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Massive CTR Study Reveals Actionable Insights

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2021

seoClarity published a research study of 750 billion and over 30 billion clicks, the largest CTR study ever. The massive research yields multiple insights into Google search CTR behavior that can benefit online marketing strategies today.

The data analysis, which is broken down by device, industry, country and seasonality, uncovers surprising details that may have otherwise gone unknown.

CTR of Top 10 Positions

The top 5 search results positions on desktop averaged 17.16% clicks while on mobile it was less, an average of 15.54%.

What the data revealed, averaged across 17 billion keywords, is that searchers on desktop were more likely to click on the top five search results than those on mobile.

It’s not a giant leap between the two, but there is a difference.

Conversely, users on mobile were more likely to scroll down to click on the bottom of the search results, positions six through ten.

It’s a notable difference between the two.

The summed averages are:

Desktop CTR Position 1: 8.17%
Mobile CTR Position 1: 6.74%

The pattern of regression for the top ten search positions, which means how much the CTR decreases between positions 1 through 10, is the same between desktop and mobile.

But the click patterns on the top three between mobile and desktop are very different.

seoClarity observes:

“Although the pattern of regression is the same on both devices, it shows that (across a large dataset) ranking in the lower positions on page 1 is actually better for your organic traffic on mobile than it is on desktop.
Presumably, the familiarity of scrolling on mobile devices plays a part in organic CTRs.”

CTR Per Country (All Devices)

seoClarity reviewed differences in CTR between countries where they had the most data and discovered startling differences.

There is a clear difference in CTRs between countries, with people in the United States less likely to click on the number one position than people searching in the UK, Canada, India or Japan.

Google Search CTR By Country

Graph of Google Search Results CTR by Country

The percentages below are summed averages between the top twenty positions.

Top 5 CTR for Google Search Position 1 by Country

India 14.88%
Japan 13.94%
Canada 11.30%
UK 10.48%
US 9.13%

Ranking in position one is important in every country but it is especially important in India and Japan.

seoClarity noticed an interesting CTR pattern for the lower ranking pages:

“Another interesting observation is the CTR in positions 17 through 20. In all 5 countries analyzed, those positions demonstrated a higher average CTR than positions 11 to 16.
We posit that this is reflective of browsing and scrolling behaviors.”

CTR by Seasonality

Looked at in a 12 month period, the CTR doesn’t vary a whole lot, it is fairly steady.

The highest CTR is in July at 2.29% and the lowest is in May with 2.12%. That’s a variance of 0.17.

Although that doesn’t seem like much of a difference there is actually an extraordinary difference that needs paying attention to, plus there’s a fascinating insight that goes along with that.

December, when one would expect the CTR to go up is actually the second lowest CTR in the SERPs, with May being the lowest month for CTR. The highest CTR is actually in July.

Here’s the CTR expressed as a graph:

Seasonal Fluctuations of CTR

Seasonal Effect on CTR seoClarity observes:

“December and Christmas traffic, including the January sales, are very much ‘average’ months when compared to the rest of the year.
This may be because users are migrating more towards the ‘shopping’ listings rather than clicking through the organic listings or increased competition among pay-per-click listings.”

I agree with seoClarity that the jump in CTR during the Summer may be due to vacationers who are researching things to do and places to go while on vacation and clicking through to websites more than usual because of that.

Broken down by device, mobile shows a consistently higher overall CTR than desktop and both display the same seasonal highs and lows.

Seasonal CTR Patterns on Desktop and Mobile Devices

Graph of CTR Seasonality by Device

CTR by Industry

The industry that a query belongs to makes a big difference in CTR and whether more of those clicks come from mobile or desktop devices. While it’s important to have a quality site experience regardless of device, knowing which device is going to have a higher clickthrough rate gives a marketer an important insight on their sales and targeting.

CTR in Apparel and Fashion Sectors

Clicks related to fashion search queries are higher on a desktop. While there must surely be variance when broken out by age groups, in general, fashion queries experience a significantly higher CTR on desktop over mobile devices.

CTR in Beauty and Personal Care Sectors

There is a greater search volume for mobile (331m) over desktop (118m).

