5,000,000 Google Search Results Analyzed - The Results

byParthaB

4.1K followers

3 years ago

I’ve just been reading an article by Backlinko’s Brian Dean about click-thru rates (CTR) from Google search results.

Even though the article is over a year old now it still provides some very interesting statistics.

Brian and his team analyzed the CTR data from just over 870,000 pages from almost 5.1 million search queries via various Google Search Console accounts.

He provided a Top 10 list of findings.

Brian's CTR Findings

1. The article ranking at number 1 in Google search results gets an average CTR of 31.7%.

This is obviously an average, and at a guess depending on a variety of factors such as niche, post title, and probably even length of title, some results may be a lot higher, whereas others are lower.

But based on the average if you find a keyword in Jaaxy that shows an “Avg” of 1,000 and you ranked number 1 on Google you can “expect” 317 clicks (as I say, this is based on “average” and other variables).

2. Ranking at number 1 in the organic search result is 10x more likely to be clicked on than if you’re ranked at number 10.

This may almost appear “obvious”, but I’m sure you know as well as me that things are never quite as they seem with “The Big G”.

Based on averages again and using the same criteria as above you can “expect” approximately 32 clicks on your article.

3. The click-thru rates for positions 7-10 is virtually identical.

I actually got excited the other day to see an article go from position number 10 to number 8. Brian’s results have now deflated me, LOL.

However, as they say, “The proof is in the pudding”, although it’s too early for me to tell whether this will make any difference to my traffic (according to Brian’s article it probably won’t make any difference).

4. Almost a contradiction in terms, but moving up one spot in Google will increase CTR by almost 31%.

However, as Brian mentioned this probably won’t make any difference for an article moving from position 10 to position 9.

With that said, if an article is currently ranking at number 3 in the search results and receives 100 clicks per day, moving up to number 2 will result in 131 clicks (remember I’m basing all this on an average scenario, as I’m sure Brian is too).

5. If your Title tag contains a question you can expect just over a 14% higher CTR than if your title isn’t a question.

So, just as an example (a bad one at that) if your title is:

“Lose Belly Fat Without Exercising”

You can expect a 14% higher CTR if you change the title to:

“Can You Lose Belly Fat Without Exercising?”

6.Just to blow the above example out of the water (by just one character), title tags of between 15 and 40 characters have the highest CTR.

In fact, if your title falls inside the range of 15-40 characters you can expect an 8.6% higher CTR than titles those fall outside this range.

This one made me think a lot, as I ALWAYS struggle to even remain within the 60 character limit as suggested by the All-in-One SEO plugin.

7. If your url contains a keyword you can expect a 45% higher CTR than if it doesn’t contain a keyword.

Good news for me, as I always ensure my url is the exact keyword I am targeting (I remove any additional words that I add to my title).

8. Titles that contain “Power Words” may reduce your CTR by almost 14%.

Hmm, interesting.

This was something I learned to do many years ago, but perhaps it’s not as promising as it once was.

I had to double-check what Brian meant by “Power Words”. The examples he gave included adding words to your title like:

• Amazing
• Best
• Insane
• Perfect
• Powerful
• Secret
• Ultimate

So, using the same example as earlier:

“Amazing Ways to Lose Belly Fat Without Exercising”

“Insane Method to Lose Belly Fat Without Exercising”

Basically, don’t bother (although personally I still like “Power Words” if used correctly).

9. If your title is emotional (positive or negative) CTR increased by approximately 7%.

At a guess, this would be titles such as.

“Will Give You GooseBumps…”

“Will Make You Weep…”

10. And finally, thank you Jay for your SEO checklist - search results with a written meta description receive a 6% higher CTR than those that don’t.

Final Thoughts

I can’t see myself completing changing the way I currently do things based on Brian’s findings, but there’s certainly some very interesting stats and figures here.

I’m all for experimenting and trying things out and there’s definitely a few points here that have caught my eye.

What about you?

Any thoughts, Good or Bad?

I’d love to hear waht you think.

Thank you for reading

Partha