Top Organic Click-Through Rates

By KeeverSEO Team

3 August 2023 . 2 min read

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Introduction

Earning a high organic search ranking is great for business — unless no one clicks on your result. This is practically impossible, though, because everyone is looking for the shortest solution to their problem. In this sense, to avoid scrolling, most internet browsers will go to the top-ranked websites. As a result, the greater your organic CTR, the more visitors you’ll get.

What Is Organic CTR, and How Does It Work?

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is a measure used in internet marketing to track user involvement. It compares the number of internet users who click on your ad to the number of times it appears in front of users. Organic CTR is the percentage of searchers that click on your page from the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).

Currently, organic traffic is becoming an influential aspect of marketing, reaching 53% in 2021. On the other hand, purchased traffic accounts for around 15%. More than three-quarters of all B2B traffic comes from sponsored and organic searches.

A research study conducted on about 5000 Google search queries reveals the rates of the top-ranked pages by their organic CTR. Here were their findings:

1st Position – 20.5%
2nd Position – 13.32%
3rd Position – 13.14%
4th Position – 8.98%
5th Position – 9.21%
6th Position – 6.73%
7th Position – 7.61%
8th Position – 6.92%
9th Position – 5.52%
10th Position – 7.95%

Evidently, the first position gets the most traffic since people are in a hurry to get the information they need and don’t want to take the time to scroll. Every Digital Marketing Guru is therefore striving for first place in search results since it accounts for a big percentage of Organic CTR. As such, they focus on using as many relevant keywords as possible in their content.

Well, of course, every business wants the largest share of visitors if not the entire share to themselves. But what does being ranked first mean? Have you considered the repercussions of coming in first for your company? And what would change if you moved from the top slot on the first page to somewhere else on the first page?

Conversion Rates vs. Click-Through Rates

Now, not everyone that visits your website will become a paying customer. That’s why it’s critical to get a large amount of traffic to your site and take other steps to boost your conversion rate.

Let’s delve a bit deeper by comparing the highest Organic CTR ranking (1st place) and the lowest (9th place) using one of your goal keywords. It doesn’t matter what that term is — these are just estimates based on click-through rates and the standard landing page conversion rate which is usually 2.35 percent.

For this scenario, let’s assume that conversion pays $100 and Google receives 10,000 searches per month in each case. If your website is ranked #1, you will receive 2,050 visitors based on the 20.5% organic CTR rate. With the average conversion rate being at 2.35%, you can expect a $4,800 earning from 48 people.

On the flip side, if your website is ranked 9th for the same term, you will receive only 552 visitors a month. At a conversion rate of 2.35 percent, 13 people will convert, paying you only $1,300.

Bottom line: It pays to rank high. Nevertheless, as Google’s algorithms change, it’s becoming more difficult to knock someone off the top spot. It becomes a difficult endeavor to knock out the 1st position, especially if they’ve had it for a long time. As such, people turn to sponsored search, and recent results from Moz reveal that Google organic clicks have shifted to paid.

Why Is There a Shift in Organic Clicks to Paid Ads?

More search queries are now displaying advertisements.
With each inquiry, more adverts are served.
Ads have grown in size, taking up more room on each results page.
Google Shopping, which lists more products for each query is taking up more space on the results page, especially on transactional queries.
Ad labeling is more subtle, making adverts appear less obvious.

Should You Invest in Paid Ads to Increase Traffic to Your Website?

The average CTR for a search ad is 1.91 percent across all industries, according to Google AdWords benchmark statistics. For search ads, the average cost per click across all industries is $2.32. However, click-through rates and cost per click will be higher in some businesses and lower in others.

Let’s delve deeper into the average conversion rate for search advertisements across all industries: 2.7 percent. There could be an issue if you’re getting a lot of traffic from your search advertisements but not enough conversions.

Assuming you’ve paid $232 for 100 ad clicks, you’d get 2.7 paying clients for those clicks at the 2.7 percent discussion rate, so we’ll round up to 3. You’ll therefore have earned $300 from three paying clients, resulting in a $68 profit.

Rather than paying for traffic, it is better to get as much organic traffic as possible. However, if you’re just starting and want to increase brand awareness and word of mouth, paying for ads is a great method to start making money. However, you can spend money on advertisements, receive conversions, and still lose money. That is why having a well-optimized campaign is crucial.

Final Verdict: Organic Traffic Will Do You More Good Than Paying for Traffic

Organic traffic drives the most traffic (53 percent) and leads to higher conversion rates; if you’re SEO-savvy, have a great in-house team, or hire a professional SEO company, your traffic should be increasing year over year.

Nevertheless, we are not saying that you should not pay for ads. Having a balanced blend of PPC and SEO is the way to go. Your major goal should be to own more first-page real estate, which equates to more money. But to own the top position for your brand, you need to run a paid search campaign 100% of the time.

Looking to master your SEO? Contact Scott Keever SEO! Not only can we create and implement an SEO plan that will place you ahead of the competition over time, but we can also fine-tune your PPC ads to ensure you’re making money as you climb the ranks. Get in touch with us right away!