# Organic CTR by Position 2026: Google Data, 1.6% to 36.5%

> In July 2026, organic CTR by position was 20.02% at rank 1 on US desktop and 9.69% with an AI Overview. See why studies span 1.6% to 36.5% and which to use.

- URL: https://missiongrowth.io/blog/organic-ctr-by-position
- Published: 2026-10-16
- Author: Furkan Aktaş, Co-Founder, Mission Growth
- Publisher: Mission Growth. Company facts: https://missiongrowth.io/llms.txt

Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 data for Google US desktop gives organic CTR by position as 20.02% at rank 1, 10.36% at rank 2 and 3.89% at rank 3. An AI Overview takes rank 1 down to 9.69%. Published studies span 1.6% to 36.5% because they count different things.

CTR turns a ranking into clicks, so the same rank can mean very different traffic depending on which curve you trust. If you forecast traffic from rankings or defend a rank target to a finance owner, you need a Google CTR by position figure with its conditions attached. For the visits AI platforms send back, see [AI referral traffic statistics](https://missiongrowth.io/blog/ai-referral-traffic-statistics).

The key numbers, each with its source and month:

- **Position 1, desktop:** Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 US desktop data puts position 1 at 20.02%, position 2 at 10.36% and position 3 at 3.89% across all SERP types.
- **With an AI Overview:** the same study and month put position 1 at 9.69%, a 52% cut.
- **Device gap:** July 2026 position 1 organic CTR was 1.79 times higher on mobile than on desktop (35.74% against 20.02%, Advanced Web Ranking).
- **Overview cut by device:** in July 2026 the AI Overview cut position 1 CTR by 66.4% on mobile and 51.6% on desktop, computed from Advanced Web Ranking's monthly figures.
- **Layout:** an AI Overview with People Also Ask and videos leaves 19% of baseline position 1 clicks, and an Overview alone leaves 64% (Advanced Web Ranking's per-layout averages, July 2026).
- **Whole-site CTR:** Ahrefs' June 2026 benchmark puts a good whole-site organic CTR at 1% to 2%, a different measure from position 1.
- **Blend sensitivity:** a blended position 1 CTR moves 1.9 points for every 10 points of Overview weight, computed from First Page Sage's September 2026 split.
- **Page two:** Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop CTR at position 14 (0.88%) sits above position 8 (0.47%).
- **Year over year:** position 1 averaged 20.9% over the 12 months to July 2026 against 28.0% over the 12 before (Advanced Web Ranking).

In this guide: the full top-10 CTR curve, why studies disagree, how the curve changes by device, query type and layout, how to read your own Search Console CTR against it, and a chooser for the benchmark that fits your queries.

## Organic CTR by position in 2026: the curve

Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop data for Google US shows organic CTR of 20.02% at the top spot, 10.36% at second, 3.89% at third and 1.71% at fourth. Every result from sixth down sits under 1%, so if your page sits there, plan for very few desktop clicks. On pages with an AI Overview the first three read 9.69%, 3.69% and 1.7%.

Two details of the baseline matter. The "all results pages" column includes pages that show an AI Overview, so it is a blend and not an Overview-free group. And Advanced Web Ranking describes its data as click and impression estimates over tracked results pages, drawn from over 1.75 million US pages each month and 184.8 million impressions at the top spot.

::figure{src="/blog/figures/organic-ctr-by-position-1.svg" alt="Grouped bar chart of July 2026 desktop organic CTR by Google position 1 to 10, all pages against AI Overview pages, from 20.02% and 9.69% at position 1." caption="Position 1 earns 20.02% on July 2026 US desktop and 9.69% with an AI Overview, and both curves fall under 1% from position 6, by Advanced Web Ranking's count." width="720" height="675"}

::dataset{key="awr-desktop-ctr-positions-1-10" name="Advanced Web Ranking desktop organic CTR by position, July 2026"}

| Position | With an AI Overview | All results pages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9.69% | 20.02% |
| 2 | 3.69% | 10.36% |
| 3 | 1.7% | 3.89% |
| 4 | 1.27% | 1.71% |
| 5 | 1.02% | 1.08% |
| 6 | 0.55% | 0.73% |
| 7 | 0.35% | 0.46% |
| 8 | 0.34% | 0.47% |
| 9 | 0.47% | 0.54% |
| 10 | 0.43% | 0.58% |

The average CTR by position 2026 is top-heavy. Positions 1 to 3 hold 86.0% of the summed top-ten CTR points on all results pages and 77.3% on Overview pages. That is our arithmetic on the table above. Advanced Web Ranking's own text says roughly 92%, and the gap is a reminder that CTRs are not click shares, because each position has its own impression base.