However, there is an extraordinary difference between desktop and mobile in terms of CTR and incredibly there’s a huge gap between them on clicks to position one.

Sites in position one of Google’s search results on desktop receives 6.65% of all clicks while on mobile sites in position one garners 4.74% of all clicks.

As a reminder, these aren’t a straight percentage measurement of clicks (like position one receives XX% of clicks) but rather an average of all the clicks, as explained above.

CTR in Business And Industrial Sectors

The results for the business and industrial sectors are a bit of a shocker because there were more searches for business content carried out on mobile devices than on desktop.

According to seoClarity:

“Somewhat surprisingly, most searches in the business and industrial sectors come from mobile devices (1b impressions), which is 54% higher than the volume on desktop (649m).”

Additionally the CTR for mobile is less concentrated on position one as compared to desktop, meaning that the CTR is more spread out across the SERPs in mobile than on desktop, where the clicks tended to cluster in the top ranks.

Position 1 of Google SERPs

Mobile: 6.66%
Desktop: 8.60%

Position 2 of Google SERPs

Mobile: 3.79%
Desktop: 4.44%

Position 3 of Google SERPs

Mobile: 2.41%
Desktop: 2.55%

More searchers on mobile devices clicked on sites listed on positions 5 through 10 (except for position 6) compared with users on desktop devices.

Consumer Electronics

A similar CTR trend to Business and Industry manifests in the consumer electronics sector as well. There are more searches in mobile but less clicks concentrated in the top three positions than they are on desktop devices.

Top 3 CTR Dominates Desktop Devices More Than in Mobile

The trend toward a concentration of clicks in the top 3 for desktop devices in comparison with mobile devices is exhibited in almost every niche, except for the Finance sector where desktop and mobile device CTR in the top 3 are essentially tied.

Sectors Where Top 3 Dominates Desktop SERPs

Apparel and Fashion
Beauty and Personal Care
Business and Industrial
Consumer Electronics
Health
Home and Garden
Jobs and Education
Sports and Fitness
Vehicles & Automotive

Sectors Where Top 3 Dominates Mobile SERPs

Real Estate
Retail & eCommerce
Travel & Tourism

Why Are Top SERPs Less Popular in Mobile?

seoClarity surmised that mobile users are accustomed to scrolling and that’s why they tend to scroll past the top three to five search results more often than users on desktop devices.

It may also be possible that mobile devices have more situational contexts, additional search intents, than desktop devices.

Mobile device personalization could play a role in why mobile device users scroll past the top three to five search results.

seoClarity Research is Available Now

Read the full 53 page report on seoClarity for additional insights that can improve and enhance your marketing strategies, as this article only touches a few of the insights uncovered in this study that is the largest of its kind.

Download the research paper here:

https://www.seoclarity.net/mobile-desktop-ctr-study-11302/

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 18, 2024

Published

11 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google Ads notified advertisers that some ad customizers will stop working soon. Google discontinued the limited use video carousel markup. Google Maps has new directions and travel features, plus a bunch of new EV features. Google Notes on Search might not end in May 2024 despite what people suggest. Google Business Profiles asked businesses to register their defibrillators, their AEDs.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Notes On Search Won’t Necessarily Go Away In May

There have been some people noticing that the Google Notes On Search labs experiment has an end date of May 2024 and thus they are expecting Notes on Search to be turned off by then. Just because it has that end date listed, it does not mean the labs experiment will end on that date.

Google Maps Releases New Directions, Travel & EV Features

Google has announced a number of new travel features with Google Maps and Travel around driving alternatives, trains and buses, travel impact mode and then some new EV driving direction features. Google says these features are to give you more “sustainable choices.”

Google Ads Reminds Advertisers Some Ad Customizers Will Go Away May 31st

On August 31, 2021, Google notified advertisers it would drop support for expanded text ads for responsive search ads. Google is now reminding advertisers that Ad customizers for text ads, expanded text ads and Dynamic Search Ads will stop serving after May 31, 2024.

Google Drops Video Carousel Markup

Google has discontinued its support for video carousel markup and has thus removed it from its video structured data help documentation. Initially, Google tested video carousel on a limited number of sites and is now saying that it “ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale.”

