62 SEO Statistics, CTR Benchmarks, and Search-Behavior Data Points for 2026

This is a data reference for organic search performance: how clicks distribute across SERP positions, how much of search ends without a click, what mobile and desktop split looks like, and how AI Overviews and featured snippets change the math. Every figure below is attributed to a named publisher, a year, and a geography, with source links next to the claim. Click-through-rate (CTR) studies disagree because they use different panels, layouts, and query mixes, so we flag where the numbers diverge rather than presenting one curve as settled fact.

For a strategic walkthrough of how to act on this data, see our Google SEO 2026 complete guide. The asset is maintained by CO Consulting, a research-driven growth-consulting firm. Last updated June 2026.

Executive Summary

• The first organic result earns roughly 27.6% of clicks per Backlinko’s analysis of about 4 million search results, but Sistrix puts position 1 at 28.5% and the figure swings from 13.7% to 46.9% depending on SERP layout (Backlinko, updated 2025; Sistrix, mobile data, updated 2025).
• About 58.5% of US Google searches and 59.7% of EU searches ended in zero clicks in the September 2022 to May 2024 window, per the SparkToro and Datos clickstream study (SparkToro/Datos, 2024).
• SparkToro’s follow-up using Similarweb data found 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click in January to April 2026, up from prior years, though the panel and method changed between studies (SparkToro/Similarweb, 2026).
• Google held roughly 90% of the worldwide all-device search market through the first half of 2026 (Statcounter Global Stats, 2026).
• AI Overviews appeared in 6.49% of tracked queries in January 2025, peaked near 24.61% in July 2025, and settled around 15.69% by November 2025 across a 10M+ keyword set (Semrush, 2025).
• The top 3 organic results captured 54.4% of all clicks in Backlinko’s dataset (Backlinko, updated 2025).
• Mobile accounted for the majority of search sessions, with SparkToro modeling roughly a two-thirds mobile, one-third desktop split for US search (SparkToro, 2026).
• A featured snippet above position 1 lowered that position’s CTR to about 23.3% in Sistrix data, below the 28.5% all-layout average (Sistrix, updated 2025).

Key Findings

• The #1 organic Google result earned a 27.6% average CTR across roughly 4 million search results analyzed by Backlinko (Backlinko, US-skewed global dataset, updated 2025).
• The #1 result had a roughly 10x higher CTR than the #10 result in the same Backlinko dataset (Backlinko, updated 2025).
• Sistrix measured position 1 at 28.5%, position 2 at 15.7%, position 3 at 11.0%, and position 10 at 2.5% across over 80 million keywords (Sistrix, mobile data, updated 2025).
• Position 1 CTR ranged from 13.7% to 46.9% in Sistrix data depending on SERP layout, the single largest source of variance in the curve (Sistrix, updated 2025).
• Moving from position 2 to position 1 added about 12.8 percentage points of CTR in Sistrix data, the biggest single-step jump on the curve (Sistrix, updated 2025).
• Roughly 58.5% of US and 59.7% of EU Google searches ended in zero clicks from September 2022 to May 2024 (SparkToro/Datos, 2024).
• For every 1,000 US Google searches, about 374 clicks went to the open web in the 2024 study; in the EU it was about 360 (SparkToro/Datos, 2024).
• 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click in January to April 2026 under SparkToro’s Similarweb-based method (SparkToro/Similarweb, 2026).
• AI Overviews grew from 6.49% of tracked queries in January 2025 to a 24.61% peak in July 2025 before falling to 15.69% in November 2025 (Semrush, 10M+ keywords, 2025).
• Related Searches co-occurred with AI Overviews 95.32% of the time and People Also Ask 90.03% of the time in Semrush data (Semrush, 2025).
• Google held about 90% of worldwide all-device search market share through early-to-mid 2026, with Bing near 5% (Statcounter Global Stats, 2026).
• The top 3 organic results captured 54.4% of all clicks in Backlinko’s dataset (Backlinko, updated 2025).
• Keyword-rich URLs showed a 45% higher CTR than non-matching URLs in Backlinko’s analysis (Backlinko, updated 2025).
• Almost half of mobile searches in both the US and EU ended the browsing session entirely, more than double the desktop rate (SparkToro/Datos, 2024).
• When comparing identical keywords before and after AI Overviews appeared, Semrush found the zero-click rate moved from 33.75% to 31.53%, a small decrease rather than an increase (Semrush, 2025).

CTR by SERP Position: Two Reference Curves

There is no single authoritative CTR curve. The two most-cited public datasets, Backlinko and Sistrix, broadly agree on shape but differ on absolute values because Backlinko leans on a large click-result sample while Sistrix uses cleansed Google Search Console data weighted toward mobile. Treat these as ranges, not constants. Advanced Web Ranking, a third primary source, publishes only quarter-over-quarter percentage-point changes in its recent reports rather than absolute position values, so it is best used to track direction rather than level.