What is a good organic CTR? It depends on what you are judging. For a rank, the table above answers it. For a whole site, Ahrefs' June 2026 benchmark, built on 422,421 websites, puts a good rate at 1% to 2%, computed as total clicks divided by total impressions, which is a different thing from position 1 CTR.

In Ahrefs' data, the Domain Rating 0-10 band has a median of 0.39% across 165,663 sites.

So a site-wide rate just over 1% is inside Ahrefs' whole-site band, above its low-rating medians and far below a position 1 rate of 20.02%. Which one matters depends on whether you are judging a query or a property. For the definition of what counts as [organic seo](https://missiongrowth.io/blog/organic-seo) traffic in the first place, start there.

## Why position 1 reads anywhere from 1.6% to 36.5%

Position 1 CTR reads from 1.6% to 36.5% because each study counts a different device, year, sample and denominator. Quote a CTR together with its device, month and base, and never join a position 1 from one study to a position 2 from another.

Each row below keeps its own base, so never subtract one row from another:

::dataset{key="position-1-ctr-by-study" name="Position 1 CTR across studies, 2020 to 2026"}

| Study | Period | Device | What it counts | Position 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sistrix | July 2020 | Mobile only | Average click rate at the first organic result | 28.5% |
| Backlinko | Page updated April 2025, figures from an earlier version | Not given | About 4 million Google results | 27.6% |
| Advanced Web Ranking | 2025 annual | All devices | Annual average | 25.77% |
| Advanced Web Ranking | Late 2025, five months | Desktop | Monthly organic, range across five months | 34.46% to 36.53% |
| Advanced Web Ranking | July 2026 | Desktop | All results pages, including Overview pages | 20.02% |
| First Page Sage | Mar to Aug 2026 | Panel domains | No AI answer, AI answer present, blended | 22.6%, 3.6%, 7.1% |
| Ahrefs | Dec 2023 to Dec 2025 | Overview keywords | Raw position 1 CTR, fraction of searches | 0.073 to 0.016 |

Weight is the driver you can compute. A blended CTR is the weight on Overview pages times one rate plus the remainder times the other. First Page Sage's 2026 panel (1,184 domains, 3.67 billion impressions) reports 22.6% with no AI answer and 3.6% with one, where "AI answer" includes a full AI Mode response. Its blended 7.1% reproduces at its own 81.6% weight.

Apply the same two rates at other weights and the blend slides:

- **43% weight** (Advanced Web Ranking's share of sampled desktop results pages with an Overview in July 2026): 14.4%.
- **9.4% weight** (the share of Advanced Web Ranking's position 1 impressions that came from Overview pages): 20.8%.

That is 1.9 points of blended CTR for every 10 points of Overview weight. Advanced Web Ranking prints the 43% and the impression counts behind the 9.4% (17.3 million of 184.8 million) and does not say why they differ, so we won't pick one for you. Other weights are in circulation too: SparkToro and Similarweb put Overviews on 20%+ of all searches in 2026.

Our own capture adds a fifth. Across 58 US Google results pages we captured between 22 September and 1 October 2026 (searches for the SEO, GEO and AI-marketing topics we research, not a random sample of US queries), 42 showed an AI Overview, which is 72.4%.

Weight is one driver and not the only one. The 27.6% and 28.5% figures predate Overviews, device differs by row, and methods differ too. We don't apportion the 1.6% to 36.5% spread among these causes. One more splice to watch: the 39.8% figure that circulates is First Page Sage's 2025 report number, which its 2026 report replaced with 7.1%.

