTR is not only influenced by the positioning within Google, something that also influences a lot is the type of content. More specifically the market sector or niche. This means that if for a niche you have a value, and it is good,
   it may be that for another the same value is lousy.
   
   
3. Conversion rate value
   The conversion rate establishes a percentage of the visits that convert, but what is clear is that to increase the number of conversions, we must first increase the number of visits. Therefore, with a certain conversion rate, we can calculate how many visits we need to achieve our goals, and thus, know what the minimum CTR we need is.

what is it for in SEO?

Now we know what CTR is, but we need to know what exactly it is used for in SEO. Basically, it is used to get your website to the first page of a Google search. Yes, as you read it, Google measures part of the quality of the results through CTR. Let's explain it so that it is well understood.

If your website is on page 5 of Google, and it is getting more clicks than the results that are on page 3, it is logical that it should rise at least to that page. If our result is more interesting than others, why wouldn't it be above them? For the last few years, Google's priority has been to achieve the best possible user experience, that is, that the user finds exactly what he/she is looking for in the shortest possible time.

That said, there are several factors that influence the CTR within the SERPs:

1. An optimised URL, which means containing the right keywords and not exceeding the number of characters.
2. A metatitle tag that contains the main keyword, something attractive to the user.
3. A meta description tag that is optimised, and like the meta title tag, contains the keyword and provides a useful summary for users.
4. Add so-called rich snippets, which means that you will attract users with a more visually appealing search that offers valuable information to the user.

In short, the CTR is an element that can help us to position our website in search engines, always keep it in mind, what are you waiting for to include it in your SEO positioning strategy?