CTR, short for click-through rate, is the share of views that lead to a click. It equals the clicks on a link divided by the times the link was shown. Marketers use it to check online advertising, email campaigns and search results.
History of CTR
Creator: No single creator is named in the sources checked. Year: 1994.
Click-through rate measures action after a view. Online advertising adopted the measure. The first online display ad ran on the website HotWired in 1994. It advertised AT&T. Wikipedia reports that this ad had a 44% click-through rate. Marketers wanted to know whether visitors acted. Clicks could be counted directly, so the ratio became the usual measure.
Visitors rarely come to a website to see ads. Most websites want an action. That action might be a purchase, a news article read, or a flight search. Click-through rate counts the share of visitors who clicked an ad and went to another page. Wikipedia notes that other forms of response are rare. So the term stayed in use. A higher rate means more people reached the destination page.
Email marketing adopted the measure next. An email click-through rate counts recipients who click one or more links. The link must lead to the sender's website, blog or other target page. Marketers read the rate with open rate and bounce rate. Wikipedia reports that the rate changes with send day, list segment and content. One cited study found higher rates on Sundays.
Search engine optimization (SEO) adopted the measure later. Organic click-through rate counts clicks from unpaid search results. Experts argued from the mid-2010s whether CTR affects rankings. Wikipedia quotes a Search Engine Land writer. He wrote that Google has said many times that CTR is not used in its ranking algorithm.
Changelog and latest update
Banner ad rates fell over time. Early banner ads sometimes had rates above 5%. Wikipedia reports that the average was 3% in the 1990s. It fell to between 0.4% and 2.4% by 2002. The average was near 0.1% in 2023, according to a Smart Insights source cited there. Advertisers pay more for a high rate. Many clicks with few sales do not help them.
Search ads changed the role of the measure. Search engines show ads beside results. Ads with sitelinks lead to pages such as product or store-hours pages. Wikipedia reports higher rates for this format. Click-through rate also feeds a quality score. A better score can lower the cost per click. This gives advertisers a reason to match ads to searches.
Latest update: Google guide to AI features in Search, 2025-12-10
Google's guide on artificial intelligence (AI) features was last updated on 2025-12-10. It says that its SEO guidance still applies for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Ahrefs and Amsive published data linking AI Overviews to fewer clicks on top-ranking, non-branded searches.3 Wikipedia reports this. A page can rank first and still get fewer clicks.
Usage examples
CTR appears in analytics reports, ad accounts and email tools. Each tool uses the same formula: clicks divided by impressions. The examples show that formula in Python, a shell command, a Search Console API request, a Google Ads query and a spreadsheet. The sample values are fictional. The Python and shell examples were run to check their output.
def ctr(clicks, impressions):
if impressions == 0:
return 0.0
return clicks / impressions * 100
print(round(ctr(42, 1200), 2))This function divides clicks by impressions and multiplies by 100. It returns 0 when there are no impressions, so the division never runs with zero. The test call uses 42 clicks and 1200 impressions. It prints 3.5.
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $3>0 {
printf "%s %.2f%%\n", $1, $2/$3*100
}' report.csvThis command reads a CSV file with page, clicks and impressions columns. It skips the header row and any row with zero impressions. It prints each page with its CTR to two decimal places. Run on sample data, it prints /a 3.50%.
{
"startDate": "2026-09-01",
"endDate": "2026-09-30",
"dimensions": ["page"],
"rowLimit": 10
}This request body asks the Search Analytics query method for page rows over September 2026. Each returned row includes clicks, impressions, ctr and position. The ctr value runs from 0 to 1, so 0.035 means 3.5%.
SELECT campaign.name,
metrics.impressions,
metrics.clicks,
metrics.ctr
FROM campaign
WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYSThis Google Ads Query Language statement asks for the ctr metric on each campaign. The metric equals clicks divided by impressions. The WHERE clause limits rows to the last 30 days of data.
A: Campaign B: Clicks C: Impressions
D2: =B2/C2
Format D2 as Percentage
Copy D2 down the columnPut this formula in column D of each campaign row. It divides the clicks in column B by the impressions in column C. Formatting the cell as a percentage shows the CTR with a percent sign.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Click-through rate
Wikipedia
Wikipedia article that defines click-through rate, gives the formula of clicks divided by impressions, and reports banner, email and search rates with cited sources for each figure. The article also lists related terms such as cost per click and pay-per-click advertising.
Search Analytics: query
Google for Developers
Google reference for the Search Console API method that returns clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. It states that the ctr value ranges from 0 to 1.0. Developers use this method to pull search performance data for a site and its pages.
Google Ads API: metrics fields
Google for Developers
Reference list of Google Ads metric fields for this API version. The metrics.ctr entry defines CTR as the number of clicks divided by the number of times the ad is shown. It is the field name to use in Google Ads Query Language statements.
AI features and your website
Google Search Central
Google guide to AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search. It explains how these features show content and states that its SEO guidance still applies. The page was last updated 2025-12-10. It is the source for the latest update in this entry.
How to write meta descriptions
Google Search Central
Google guide to the search snippets shown under each result. It explains how page titles and meta descriptions affect what a searcher reads before clicking. The page was last updated 2026-04-20.
Earn the click, then keep the visitor
Do people click the link to your site when they see it in a search result or an email? That share has a name: click-through rate, or CTR. It is the number of clicks divided by the number of times people saw the link. A title that matches what a reader wants raises that share. A vague title lowers it, and the rate shows the difference. Our team has 20+ years of design behind it, so each title is written with the reader in mind.
A click only helps when the page delivers what the link promised. If your link offers a $300 website, the page must show that price and what it includes. Our $300 package covers five pages at most, plus one contact page, all in plain words. A visitor who finds the right page can act on it at once.
Test one change at a time. Rewrite one title, then compare the share of clicks before and after. Keep whichever version earns more clicks.
Dial 402-813-4034 any time we are open, 7 am to 10 pm. Tell us which link needs work, or see the full $300 package first.