## How CTR falls from position 1 to 10, and what page two does

On Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop data, the second result earns 51.7% of what the first earns and the third earns 19.4%. With an AI Overview the shares are 38.1% and 17.5%. Same device and month, so the Overview curve is steeper at second place and about level at third.

First Page Sage's panel gives the same direction on a different base: 45.1% and 25.7% with no AI answer, 38.9% and 22.2% with one. We don't compare steepness across the two studies, since their samples and devices differ, and you shouldn't either.

Click through rate by ranking position has also shifted over a decade inside one series. In Advanced Web Ranking's annual all-device averages, the top result fell from 29.3% in 2015 to 25.77% in 2025, which is 12% lower. The second fell 40% and the third 44%.

As a share of the top result, the second went from 59.3% to 40.7% and the third from 37.2% to 23.7%.

::figure{src="/blog/figures/organic-ctr-by-position-2.svg" alt="Grouped bar chart of position 2 and 3 CTR as a share of position 1 in AWR's annual 2015 and 2025 data and July 2026 desktop, with and without an AI Overview." caption="In AWR's annual series position 3 fell from 37.2% to 23.7% of position 1 between 2015 and 2025, and on July 2026 desktop it earns 19.4% on all results pages and 17.5% on Overview pages." width="720" height="340"}

::dataset{key="awr-annual-ctr-positions-1-3" name="Advanced Web Ranking annual average CTR at positions 1 to 3, 2015 to 2025"}

| Year | Position 3 | Position 2 | Position 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.1% | 10.5% | 25.77% |
| 2023 | 8.61% | 14.46% | 28.55% |
| 2022 | 8.83% | 14.75% | 28.75% |
| 2021 | 9.3% | 15.29% | 29.17% |
| 2020 | 11.11% | 16.37% | 30.33% |
| 2019 | 10.85% | 15.8% | 28.4% |
| 2018 | 10.49% | 15.31% | 26.83% |
| 2017 | 10.48% | 15.66% | 28.33% |
| 2016 | 10.77% | 17.18% | 28.6% |
| 2015 | 10.9% | 17.37% | 29.3% |

This annual all-device series is a different series from the monthly device table in the next section. Its 12-month position 1 average (20.9% against 28.0% the year before, a 25% decline) does not reconcile with the monthly desktop figures of 34.46% or more in late 2025, so use each series only inside itself.

A lower result can beat a higher one. In Sistrix's July 2020 mobile data, a know-simple layout let the second result earn 16.7% against 16.3% for the first, so position 2 out-clicks position 1 under that layout.

A featured snippet above did a similar job. The first result carrying the snippet sat 5.3 points under its average, while the second rose from 15.7% to 20.5%. Search Console reports a featured snippet at position 1, so the snippet takes the slot. No 2026 source we have shows a third result ahead of the first.

Page two is where the sources split. One calculator tapers positions 11 to 20 linearly:

> Positions 1-10 come from aggregated organic click-through data; 11-20 taper linearly because page-two traffic is small and noisy.

Advanced Web Ranking's measured desktop rates for positions 11 to 15 read 0.67%, 0.7%, 0.82%, 0.88% and 0.8%, which sit above positions 7 to 10. It gives no reason.

On its rates a move from 11th to 4th place adds 104 clicks per 10,000 impressions, and on the calculator 1,150. Neither models the change in impressions, so treat both as bases and not as outcomes.

Backlinko's 0.63% is a third measure: the share of searchers who clicked anything on page two. It's not a per-position rate, so don't drop it into a position table.

If you're deciding where to spend effort, positions 8 to 10 sit close together on the Advanced Web Ranking table (0.47%, 0.54%, 0.58%), so a move among them buys little.

## Mobile and desktop CTR by position

Mobile position 1 organic CTR was 35.74% in July 2026 against 20.02% on desktop, which is 1.79 times higher. A single blended device number therefore averages two different curves. For example, if most of your visitors are on phones, a desktop curve will undersell your position 1 clicks.

