# What is Click-through rate (CTR)?

> Click-through rate is the share of people who saw your listing or advert and clicked on it, worked out as clicks divided by the number of times it was shown.

- Source: https://nerdsharks.com/glossary/click-through-rate
- Publisher: Nerdsharks (Exeter, Devon, UK)
- Updated: 2026-09-26

Also called: CTR, clickthrough rate.

Every time your page appears in search results, that counts as an impression. If it is shown 200 times and clicked 10 times, the click-through rate is 5%.

Google Search Console shows CTR for your pages and the searches they appear for. A page with lots of impressions but very few clicks is being seen and ignored, which usually means the title and description need work, or it is ranking for searches that do not match what it offers.

In paid advertising, CTR matters too: adverts people click on more tend to be treated more favourably by the ad system.

## Why it matters for a small business

Improving CTR is one of the quickest wins available, because you get more visitors without needing to rank any higher. Rewriting a vague title into a clear, local, specific one can turn the same number of searches into more calls.

**Example:** A window cleaner's page shows up in 1,000 searches a month but gets 12 clicks. After rewriting the title to include the town and ‘from fortnightly visits’, it gets noticeably more from the same position.