Organic CTR by position: the curve, and what a good CTR is

Organic CTR falls steeply with position: the first result earns several times the clicks of the fifth, and page two earns very little. On the baseline curve we use, position 1 earns about 23.5% of impressions, position 3 about 9.2%, position 10 about 1.8% and position 15 under 1%. A “good” CTR is therefore not one number: it is a CTR at or above what your position usually earns for that kind of query.

The baseline CTR curve#

This is the starting curve inside AnotherSEOGuru App's opportunity engine: a blended desktop and mobile curve for non-brand queries on results pages that show AI Overviews. It is a baseline to compare against, not a law. The app blends it with each site's own curve as soon as there is enough data.

Why your own curve is different#

• Brand queries click far above the curve. Someone searching your name wants you.
• Results-page layout matters more than position. An AI Overview, a map pack, shopping results or a featured snippet above you pushes the click share of every organic result down.
• Intent changes the shape. Navigational and transactional queries concentrate clicks on the top result; research queries spread them out.
• Device mix matters. On mobile, fewer results are visible without scrolling.
• Your snippet can beat or lose to the results around it at the same position.

How to build your own curve#

1. 1

   Export three months of queries

   Performance → Queries → Export. Three months gives enough rows per position without mixing in old rankings.

2. 2

   Remove brand queries

   Use a regex filter so your name does not distort the top positions.

3. 3

   Keep rows with enough impressions

   Rows with fewer than about 30 impressions are mostly noise.

4. 4

   Group by rounded position

   Round each average position to the nearest whole number and take the median CTR per group. The median resists outliers better than the mean.

5. 5

   Blend thin groups with the baseline

   Where a position has only a handful of rows, lean on the baseline. Where it has dozens, trust your data. Force the curve to fall with position so position 6 never beats position 5.

The free Search Console opportunity finder does exactly this with your export, then flags every query whose CTR is far below its own curve.

What is a good CTR?#

Judge a query against its position, not against your site average. As a working rule, a non-brand query in the top 10 that earns less than 60% of the CTR its position usually earns is underperforming and its title and description are worth a rewrite. A query at or above the curve is fine, even if the number looks small.

Query C shows why CTR alone misleads. Its CTR is low because it is on page two; a better snippet will not fix that. That is a striking-distance query, and the work is on the page and its internal links.

Where the curve is used#

• SEO forecasting: estimating what a better position would add.
• High impressions, low CTR: spotting snippets that lose clicks they should win.
• Traffic drop diagnosis: telling a CTR drop from a ranking drop.