Advanced Web Ranking's monthly series over the twelve months to July 2026 shows how far they drifted:

::figure{src="/blog/figures/organic-ctr-by-position-3.svg" alt="Line chart of monthly position 1 organic CTR, August 2025 to July 2026: desktop falls from 45.57% in February to 14.61% in May, mobile is 35.74% in July." caption="Mobile position 1 organic CTR stayed between 28% and 40% from August 2025 to July 2026 while desktop fell from 45.57% in February to 14.61% in May, by Advanced Web Ranking's count." width="720" height="346"}

::dataset{key="awr-position-1-ctr-by-device-month" name="Advanced Web Ranking position 1 CTR by device and month, twelve months to July 2026"}

| Month | Mobile with an AI Overview | Mobile organic | Desktop with an AI Overview | Desktop organic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul | 12.02% | 35.74% | 9.69% | 20.02% |
| Jun | 12.08% | 39.04% | 10.23% | 21.44% |
| May | 8.01% | 35.8% | 3.23% | 14.61% |
| Apr | 5.45% | 33% | 1.96% | 20.14% |
| Mar | 3.79% | 28.31% | 14.69% | 31.73% |
| Feb | n/a | 31.13% | 18.03% | 45.57% |
| Jan | n/a | 31.63% | 25.58% | 41.29% |
| Dec | n/a | 29.78% | 21.4% | 35.97% |
| Nov | n/a | 31.62% | 17.6% | 34.46% |
| Oct | n/a | 32.86% | 22.09% | 35.72% |
| Sep | n/a | 33.34% | 22.97% | 36.2% |
| Aug | n/a | 33.58% | 19.15% | 36.53% |

Desktop position 1 organic CTR fell from 45.57% in February to 14.61% in May, a 68% drop in three months, while mobile moved from 31.13% to 35.8% across those months. You may still see the claim that desktop runs higher than mobile:

> Desktop position-1 CTR tends to run higher than mobile because mobile SERPs surface AI Overviews and rich features more aggressively above the fold.

The July 2026 data says the opposite. The claim was true in some earlier months and has reversed.

The AI Overview penalty also moves by device and month. Here is the share of position 1 organic clicks lost on Overview pages, computed as 1 minus the Overview CTR divided by the organic CTR:

::dataset{key="overview-click-loss-by-device-month" name="Share of position 1 organic clicks lost on AI Overview pages by device, March to July 2026"}

| Month (2026) | Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| March | 53.7% | 86.6% |
| April | 90.3% | 83.5% |
| May | 77.9% | 77.6% |
| June | 52.3% | 69.1% |
| July | 51.6% | 66.4% |

Desktop swung between 53.7% and 90.3% and ended at 51.6%. Mobile slid from 86.6% to 66.4%. A single month misstates the penalty, and by July the mobile cut is the larger one. Mobile Overview data starts in March, so these five months form a short series and no trend can be read from them.

Report device curves separately and date every figure you quote. For example, write "desktop, July 2026" next to the number so a reader can't mistake it for a mobile rate.

## CTR by query type: intent, brand and query length

Branded queries out-click unbranded ones at every rank: 27.32% against 19.38% at rank 1 and 4.0% against 0.8% at rank 10 in Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 all-device data. That Google organic CTR breakdown by position is why brand status comes first in the chooser below. Strip branded queries before you compare your own CTR with any curve.

If most of your clicks come from your brand name, you'll otherwise judge a strong rank against a curve it was never going to match.

The brand effect also flattens the curve. Position 3 earns 46.7% of position 1 on branded queries and 31.1% on unbranded ones:

| Position | Unbranded | Branded |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19.38% | 27.32% |
| 2 | 9.64% | 16.93% |
| 3 | 6.02% | 12.75% |

Query length shifts the curve too, but unevenly. One-word queries lead at the top spot with 25.67%, yet third place earns only 20.9% of that. Two- and three-word queries hold third place at 37.0% and 36.9% of the leader.