Position 1 sits near 27.6% (Backlinko) to 28.5% (Sistrix) on a typical mixed SERP (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025). The drop from position 1 to position 2 is the steepest on the curve, roughly halving CTR (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025). Below position 5, every public curve falls into low single digits (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025). The practical meaning: ranking gains matter most near the top of page 1, and the marginal value of moving from position 8 to 6 is small compared with moving from 3 to 1.

Sources: Backlinko, “We Analyzed 4 Million Google Search Results,” updated 2025; Sistrix, “Why (almost) everything you knew about Google CTR is no longer valid,” updated 2025. Sistrix publishes positions 1, 2, 3, and 10 prominently; intermediate values are not directly comparable and are left blank rather than estimated.

How SERP Layout Changes CTR

Position is only half the story. Sistrix shows that the same rank can earn very different click rates depending on what else is on the page. This is why a single position-to-CTR lookup overstates precision.

On a purely organic SERP, position 1 earned 34.2% of clicks in Sistrix data, well above the 28.5% mixed-layout average (Sistrix, updated 2025). With sitelinks present, position 1 rose to 46.9%, the highest layout value Sistrix recorded (Sistrix, updated 2025). With a featured snippet, position 1 fell to 23.3% (Sistrix, updated 2025). With a knowledge panel, position 1 dropped to roughly 16.7% (Sistrix, updated 2025). When Google Shopping units appeared, position 1 fell to about 13.7% (Sistrix, updated 2025). The takeaway: a featured snippet or rich SERP feature can absorb clicks that would otherwise reach the top organic link, so winning position 1 is worth less on feature-heavy queries.

Source: Sistrix, updated 2025. Values reflect single-feature layouts; mixed-feature SERPs were excluded by Sistrix to avoid attribution noise, which is a methodology limitation when applying these to real, multi-feature results.

Zero-Click Search and Share of Clicks

Zero-click means a search that ends without the user clicking any result, organic or paid. Both leading clickstream studies agree the majority of Google searches are now zero-click, but the headline percentage depends heavily on the panel and whether Google’s own mobile app traffic is captured. Treat the trend (rising) as more reliable than any single percentage.

In the SparkToro and Datos study covering September 2022 to May 2024, 58.5% of US and 59.7% of EU Google searches ended in zero clicks (SparkToro/Datos, 2024). In that same study, for every 1,000 US searches about 374 clicks reached the open web and the rest went to Google-owned properties or nowhere (SparkToro/Datos, 2024). SparkToro’s 2026 update, using Similarweb data for January to April 2026, reported 68.01% of US searches ending without a click (SparkToro/Similarweb, 2026). The two figures are not directly comparable because the underlying panels differ (Datos versus Similarweb) and the 2026 study notes the true zero-click share is likely higher still because Google’s in-app searches are under-captured.

Sources: SparkToro/Datos, 2024; SparkToro/Similarweb, 2026. Clickstream panels exclude or under-sample iPhone Safari and in-app searches; figures are estimates of population behavior, not Google-reported truth.

Mobile vs Desktop

Mobile is the majority of search volume, and it behaves differently from desktop: more sessions end without a click, and CTRs on the top organic result tend to run lower than desktop. This matters because aggregate CTR curves blend the two.

SparkToro modeled US search as roughly two-thirds mobile and one-third desktop for its 2026 study (SparkToro, 2026). In the 2024 Datos study, baseline distributions were 63% mobile and 37% desktop in the US, and 64.7% mobile and 35.3% desktop in the EU (SparkToro/Datos, 2024). Almost half of mobile searches in both regions ended the browsing session entirely, more than twice the desktop rate (SparkToro/Datos, 2024). The practical reading: mobile searchers are likelier to get an answer on the SERP and stop, which depresses downstream organic clicks.

Featured Snippets and AI Overviews

AI Overviews are Google’s generative answer block. They are the most-watched variable in search right now, and the data is still moving month to month, so any single appearance-rate number ages fast. We report the measured range and flag the volatility.

Semrush tracked AI Overviews across more than 10 million keywords and found they appeared in 6.49% of queries in January 2025, peaked near 24.61% in July 2025, then fell to 15.69% by November 2025 (Semrush, 2025). Related Searches appeared alongside AI Overviews 95.32% of the time and People Also Ask 90.03% of the time (Semrush, 2025). On a same-keyword before-and-after basis, Semrush found the zero-click rate moved only from 33.75% to 31.53% when AI Overviews appeared, which complicates the common claim that AI Overviews automatically increase zero-click behavior (Semrush, 2025). On featured snippets, Sistrix found a snippet above position 1 cut that position’s CTR to about 23.3% versus the 28.5% average (Sistrix, updated 2025). The honest summary: AI Overviews are large and volatile, and their click impact varies by query intent rather than applying a single uniform discount.