Google Business Profiles Register Your Defibrillator (AED)

Google sent out emails a couple of days ago to businesses asking them to register their Automated External Defibrillator (AED) with Google Business Profiles. Google said, “you could save lives” if you do it.

Google NYC Earthquake Reaction Video

A couple of weeks ago we had an earthquake in the New York region and I finally found a video from the Google NYC office of the reaction of some Googlers while the earthquake happened. These Googlers were recording a video and felt it but were unsure if that was a real earthquake.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 17, 2024

Published

2 days ago

April 18, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

The Google March core update still is causing volatility and it is deepening. Google may make changes to the crawl stats report in Search Console. Google Search Console now shows unused ownership tokens. Google Maps will drop the review drafts. Google Add added generative AI for image generate for Demand Gen campaigns. Google Search is testing more sitelinks designs.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Deepening Google Core Ranking Volatility Hits Yesterday & Today

I know we just reported on more volatility this Monday, possibly related to the Google March 2024 core update, but we are seeing even more volatility over the past 24 hours related to this update. This volatility shows deepening movement for those who were hit, which is incredibly sad in many cases.

Google Search Console Adds Unused Ownership Tokens

Google Search Console has a new security feature under user and permission management to help you manage your unused ownership tokens. Basically, it helps you manage who has permissions to your Search Console profiles and who should not, maybe some legacy verifications.

Google: Should We Explain The Crawl Stats Report in Search Console

Martin Splitt from Google posted a one-line question asking, “Should we do something to explain the crawl stats report in GSC?” This was posted on Mastodon, which has a small audience, but the responses were pretty good.

New Google Ads AI Generated Image Tool For Demand Gen Campaigns

Google Ads announced that Demand Gen campaigns are getting generative AI tools to create image assets. This is rolling out to advertisers around the world in English with more languages to come later this year, Google said.

Google Tests Horizontal Lines For Sitelinks & People Also Ask

Google Search is testing horizontal lines under the sitelinks and the people also ask elements in the search results. This is a long horizontal line that goes across the while search result snippet.

Google Maps No Longer Will Support Draft Reviews

Google Maps will soon stop supporting drafting reviews for local business listings and Google Business Profiles. Google said that starting July 16, 2024, review drafts will no longer be supported.

Doogler In Google Play Area

Some of you love photos of dogs, so here is another one of a Doogler, a Google dog, in a play area, at the Google office. This was shared by the Life at Google Twitter account.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 16, 2024

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google will fight the site reputation abuse spam both algorithmically and with manual actions. Google is testing thumbs-up and down in product carousels. Google Ads similar product carousel is being tested. Google Search updated its image documentation. Google AdSense has a new ad format named ad intents.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Will Fight Site Reputation Abuse Spam Both With Manual Actions & Algorithms

Google’s new spam algorithm update also introduced new spam policies including the upcoming site reputation abuse policy that won’t go into effect until May 2024. Google has confirmed it will fight site reputation abuse spam using both manual actions (humans) and algorithms (machines).

Google Search Tests Thumbs Up/Down Buttons In Product Grid Results

Google launched the style recommendations with thumbs up and down buttons not long ago after testing it in January. Now Google is showing this thumbs up and down buttons in the product grid search results, so Google can see what you like or dislike and then show you more products that you do like.

Google Ads “Similar Product” Carousel

Google has a similar products section and carousel for Google Ads sponsored listings. We have seen similar products and similar shopping related results from the organic / free listings but now I am seeing examples of a search ad carousel for “similar products.”

Clarification: Google Search Supports Images Referenced From src Attribute

Google has clarified in its image search help documentation that images are only extracted from the src attribute of img tags in Google Search. This is not new, but Google decided to update its documentation based on some questions it received about the topic.

Google AdSense New Ad Intents Formats – Links & Anchors In Content

Google AdSense announced a new auto ads format named “Ad intents.” Ad intents places links and anchors showing organic search results with ads into existing text and pages on your site related to your content. Yea, it takes your content, and hyperlinks it to the Google search results.

3-Wheel Tricycle At Google

Google’s Ann Arbor office has this 3-wheel tricycle that some Googlers have used over the years to get around the office. This one looks like the hot pink Huffy brand. I spotted this recently on Instagram but the photo is from 2016.