Google CTR Stats – Changes Report for Q2 2020

As you might already have been accustomed to, almost each new CTR stats analysis comes with some clickthrough rate tool improvements, and this update makes no exception.

You can now segment Google CTR data by SERP features, and get insights on the impact of featured snippets, knowledge panels, videos, tweets, and more. All you need to do is head over to the first tab called “SERP Features” and select the search results combinations you wish to focus on. 

Google Organic CTR tool
SERP Features menu – CTR evolution data segmented by SERP Features

Before diving into the actual clickthrough rate stats for the second quarter of this year, there’s one more mention I should make. Starting this quarter, we also have search-demand data available, showing how impressions have fluctuated over time for each niche.

We’re thus able to correlate clickthrough rate variations with changes in search demand and answer questions like:

“Why didn’t my traffic increase, although the rankings are steady and the CTR grew?”

“How’s the rest of my industry performing, and what organic traffic should I expect?”

That being said, let’s begin our analysis on how the CTR benchmarks changed when comparing the average values retrieved in Q2 2020 (April-June) against the ones from Q1 2020 (January-March).

All searches

At a global level, websites ranked first registered a 1.36% increase in CTR on desktop while the growth equaled 1.02% on mobile devices.

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Branded queries

For those searches containing specific brand or business names, websites ranked first experienced growth in CTR: 1.91% on desktop and 1.57% on mobile.

Long-tail keywords

The websites ranked first on desktop recorded different percentages of growth in CTR as follows:

• for 2-word queries, the increase in CTR was 1.51%
• for queries containing three words, the growth was 1.60%
• for queries with more than four words, the gain equaled 1.32%

As for the mobile results, only the CTR values for the queries containing 2 and 3 words were affected (1.39% growth for 2-word searches and 1.43% for 3-word ones).

Search intent

With COVID-19 travel restrictions being imposed and then lifted during this quarter, in many areas across the World, it’s no surprise that the CTR for location intent queries has been impacted.

Interestingly enough, the clickthrough rate for the websites ranked first on mobile devices for location searches was the most affected, as it registered a steep 3.62% drop.

On the other hand, the clickthrough rate for commercial queries (containing words such as buy, price, etc.) skyrocketed. Here, the first two positions experienced a combined 8.44% increase in CTR on desktop and 7.90% on mobile searches. 

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Industries

Here’s where we’ll be adding search demand data to the study and correlating clickthrough rate values with the search demand trend for industries that experienced CTR changes.

To make it easier to follow, I’ll just divide the CTR changes analysis into two sections, based on search demand evolution (either positive or negative):

A. Industries that experienced an increase in search demand

The first three positions in the Technology & Computing industry experienced a combined 6.69% increase in CTR on desktop and 5.12% on mobile searches. Coupled with an increase of 13.85%in search demand, it’s highly probable that the websites ranked on those three positions noticed an increase in organic traffic.

The Family & Parenting category continued its CTR growth, which began in the previous quarter, for the first three positions on mobile devices. This time, websites ranking in the top 3 got a combined increase in clickthrough rate of 6.84%. At the same time, the impressions for this industry recorded a slight increment of 2.67%.

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Once the COVID-19 restrictions were little by little lifted, people turned their attention back to the Style & Fashion industry. An overall increase in impressions of 38.36% combined with an increase in CTR for the websites ranked first (4.35% on desktop and 4.69% on mobile), most probably translated into additional unestimated traffic.

As for the Hobbies & Interests market, which was the first quarter’s winner in the “all devices” category, the ascending clickthrough rate trend continued. The websites on the first three positions in SERP witnessed 10.24% growth on desktop and 12.72% on mobile. At the same time, this industry’s search demand increased by 4.41%.

With purchases and research shifting from offline to online, the Shopping industry witnessed a 9.83% growth in search demand and a consistent change in click behavior. The most affected were the websites ranked first, which registered 7.92% growth in CTR on desktop and 5.44% on mobile. 

Health & Fitness industry remained steady from the search demand point of view (only 0.46% increase), while the CTR for the websites ranked on first two positions recorded a decent increase (4.36% on desktop and 5.13% on mobile)

With people spending more time at home lately, their desire to make the house cozier and create small but productive work areas became more prominent. This led the search demand for the Home & Garden industry to record the highest increase this quarter (45.33%). One can assume this growth also meant a spike in traffic, especially for the websites ranked first, who also got a boost in clickthrough rate (3.51% on desktop and 6.16% on mobile).

Most probably, due to the return of the major league sports, the entire industrygot the third-best growth rate in search demand this quarter (26.67%). Furthermore, the CTR for top-ranked sports websites increased with no less than 6.70% on desktop and 6.04% on mobile. 

Here’s a visual round-up of the CTR evolution for the industries mentioned above:

B. Industries where the search demand dropped

Despite the slight drop in search demand (-2.89%), the first five positions in the Real Estate industry recorded a combined 16.61% increase in CTR on mobile devices (the first position alone grew with 6.27% in CTR ).

After recording the highest drop of all industries on desktop in the first quarter, the Careers industry seemed to have settled on these devices. As for the CTR on mobile devices, this remained consistent on an ascending trend. The first four websites obtained a combined 5.27% increase in clickthrough rate this time, although the overall search demand decreased with -29.73%.

With a decrease in search demand of -27.93%, the Automotive industry recorded an increase in CTR for the websites ranked first: 3.24% on desktop searches and 3.97% on mobile.

Law, Government & Politics is one of the markets with the highest growth rates in CTR for the second quarter of the year. The websites ranked first witnessed a CTR increase on both desktop (6.18%) and mobile queries (7.94%), while the search demand slightly decreased (-1.88%).

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The Personal Finance industry continued on an ascending trend since the previous quarter when it was proclaimed the market with the highest clickthrough rate growth. In contrast with a -3.38% decrease in search demand, the CTR for the websites ranked first increased with 5.46% on desktop and 7.34% on mobile devices.

The Business market was also affected at the top of the SERP, where the websites ranked first registered 2.79% growth in CTR on desktop and 5.71% on mobile. Here, the search demand decreased by 13.33%.

Surprisingly losing no less than -40.70% in search demand, the News industry continued to attract an even higher percentage of clicks for the websites ranked first. More precisely, websites ranked first got, on average, 7.03% more clicks from the queries made from desktop, while the percentage equaled 7.29% for mobile searches. This decrease in search demand combined with an increase in CTR for the top ranking websites might suggest that the behavior switched from several information sources to those at the top deemed most credible by users. 

In the Food & Drink industry, websites ranked first recorded a 4.43% boost in CTR on desktop and an even more impressive 5.35% growth on mobile queries. However, the total number of impressions decreased slightly, with -3.52%.

Now let’s look at the industry with the highest decrease in search demand: Arts & Entertainment. With an impressive drop of -52.75% in impressions, the websites ranked first grew on average in CTR, with 3.22% on desktop and 2.44% on mobile.

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Last but not least, a predictable drop (-30.07%) in search demand occurred in the Travel industry. Websites ranked first registered a more tempered increase in CTR compared to the first quarter: 1.23% on desktop and 1.97% on mobile devices.

Here’s a graphical representation of all the changes mentioned above:

That’s it for…the second quarter

It has been another eventful quarter, with significant CTR changes for many industries. I hope that the new format which correlates CTR with search demand is useful for you as a benchmark when reporting traffic changes to clients from various industries.

I’d love to know if the websites you’re managing follow their specific market trends in search demand and CTR values. 

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section down below. I’ll see you with the analysis of the third quarter of the year compiled against this one. Stay safe and healthy!