Search engine rankings (by keyword) and click-through rate

Search visibility, impressions, clicks and click-through rate (CTR) help assess whether people can discover an organisation’s content through a search engine and whether the displayed result appears relevant enough to visit. Rankings are contextual and volatile, so they should be analysed with query intent, page value and downstream outcomes.

When to use it

• Answer the key performance question: “How well are we optimising our internet strategy?”
• Include the KPI in the marketing and sales perspective.
• Diagnose discoverability and result appeal by query, page, country, device and search appearance.
• Evaluate search traffic with engagement, conversion, revenue and customer value.

Origins

Ranking metrics arose with algorithmic web search, while CTR came from advertising and direct-response measurement. Search-engine webmaster tools later combined impressions, clicks, average position and query data. The contemporary measure is not one fixed rank: results vary by location, device, intent, format and personal context.

What it is

Perspective: Marketing and sales perspective.

Key performance question: How well are we optimising our internet strategy?

A keyword ranking is the observed or average position of a page or property for a query under a defined method. Search results now contain many formats, so position “10” is not always equivalent to the last blue link on a first page.

CTR is clicks divided by impressions. Higher position often increases opportunity to click, but title, snippet, brand, intent, result features and the usefulness of competing answers also matter. A high CTR on an irrelevant query can create low-value traffic; a lower CTR can still be valuable for a qualified, high-intent audience.

Use first-party search-performance data where available. In Google Search Console, position is averaged across impressions and may report the topmost result depending on aggregation. Focus on trends in impressions and clicks as well as average position.

How to use it

Measurement