Original Synthesis

The following three insights are derived by combining the public datasets above. They are arithmetic comparisons of cited figures, not new measurements, and each carries the limitations of its inputs.

1. Cross-study CTR agreement index for position 1

Logic: take the three publicly stated position-1 values, Backlinko 27.6%, Sistrix 28.5%, and the Sistrix pure-organic 34.2%, and express the spread. The mixed-SERP figures agree within 0.9 percentage points (27.6% vs 28.5%), a tight 3.2% relative gap, while the pure-organic value sits 5.7 to 6.6 points higher. Inputs: Backlinko 2025; Sistrix 2025. Interpretation: analysts can defensibly cite “about 28%” for position 1 on a typical SERP, but should add 5 to 6 points when the query returns a clean organic layout. Limitation: the two studies use different panels and query mixes, so the close agreement is partly coincidental.

2. Open-web click erosion rate, 2024 to 2026

Logic: SparkToro reported roughly 374 open-web clicks per 1,000 US searches in the 2024 Datos study and roughly 276 per 1,000 in the 2026 Similarweb study. That is a drop of about 98 clicks per 1,000, or about 26% fewer open-web clicks per search over roughly two years. Inputs: SparkToro/Datos 2024; SparkToro/Similarweb 2026. Interpretation: even allowing for Google’s continued total query growth, the share of each search that reaches an independent publisher is shrinking materially. Limitation: the two studies use different clickstream providers, so part of the measured drop may be panel methodology rather than real behavior change. This is the single most important caveat in this asset.

3. Top-3 concentration ratio

Logic: Backlinko reports the top 3 organic results capture 54.4% of clicks. Against an idealized flat distribution where each of 10 results would get 10%, the top 3 over-index by 1.81x (54.4% vs 30%). Inputs: Backlinko 2025. Interpretation: organic click value is concentrated, so the gap between ranking 3rd and 4th is economically larger than its single-position size implies. Limitation: the 54.4% figure aggregates across query types and predates the heaviest AI Overviews period, so current concentration on AIO-heavy queries may differ.

Charts to build

• CTR curve comparison (Backlinko vs Sistrix). Data: position-by-position CTR from both studies. Source: Backlinko 2025, Sistrix 2025. Insight: where the two public curves agree and diverge. Citation-worthy because it shows analysts there is no single CTR truth.
• Position 1 CTR by SERP layout. Data: Sistrix layout values (sitelinks, pure organic, snippet, knowledge panel, shopping). Source: Sistrix 2025. Insight: SERP features can swing position-1 CTR by more than 30 points. Citation-worthy because it reframes “rank 1” as conditional.
• Zero-click trend line, 2016 to 2026. Data: zero-click share by year from SparkToro’s compiled series. Source: SparkToro 2024 and 2026 posts. Insight: the long-run rise of zero-click search. Citation-worthy as a single chart that tells the structural story, with a methodology footnote on panel changes.
• AI Overviews appearance rate, monthly 2025. Data: Semrush monthly AIO prevalence. Source: Semrush 2025. Insight: the rise, mid-year peak, and partial retreat. Citation-worthy because it counters the “AIOs only go up” narrative.
• Open-web clicks per 1,000 searches, 2024 vs 2026. Data: 374 then 276 per 1,000 US searches. Source: SparkToro 2024 and 2026. Insight: shrinking publisher share. Citation-worthy with the explicit panel-change caveat shown on the chart.

One inline chart is rendered below using an HTML/CSS bar layout from the Backlinko CTR values.

Source: Backlinko, updated 2025. Bar widths are scaled at 10 pixels per CTR point.

Methodology

Source-selection criteria: we prioritized large-scale clickstream and SERP studies from named publishers that disclose sample size and method (Backlinko, Sistrix, Advanced Web Ranking, SparkToro with Datos and Similarweb, Semrush) plus the market-share aggregator Statcounter. Inclusion required a public URL, a stated time period, and a stated geography. Exclusion: we removed widely repeated viral SEO statistics with no traceable primary source, and any figure we could not confirm on the publisher’s own page. Conflicting numbers: where studies disagree (for example position-1 CTR, or zero-click share), we present both side by side and explain the methodological reason rather than averaging them into a false single value. Derived estimates: the three synthesis insights are simple ratios and differences of cited figures, with inputs and limitations stated inline; we did not extrapolate beyond the published numbers. Data limitations: clickstream panels under-sample iPhone Safari and in-app searches, CTR studies blend query types and devices, and AI Overviews prevalence changes month to month. Date of last update: June 2026.

