What Is a Good Click-Through Rate by SERP Position in 2026?

What is a good click-through rate by SERP position in 2026?

A good organic click-through rate in 2026 is roughly 19 to 28 percent at position 1, 10 to 15 percent at position 2, and 6 to 11 percent at position 3, with each lower spot shedding a few more points. Anything above the expected rate for your position and query type is good. There is no single correct number.

That range is meaningfully lower than the benchmarks most articles still repeat. The classic figures of a 30 to 40 percent position-1 CTR came from a SERP that no longer exists: ten clean blue links, no AI summary, fewer ads, and far fewer rich results. In 2026, clicks are split across AI Overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask, shopping units, and video carousels long before a user reaches the traditional list.

So the honest answer is comparative, not absolute. A good CTR is one that exceeds the expected rate for the exact position, intent, and layout you compete in. Ranking first on a query with an AI Overview and pulling 14 percent can be excellent, while ranking first on a clean branded query and pulling 14 percent would be a serious problem.

What are the current 2026 CTR benchmarks by position?

The table below blends recent large-sample studies from 2025 and 2026, including analyses of 200,000-plus keywords. Treat these as a starting baseline, not a target, because device, intent, and SERP features move every figure.

Two patterns matter more than the exact numbers. First, the top of the SERP compressed: multiple studies put position 1 near 19 percent on competitive queries, roughly a third lower than a few years ago. Second, the long tail of page one held up or even rose, with positions 6 to 10 reportedly gaining click share as users scroll past AI answers looking for a real source. The clicks did not vanish evenly; they redistributed.

The top three results still command the majority of clicks, often cited around two-thirds of all clicks on a standard page. But that majority now sits on a smaller total pool, because a large share of searches end with no click at all.

How have AI Overviews changed CTR expectations?

AI Overviews are the single biggest reason 2026 benchmarks broke from the old ones. When an AI Overview appears, it answers the query directly above the organic results, so fewer people click anything beneath it.

The measured impact is large and consistent across independent studies. Ahrefs, analyzing roughly 300,000 keywords, reported that AI Overviews correlate with up to a 58 percent reduction in CTR for top-ranking pages, with position 2 down about 51 percent and position 3 down about 46 percent. A randomized field experiment run in early 2026 found AI Overviews cut outbound organic clicks by about 38 percent on the queries where they triggered. Seer Interactive measured organic CTR dropping from roughly 1.6 percent to 0.6 percent on AI Overview queries in their sample.

The numbers differ because methodologies differ, but the direction is unanimous: expect a 30 to 60 percent haircut on your normal positional CTR whenever an AI Overview is present. AI Overviews now appear on a sizable and growing share of result pages, so this is no longer an edge case you can leave out of your modeling.

The most useful CTR benchmark in 2026 is not a number from a study. It is your own expected CTR for that position, adjusted for whether an AI Overview, snippet, or other feature sits above you on that exact query.

How do you benchmark your own CTR the right way?

Generic tables tell you what is normal across the web. They cannot tell you what is good for your site. To judge your own CTR, you have to compare like with like.

• Segment by intent before anything else. Branded queries routinely pull 40 to 70 percent CTR at position 1, while broad informational queries may pull single digits. Averaging them together produces a meaningless blended number.
• Pull position-level data from Search Console. Export queries with their average position and CTR, then compare each query to the expected rate for that position. The gap, not the raw CTR, is the signal.
• Check the live SERP for every important query. If an AI Overview, snippet, or shopping pack sits above you, your ceiling is lower by design. Judge yourself against that reality, not a clean-SERP table.
• Watch CTR over time, not in isolation. A falling CTR at a stable position usually means a new SERP feature launched above you, not that your title got worse.

This is where dedicated SERP analytics pull ahead of a spreadsheet. Sentinel SERP lets you track CTR alongside the actual SERP layout for each keyword, so you can see when an AI Overview or new feature appeared and tie a CTR change to the cause rather than guessing. Pairing that feature-level view with Search Console data turns a vague 'is our CTR good?' into a precise 'we are 4 points below expected on these 30 queries because an AI Overview launched in April.'

What do most CTR guides get wrong?

Most click-through-rate articles repeat three mistakes that quietly mislead the people relying on them.

They quote dead benchmarks. A surprising number of 2026 posts still cite a 31.7 percent position-1 CTR from studies run before AI Overviews existed. Using those figures to forecast traffic will overstate your projections by a third or more on AI-heavy query sets. Always check the study date and whether it accounts for AI results.

They treat CTR as one number. A sitewide average CTR is nearly useless. It hides the fact that your branded terms are propping up your informational pages, or that one template is bleeding clicks. Position, intent, and SERP features each shift the expected rate enough that only segmented analysis means anything.

They confuse low CTR with a title problem. Rewriting title tags is the standard advice, and it helps at the margin. But when CTR drops 40 percent overnight at a steady position, the cause is almost always a SERP layout change above you, not your copy. Fixing the wrong thing wastes weeks. Diagnose the SERP first, then optimize the snippet.

The practical takeaway: stop chasing a universal good CTR. Build your own expected-CTR baseline by position and intent, layer in which SERP features appear, and measure every page against that. That is the only benchmark that survives contact with the 2026 search results.