::dataset{key="awr-ctr-by-query-word-count" name="Advanced Web Ranking CTR by query word count at positions 1 to 3, July 2026"}

| Query length | Position 1 | Position 2 | Position 3 | Position 3 as a share of position 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 word | 25.67% | 9.49% | 5.37% | 20.9% |
| 2 words | 21.2% | 12.6% | 7.85% | 37.0% |
| 3 words | 23.8% | 13.57% | 8.79% | 36.9% |
| 4 words | 21.97% | 10.77% | 6.75% | 30.7% |

Position 1 level varies 1.21 times across the four lengths, while the position 3 share varies 1.77 times. So the shape of the curve is not steadier than its level. Backlinko's multiple for 10 to 15 word keywords is 1.76 times single-word terms, and it states that multiple for the top result only.

Intent changes how much an Overview costs. Over twelve months on Google US desktop, the mean points of position 1 CTR lost to Overviews were:

::dataset{key="awr-overview-points-lost-by-intent" name="Advanced Web Ranking position 1 points lost to AI Overviews by intent, twelve-month means to July 2026"}

| Intent | Mean points lost |
|---|---|
| Informational | 12.6 |
| Commercial | 10.6 |
| Navigational | 29.9 |
| Transactional | -4.9 |

Transactional is negative because its Overview pages out-clicked others. They did so by 10.8 points on average from Aug to Feb, then trailed by 3.3 points from March to July. That is still the smallest loss of the four intents, but it is no longer zero.

Navigational is missing in July because Advanced Web Ranking saw too few Overviews there, so its mean covers 11 months. Informational queries lost 12.6 points, a large but not extreme cost.

Industry moves the level as well. Position 1 spans 12.2% in law, government and politics to 31.2% in arts and entertainment (July 2026, all devices). Use the closest vertical, then compare branded and unbranded separately and intent last.

## CTR by position when an AI Overview shows

An AI Overview takes position 1 from 20.02% to 9.69% on July 2026 US desktop. That is a 52% cut, with position 2 down 64% and position 3 down 56%. The cut is measured against a baseline that already includes Overview pages.

Against an Overview-free baseline the cut is larger. Advanced Web Ranking's own counts imply 21.1% for pages without an Overview at the 9.4% impression weight, a 54% cut, and 27.8% at the 43% results page weight, a 65% cut.

This implied baseline is our derivation from its published inputs, and Advanced Web Ranking does not say which weight is right.

Ahrefs measured a similar loss on a different base: position 1 CTR was 58% lower where an Overview showed in its December 2025 re-run. The full study-by-study comparison lives in our [google ai overview click-through rate](https://missiongrowth.io/blog/ai-overviews-statistics) analysis.

Being cited in the Overview isn't a full recovery. One agency panel reports that the first citation earns a higher CTR than a traditional first result on the same page. That holds only against that panel's own 3.6% for Overview pages, while Advanced Web Ranking's blue link on an Overview page earns 9.69%.

So with an Overview above you and other stacked features around it, the clicks left for a blue link are a fraction of the baseline, and a citation recovers only part of them.

Seer Interactive's April 2026 study puts cited brands at +120% organic clicks per impression against uncited ones on informational queries, yet still 38% under pages with no Overview. Pew Research Center's March 2025 panel found that 1% of visits clicked a link inside the summary.

## CTR by position with other SERP features, and what zero-click means

Stacked features compound, and each one takes a slice of what the one above left. Advanced Web Ranking's modeled feature combinations leave 64% of baseline position 1 clicks with an AI Overview alone, 19% once People Also Ask and videos join it, 6% with a local pack alone and 3% with an Overview plus local pack.

These are Advanced Web Ranking's per-layout averages against its 20.02% all-pages baseline.

::figure{src="/blog/figures/organic-ctr-by-position-4.svg" alt="Bar chart of position 1 clicks left by layout: AI Overview alone 64%, with People Also Ask and videos 19%, local pack 6%, Overview with local pack 3%." caption="An AI Overview alone leaves 64% of position 1 clicks, People Also Ask and videos leave 19%, a local pack leaves 6% and an Overview with a local pack leaves 3%." width="720" height="267"}

The step from 64% to 19% means People Also Ask and videos remove 70% of what an Overview leaves. In CTR terms that is 12.8% for an Overview alone and 3.8% with the two added, against the 20.02% baseline.

