Fact: Twenty Five People Click the First Google Search Result

• A study by Sistrix analyzed over 80 million keywords and search results. The study aimed to understand user engagement.
• The results revealed average CTR drops considerably after the first search result.
• More than a quarter of Google users click the first search result. The average organic click-through-rate of the first search result in 28.5%.
• The second and third results had an average CTR of 15% and 11%, respectively. The tenth search result had an average CTR of 2.5%.

Google Click-through-Rates

• SEO is critical for ranking and driving traffic.
• According to Sistrix analysis, the second-place web page will generate at least three times more clicks than the sixth place page. The first place page earns ten times more clicks than the tenth place page.
• The CTR for pages on the second page of Google search results had an average of less than 1%.
• Many factors impact the CTR of the pages on each position on the first page of search results.

Factors Impacting Click-through-Rates

• The most significant factor is the layout of SERPs.
• A majority of queries generate the traditional ten blue links SERP layout. Other queries generate other types of layouts.
• Here are other types of SERP layouts and how they affect CTRs.

SERPs with Sitelinks

• Sitelinks extensions are useful for boosting traffic. 
• The first position page with sitelinks extensions will achieve an average CTR of 46.7%.
• One of the possible reasons that sitelinks appear in search results is because the query involves a specific website.
• As such, the first result with sitelinks will receive half the clicks.

Featured Snippets

• The study reveals that there is no benefit for a page to display a featured snippet.
• The click-through-rate of such pages is 5.3%, which is below average.
• When the first search result has a featured snippet, the average CTR for position 2 and 3 is above average.

Knowledge Panels

• Knowledge Panels do not affect clicks as well.
• The average CTR for such pages is 16% rather than 28%.
• These pages receive fewer clicks because the knowledge panel provides the user with the answers they need.

SERPs with Google Ads

• All the top positions in the SERP are affected if the page is full of ads.
• However, the knowledge panel affects organic results more.
• The CTR is reduced by 10% in the presence of Google Ads.
• On the contrary, knowledge panels reduce CTR by 12%.

Bottom line

• The key takeaway from the study is that the keyword search volume should not be the only factor to consider when evaluating links.
• SERPs with Sitelinks extensions perform better.
• Featured Snippets and knowledge panels do not improve clicks for a web page.
• Presence of Google Ads hurt all positions on the first SERP.