21 organic CTR statistics for 2026

Organic click-through rate (CTR) is the share of searchers who click your result out of everyone who saw it — clicks divided by impressions. It is the single cleanest measure of how well a ranking converts visibility into actual visits, and in 2025 and 2026 it moved more than in the previous decade combined.

Most CTR-by-position charts you have seen are years out of date. This roundup is not. Twenty-one statistics, five categories, every figure attributed to the study or dataset behind it. Where the sourcing was thin, the stat was cut.

CTR by SERP position: the baseline

1. The #1 organic result earns 27.6% of clicks

Start with the anchor number. Across roughly four million Google search results, Backlinko found the top organic position earns a 27.6% average CTR — drawn from 1,312,881 pages across 12.1 million queries. It remains the most-cited baseline in the industry, and the reference point every decline below is measured against.

2. The top three results capture 54.4% of all clicks

Attention is brutally top-heavy. The same Backlinko dataset shows the top three organic results take 54.4% of all clicks, with position two at 15.9% and position three at 10.8%. More than half the traffic is decided before a searcher scrolls.

3. Position ten draws roughly 10× fewer clicks than position one

The fall-off is a cliff, not a slope. Backlinko measured position ten at about 2.8% CTR — roughly a tenth of position one. Bottom-of-page-one rankings exist, but they barely move traffic. Being on page one is not the same as being seen.

4. A meta-analysis pegs position-one CTR near 39.8%

Estimates vary with methodology and query mix. First Page Sage's 2026 meta-analysis of multiple CTR datasets puts position one at 39.8%, position two at 18.7%, and position three at 10.2%, falling to just 1.6% at position ten. Whether the true number is 28% or 40%, the shape is identical: the top spot dominates, everything below decays fast.

How AI Overviews compress the click

5. AI Overviews cut clicks to the top result by 58%

This is the number reshaping the discipline. Ahrefs compared 150,000 keywords with AI Overviews against 150,000 without and found the Overview reduces clicks to the top-ranking page by 58% — up sharply from the 34.5% they measured in April 2025. For every 100 clicks a #1 ranking used to earn, Google now keeps 58.

6. Position two loses 50.8% and position three 46.4%

The compression is not limited to the top spot. In the same Ahrefs study, an AI Overview cut position-two clicks by 50.8% and position-three by 46.4%. The Overview absorbs the answer, and every ranked link beneath it competes for a shrinking pool of remaining clicks.

7. AI Overview keywords convert at 1.6% vs 3.9% without

Measured as raw CTR, the gap is stark. Ahrefs found keywords triggering an AI Overview average 1.6% desktop CTR against 3.9% for comparable keywords without one. The same query, the same ranking — roughly 60% fewer clicks when the Overview shows up.

8. Organic CTR on AI Overview queries fell 61% in 15 months

The trend line is still bending down. Seer Interactive tracked 3,119 terms across 42 organizations and found organic CTR on AI Overview queries dropped from 1.76% in June 2024 to 0.61% by September 2025 — a 61% decline in 15 months. Non-Overview queries fell too, from 2.74% to 1.62%, but far less steeply.

The position-one decline

9. Position-one CTR fell from 28% to 19% year over year

The same ranking is worth measurably less than it was a year ago. A GrowthSRC study of 200,000+ keywords found position-one CTR dropped from 28% in 2024 to 19% in 2025 — a 32% decline. Nothing about the pages changed; the results page around them did.

10. Position two fell even harder — down 39%

The pain deepens just below the top. In the same GrowthSRC dataset, position-two CTR fell from 20.83% to 12.60%, a 39% year-over-year drop — steeper than position one. The middle of the first page is where SERP features do the most damage.

11. Positions six to ten actually gained ~31%

Not every position lost. GrowthSRC found positions six through ten rose 30.63% year over year while positions one through five fell 17.92% on average. As AI Overviews push the classic top links down and fewer searchers click the first result, a sliver of demand redistributes to the pages that scroll into view lower down.

