CTR on Organic Search

Timopalm,

There was a study performed by Slingshot SEO that focused on non-branded keywords. It claimed that a number one ranking on Google got a website an 18% CTR. I’m not sure if that mentioned across all industries but it would seem that (just like with Adwords vs Facebook advertising), the CTR will vary based on your industry.

Here is a link to search engine land that talks about the study,

Organic Click-Thru Rates Tumbling; Only 52% Click On Page One, Study Suggests

Here is a link to the study itself (whitepaper)

A Tale of Two Studies: Establishing Google & Bing Click-Through Rates

Best,

Shawn

While the niche is important, CTR is really all about how you place and format your ads. It could be 0.3% or 30%.

Hi timopalm,

Technically it is not "exact searches", the AdWords keyword tool displays the number of searches for the "exact match" keyword. Also the data you should be looking at is the "Local Monthly Searches", not the Global data.

Since your search impressions for seven days of data was nearly as much as the Keyword Tool reported for an entire month, it is likely that your ads were targeting keywords other than the exact match keyword, either through stemming, phrase/broad match keywords, or the inclusion of impressions from networks other than Google Search.

However, assuming you are using the correct data, you can make an educated guess based on a number of factors, including type of keyword (generic vs. branded) and the specificity of the keyword term (specific vs. ambiguous), commercial intent of the keyword term, and how relevant compelling your page title and description snippet is for your listing. All of those attributes listed above will have significant impact on your CTR.

Another possibility is that Google uses a 12 month average for the BROWSER (displayed) search results. Do an exact match search and download the csv file to get the monthly statistics and you'll see what I mean.

example:

exact match keyword:" plasma tv"

November (browser) 12000
November (csv) 18100 (actual number)




December 2012 exact match keyword phrase: "superbowl tickets 2012"

Browser display for December 2012: 590
CSV file for December 2012: 0 (actual Google searches)


What the 12 month average means is that on peak months the searches will be higher, and other months the search numbers will be lower. You may have caught it on a peak month. But like mentioned it is only Google's search results and not all searchengines or Web 2.0 traffic.

You can also look at: How Much Money is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business?
MarketSamurai uses those numbers (older study). Also notice that only 10% of the visitors reach page #2 which in most cases makes the number of competing sites irrelevant.

My website has over 50% CTR for the main KW (ranking #1)

The #1 percentage will never be the same for all keywords, example, If there's 3 PPC Ads above the 1st organic listing in Google SERPs, technically your positioned at the #4 position as far as traffic is concerned.

BTW I have plenty of 1st positions with 30-40% traffic according to WMT.

If there is 39000 in 7 days, then it is a 5571 per day. Someone once said that as a first position you get 60 % of all visits, so then it is a 3300 per day. If your CTR is 2 %, then it is 66 clicks per day.