CTR (click-through rate)

CTR (Click-Through Rate) measures what share of the people who saw a link — in search results, an ad or an email — actually clicked it. You calculate it by dividing clicks by impressions: if 100 people saw your result and 5 clicked, the CTR is 5%. It is a signal of relevance and appeal: a clear title, a persuasive description and a good ranking all lift CTR. In SEO ✕ SEO (search engine optimization) covers all the measures that get a website to appear higher in Google's unpaid results and thereby attract more visitors. More in the glossary → it matters because, at the same position, the result that earns more clicks wins more traffic ✕ Traffic is the amount of data your website transfers, determined by visitor numbers and page size. Some hosting plans cap monthly traffic. More in the glossary → ; in advertising, a high CTR often lowers your cost. It is not everything, though: pulling in clicks that then fail to convert does not help, which is why it is read alongside the conversion rate ✕ The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete the action you want — buy, sign up, click a link — out of your total visits. More in the glossary → .