A local pack alone cuts position 1 CTR by 94%, to 1.17%, as the pack soaks up the intent that organic listings compete for. Those are the clicks left once the pack renders.

Only 26% of sampled desktop results pages are pure organic listings, so a clean curve describes a minority layout. If your keywords trigger packs or Overviews, benchmark against the layout row and not the headline.

"Zero-click" carries three different denominators:

- **Results pages:** 74.3% of tracked Overview pages end with no organic click, against 53.6% of pages without one (Advanced Web Ranking, July 2026 desktop). These are pages in a sample, and sessions are a different unit.
- **Visits:** Pew's March 2025 panel found 8% of visits with an AI summary clicked a traditional result, against 15% without one.
- **Searches:** SparkToro and Similarweb put the US share of all Google searches ending without a click at 68.01% for January to April 2026.

Don't compare these as if they were one rate. For example, if you quote 74.3% next to 68.01%, you're mixing results pages with searches. Each answers a different question, and none of them is a CTR for a ranking position.

## Comparing your Search Console CTR with a position benchmark

Search Console CTR is clicks divided by impressions, and its position is the topmost position your property held in each query, averaged. Compare per query and per segment, never on the site average.

Search Console numbers elements, top to bottom, on the primary side of the page. An AI Overview occupies a single position and all its links share it. Ads hold no position, and a featured snippet typically holds position 1.

The consequence is our inference from those rules. When an Overview sits at the top, a link inside it and the first blue link below are numbered differently from a plain blue-link page, so "position 1" in an export is not always the first blue link.

If the Overview renders lower, it takes the slot where it appears. Advanced Web Ranking does not say whether its 9.69% is a blue-link or an Overview-link rate, so don't assume either.

A worked example shows why averages mislead. A page held at positions 1 and 4 and a page held at positions 2 and 3 both average position 2.5. The first expects (20.02% + 1.71%) divided by 2, or 10.9%. The second expects (10.36% + 3.89%) divided by 2, or 7.1%, about 1.5 times lower.

Bucket your positions and compare each bucket to its own segment curve. If your page sits at positions 1 and 4, judge it as two buckets, not one average.

If your CTR sits below the benchmark, check these in order:

1. **Query mix.** Branded and unbranded queries run on different curves, and the gap at position 1 is 27.32% against 19.38%.
2. **Device mix.** Mobile and desktop differ by 1.79 times at position 1.
3. **Layout.** An Overview, snippet or pack above you removes clicks before the title matters.
4. **Weighting.** Impression-weighted averages are dominated by your highest-volume queries.
5. **Snippet text.** Only then rewrite titles; our guide on [how to write title tags](https://missiongrowth.io/blog/title-tags) covers that step.

To track it, export query, position and device from Search Console. Split branded queries out, tag the Overview queries by hand, bucket the positions, and compare each bucket to its matched curve. Watching site-average position hides the spread above, so watch buckets.

Whole-site CTR is a separate number. Ahrefs computes it as total clicks over total impressions for the month, so it belongs on a health check and not on a position comparison.

## Which CTR benchmark to use

An organic CTR benchmark chooser starts with the matched segment, the one that holds most of your impressions: device first, then branded or not, then intent, then whether an Overview shows. Forecast with a floor and a ceiling and not a single rate.

::dataset{key="ctr-benchmark-chooser" name="Organic CTR benchmark chooser by segment, 2026"}

| Situation | Benchmark | Number | Month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mostly mobile traffic | Mobile position 1 organic CTR | 35.74% | July 2026 |
| Mostly branded queries | Branded position 1 CTR | 27.32% | July 2026 |
| Informational pages | Mean position 1 points lost to Overviews | 12.6 points | Twelve-month mean |
| Overview likely | Desktop position 1 with an Overview | 9.69% | July 2026 |
| Two- and three-word queries | Position 3 as a share of position 1 | 37.0% and 36.9% | July 2026 |
| Whole-site health check | Whole-site CTR band | 1% to 2% | June 2026 |

When an Overview is likely, also read the layout row: People Also Ask and videos leave 19% of baseline clicks. For two- and three-word queries the curve is flatter, so position 3 is worth more than the one-word curve implies.

