TermAs the studio uses it
Click-Through Rate
The share of times a page was shown in search results that it was clicked: clicks divided by impressions.
Search Console reports it for every search and every page (Search Console Help). It is the plainest measure of whether a result is chosen when it is seen, and one of the most misread.
Why It Matters
Most reports quote a curve in which the first result takes about a third of the clicks and the tenth almost none, and set the first position as the goal. The studio measured its own curve, on three of its sites, with every search for the firms’ own names left out: across 1,506,928 impressions and 9,746 clicks, the first position drew 0.4 clicks per hundred impressions, the second 1.0, the third 0.8, and positions 21 to 30 drew the most of all, 2.1.
How the Studio Reads It
Two explanations fit the record and point the same way. The searches where a page sits first are often broad ones where an AI answer or a set of other features stands above every link, so the first result is seen and not clicked. The searches where a page sits on the third page are often narrow ones, asked by someone looking for exactly that page. The goal is not position; it is to be the page that answers. The chart and its calculator: Search; the argument: The Page the Machine Quotes.
What It Is Not
A high rate is not proof of a good page, and a low one is not proof of a bad one. Searches for the firm’s own name are clicked wherever they stand and lift the average; read the rate with brand searches removed.
How to Check It on Your Own Site
- In Search Console, apply the branded queries filter and read the non-branded rate.
- Group your queries by average position and compare the rates, as the studio’s chart does.
- For pages shown often and clicked rarely, read the title and the first lines a searcher sees: do they answer the question asked?
Asked About
Click-Through Rate.
What is a good click-through rate?
It depends on the search and on what stands above the link. Compare like with like: your own pages at the same positions.
Why did my impressions jump while clicks stayed flat?
Often because the page started appearing for broad searches, where an answer or other features take the click.
Should brand searches be counted?
Separately. They measure the demand you already have.
Where the Studio
Uses It.
What Are You Actually Paying For?
The question every reading starts with, what a year of retainer usually buys, and how to find out from your own accounts.02 · Advisory · Search · · 12 min readThe Page the Machine Quotes
How an AI answer chooses the page it cites, what the studio’s own measurements show on three kinds of site, and how a page earns the quote.03 · Advisory · Alignment · · 12 min read