Google uses the click through rate to rank the paid search results. The more clicks an ad gets, the higher it will be ranked in the search results. Does Google also use this method for the regular search results?

Why does it make sense to consider the CTR?

The top 10 search results all have similar click partners. A certain percentage of web surfers click on the first result, fewer people click on the second result, even fewer people click on the third result, etc.

In general, the distribution of clicks on the different search results is similar for all keywords. For example, the usual number of clicks on results 1 to 10 could be distributed like this:

If one web page in the search results received an unusually high number of clicks then Google could easily find that out:

In this example, result number 6 would receive more clicks than the average number 6 result received. It seems that result number 6 is appealing to many users for some reason.

Google wants to return the best and the most attractive search results. If many people click on a search result, Google might decide to give that page a higher ranking on the result pages. By doing so, Google would rank attractive web pages higher and searchers would be more happy with the results.

What does this mean for your website?

It's not clear whether Google uses the click through rate to determine the ranking of web pages in the search results. Nevertheless, it always helps to use compelling web page titles and meta descriptions.

The more appealing your website title and description look to web surfers, the more people will click. A high ranking on search engines is not enough. Web surfers must also click on your listings.