The Click Through Rate (English for CTR, abbreviation CTR ) is a metric for measuring clicks on links or banners concerning the impressions. If a banner is seen a total of 1000 times on a website, but only 10 users click on the banner, the click rate is 1%.
Click-Through Rate Definition
The click rate is an important KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for evaluating digital content. The CTR is a key figure for the click behavior of the user and is used to evaluate content. As part of the reception metrics, it provides information about the response and interest of the user concerning headlines, widgets, and advertisements.
The CTR is a user-relevant factor and allows weak points in the user approach to be identified and optimized in a targeted manner.
Calculate CTR
The calculation of the CTR results from two aspects: on the one hand the number of clicks on a piece of content within a certain time window, on the other hand, the total number of impressions during this time. The ratio of these two key figures results in the click rate and is given in percent.
The composition of the CTR is as follows:
Number of clicks: (number of page views x 100) = Click Through Rate (CTR)
The average CTR fluctuates depending on the medium and content. For banner advertising in Germany, the average CTR is 0.1% – according to this, only one user out of 1,000 website visitors clicks on an advertisement. On Facebook, on the other hand, the CTR is significantly higher at 11%. The amount of the CTR is therefore not only dependent on the content addressed, but also on the channel in which the content is published.
Also Read: Increase Content Marketing ROI: In 3 Steps To Increase Sales
CTR SEO Factor
There is a debate among SEO experts about whether click behavior has an impact on the ranking of pages in Google search results. Most case studies and assessments indicate that user signals as a whole are an increasingly important weighting factor for the search engine.
SEO expert Larry Kimconducted an experiment in April 2016 in which he wanted to determine the importance of the CTR for the ranking of pages. He discovered that Google rewards search results for long-tail keywords with a high click-through rate in the SERPs with a better ranking. This is related to the RankBrain AI system, which was introduced by Google and is used to evaluate user signals in connection with specific websites. In the meantime, Google Senior Research Scientist Greg Corrado has confirmed that the evaluation by RankBrain (and thus also User Signals) is weighted by Google as the third most important ranking factor.
CTR In Content Marketing
In content marketing, the CTR is a KPI that should not be underestimated. The number one medium in the customer journey is the Google search engine. If you want to not only rank well for the relevant keywords but also click and generate traffic, you need to be able to teaser your content briefly and well.
When creating meta descriptions of individual pages, editors should look at the descriptions of competitors for the corresponding keywords and consider how they can stand out from the competition in terms of information. If you arouse curiosity with your address and communicate better-added value, you divert the traffic from the competition to your website.
But the importance of the click-through rate does not end with the search results but runs through the entire content strategy. This is why website operators and editors have to consider, analyze and evaluate their communication measures holistically. If the CTR deviates significantly at one point, indicators for further optimization can be determined. The CTR is an important metric to measure and improve content performance.