For example, take a site with an assumed 70% mobile and 30% desktop mix, an assumption and not a measurement. On the all-results device curves, position 1 forecasts 31.0%, or 3,100 clicks per 10,000 impressions. If every impression sat on an Overview page, it forecasts 11.3%, or 1,100 clicks. The 20.02% headline would give 2,002 clicks.

That is a range from 1,100 to 3,100 where one headline number would have said 2,002. The all-results curves already include some Overview pages, so the floor is conservative and the ceiling is generous.

Convert clicks into return with our [SEO ROI calculator](https://missiongrowth.io/tools/seo-roi-calculator). Benchmarks move month to month, as the desktop series above shows, so re-check yours each quarter.

## How these CTR numbers were chosen

Every curve here comes from the study that produced it, stated with its device, month and sample. The sources are Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 study (more than 1.75 million US results pages a month), First Page Sage's panel (1 March to 31 August 2026), Sistrix's mobile study of 14 July 2020, Backlinko's study of about 4 million results (page updated April 2025), and Ahrefs' June 2026 whole-site benchmark.

Derived numbers use plain formulas:

- **Share of position 1:** position n divided by position 1.
- **Blend:** weight times one rate plus the remainder times the other.
- **Overview cut:** 1 minus the Overview CTR divided by the organic CTR.

Here's what limits these numbers. Advanced Web Ranking describes its guide data as estimates over tracked results pages. Its annual all-device and monthly device series do not reconcile. The mobile Overview series starts in March. The 70/30 device mix is an assumption, and each layout figure is an average against the all-pages baseline.

A position CTR is a device-and-month number that keeps changing. Desktop position 1 fell 68% in three months while mobile rose, and a blend moves 1.9 points per 10 points of Overview weight. So this week, export your Search Console queries by device, split out branded ones, and compare each position bucket with the matched row above.

## FAQ

### Is a 1.2% CTR good?

A whole-site CTR just over 1% sits inside Ahrefs' 1% to 2% band for good organic CTR, above the 0.39% median of its Domain Rating 0-10 band. It is far below a position 1 rate. Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop position 1 is 20.02%, so the scale you are judging decides the answer.

### What is a good organic CTR by position?

A good organic CTR by position is the July 2026 US desktop curve: 20.02% at rank 1, 10.36% at rank 2 and 3.89% at rank 3, with everything from sixth place down under 1%. Treat it as a desktop benchmark for all results pages, and adjust for mobile, brand and Overview presence.

### Does organic CTR drop the same way on page two?

Organic CTR does not fall evenly on page two. Advanced Web Ranking's July 2026 desktop rates for positions 11 to 15 are 0.67%, 0.7%, 0.82%, 0.88% and 0.8%, above positions 7 to 10. Backlinko's 0.63% measures how many searchers clicked page two at all, a different thing.

### Why is my CTR at position 3 higher than at position 1 for a different query?

A third-place result can out-click a first-place result across different queries because brand, device and layout differ between them. Sistrix's July 2020 mobile data showed the second result beating the first under a know-simple layout. No 2026 source we have shows third place ahead of first on the same query.

### Should I still aim for position 1?

Position 1 still pays the most, even when an AI Overview takes clicks: on July 2026 US desktop Overview pages it earns 9.69% against 3.69% at position 2. The gap is narrowing, though. Over ten years in Advanced Web Ranking's annual series, from 2015 to 2025, position 1 fell 12% while positions 2 and 3 fell 40% and 44%. Whether clicks feed back into rankings is a separate question, covered in our post on [Google's Navboost system](https://missiongrowth.io/blog/navboost).

### How often do CTR benchmarks change?

CTR benchmarks can change within a quarter. Advanced Web Ranking's desktop position 1 organic CTR fell 68% from February to May 2026, from 45.57% to 14.61%, while mobile rose. Date every figure you quote and re-check your benchmark each quarter.