12. Desktop position-one CTR slid nearly a full point in Q3 2025 alone

The decline is quarter-by-quarter, not a one-time reset. Advanced Web Ranking's Q3 2025 report found first-position desktop CTR decreased by almost a full percentage point (0.99 pp) in a single quarter, with branded position-one CTR down 1.52 pp. Mobile stayed comparatively flat — the erosion is concentrated on desktop, where Overviews render largest.

Branded, device & intent splits

13. Branded #1 results out-click non-branded ones by a wide margin

Who is searching matters as much as where you rank. Backlinko notes CTR to the top result is significantly higher for branded than non-branded terms, because branded queries are navigational — the searcher already wants you and is just using Google to get there. Brand demand is a CTR multiplier, not just a volume one.

14. Branded desktop positions two to six gained 8.71 pp combined

While unbranded CTR flatlined, branded searches strengthened in the mid-page. Advanced Web Ranking found branded desktop positions two through six added a combined 8.71 pp of CTR in Q3 2025 — position three alone up 2.33 pp — even as unbranded CTR held unchanged. When a searcher knows your name, SERP features get in the way far less.

15. Commercial-intent queries lost 4.20 pp across the top two spots

Intent shapes the damage. Advanced Web Ranking measured a combined 4.20 pp CTR decrease for positions one and two on commercial desktop queries in Q3 2025. High-intent, money queries are exactly where AI Overviews and shopping features cluster — and exactly where lost clicks cost the most.

16. Mobile CTR held steady while desktop eroded

The device gap is now a strategic variable. Across general searches, Advanced Web Ranking found first-position mobile CTR remained relatively stable even as desktop declined, though informational mobile position one still lost 1.25 pp. Where your audience searches now changes what a given ranking is worth.

What actually lifts your CTR

17. Being cited inside an AI Overview recovers ~35% more clicks

Presence in the answer is the new click driver. Seer Interactive found pages cited within an AI Overview earned 0.70% organic CTR versus 0.52% when not cited — roughly 35% more clicks from the same query. If the Overview is going to appear regardless, being named in it is the difference-maker.

18. Keyword-rich URLs correlate with 45% higher CTR

Small on-page signals still move the needle. Backlinko's four-million-result analysis found URLs containing the keyword see a 45% higher CTR than URLs that do not. The URL is one of the few elements a searcher scans before clicking; making it legible and relevant is nearly free.

19. Title tags of 40–60 characters earn the highest engagement

Length is a lever. Backlinko found title tags between 40 and 60 characters yield the highest CTR, with titles carrying positive sentiment outperforming neutral ones by roughly 4%. Titles that get truncated or read flat quietly leak clicks a good ranking already earned.

20. Informational position two on desktop is gaining as searchers skip #1

Behavior is shifting inside the page, not just off it. Advanced Web Ranking observed informational position two on desktop gaining 1.18 pp even as position one fell — a sign searchers increasingly distrust or skip the top result after reading the Overview above it. The second listing is no longer a consolation prize.

21. AI Overviews now shadow a large and growing share of high-value queries

The compression is not an edge case. By May 2025, GrowthSRC counted 172,855 of its tracked keywords triggering an AI Overview, up from about 10,000 in August 2024. The feature crushing CTR is expanding across the exact commercial and informational queries most brands compete for — which is why CTR strategy can no longer assume a clean results page.

The through-line across all twenty-one: a ranking is no longer a fixed quantity of traffic. The same position-one page earns a third fewer clicks than it did in 2024, AI Overviews absorb the majority of clicks on the queries they touch, and the levers that recover CTR — brand demand, citation inside the answer, sharp titles and URLs — are the ones we build into an organic engine from day one. The brands treating CTR as a design problem, not a fixed benchmark, are the ones still growing while everyone else watches their charts flatten.