Source Quality

Tier 1 (primary measurement and official platform sources): Google Search Central documentation on search features and snippets; Statcounter Global Stats for market-share measurement.

Tier 2 (credible large-scale industry studies citing their own primary data): Backlinko CTR and SEO statistics studies; Sistrix CTR study built on Google Search Console data; Advanced Web Ranking CTR reports; SparkToro studies using Datos and Similarweb clickstream panels; Semrush AI Overviews study.

Tier 3 (reputable journalism and expert commentary): Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal coverage used only to locate primary studies, not as the source of any number cited here.

Most Quotable Statistics

• “The first organic Google result earns about 28% of clicks, but that ranges from roughly 14% to 47% depending on the SERP layout.” (Sistrix, updated 2025)
• “Roughly 58.5% of US Google searches ended without a click in 2024, and SparkToro’s 2026 update put US zero-click at 68%.” (SparkToro, 2024 and 2026)
• “For every 1,000 US Google searches in 2024, only about 374 clicks reached the open web.” (SparkToro/Datos, 2024)
• “AI Overviews peaked near 25% of tracked queries in mid-2025 before falling back below 16% by November.” (Semrush, 2025)
• “The top 3 organic results capture 54.4% of all clicks.” (Backlinko, updated 2025)

Data Limitations

• Clickstream studies (SparkToro/Datos/Similarweb) under-sample iPhone Safari and Google in-app searches, so reported zero-click shares are likely conservative.
• The 2024 and 2026 SparkToro figures use different panel providers, so the measured rise in zero-click is partly method-driven and not fully comparable.
• CTR studies blend devices, query intents, and SERP layouts, so a single position-to-CTR value is an average, not a prediction for any one query.
• Advanced Web Ranking’s recent public reports give quarter-over-quarter percentage-point changes rather than absolute CTR levels.
• AI Overviews prevalence is volatile month to month, so any single appearance-rate figure dates quickly.
• Market-share figures vary by a few points across Statcounter snapshots within 2026.

Recommended Dataset Fields

For a downloadable CSV reference, we recommend these columns: stat_id; metric_name; value; unit (percent, count, ratio); position (where applicable); device (mobile, desktop, all); geography (US, EU, worldwide); serp_layout (where applicable); publisher; study_name; sample_size; time_period_start; time_period_end; source_url; tier (1-3); confidence_flag; comparability_note.

Press Summary

Organic search in 2026 is defined by two facts that pull in opposite directions for publishers. Google still handles roughly 90% of worldwide search (Statcounter, 2026), and the top organic result still earns close to 28% of clicks on a typical results page (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025). At the same time, the majority of searches now end without any click: 58.5% of US searches were zero-click in the 2022 to 2024 window (SparkToro/Datos, 2024), and SparkToro’s 2026 follow-up put that at 68% (SparkToro/Similarweb, 2026), though the two studies use different panels and are not directly comparable. AI Overviews are real but volatile, appearing in 6% to 25% of tracked queries across 2025 depending on the month (Semrush, 2025). The reliable conclusion is structural, not seasonal: a shrinking share of each Google search reaches an independent website, and SERP layout now matters as much as raw rank in determining whether a top position actually earns a click.

Suggested Headlines

• The Real CTR Curve: Why “Rank 1” Is Worth Anywhere From 14% to 47% of Clicks
• 68% and Climbing: What the 2026 Zero-Click Data Actually Shows
• Two SEO Studies, Two CTR Curves: A Data Reference for 2026
• AI Overviews Peaked, Then Retreated: The 2025 Prevalence Numbers
• Open-Web Clicks Per 1,000 Searches Fell About 26% in Two Years

FAQ

What CTR does the #1 Google result get?

About 27.6% in Backlinko’s analysis of roughly 4 million results and 28.5% in Sistrix data, though Sistrix shows a 13.7% to 46.9% range by layout (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025).

What percentage of Google searches end without a click?

58.5% of US searches in the 2022 to 2024 SparkToro/Datos study, and 68.01% in SparkToro’s 2026 Similarweb-based update for January to April 2026 (SparkToro, 2024 and 2026).

How many clicks reach the open web per 1,000 searches?

About 374 per 1,000 US searches in 2024, falling to roughly 276 per 1,000 in the 2026 study, with the caveat that the panels differ (SparkToro, 2024 and 2026).

What share of clicks go to the top 3 results?

The top 3 organic results captured 54.4% of all clicks in Backlinko’s dataset (Backlinko, updated 2025).

How does a featured snippet affect CTR?

A featured snippet above position 1 lowered that position’s CTR to about 23.3% in Sistrix data, below the 28.5% average (Sistrix, updated 2025).

How often do AI Overviews appear?

They ranged from 6.49% of tracked queries in January 2025 to a 24.61% peak in July 2025 and 15.69% by November 2025 (Semrush, 2025).

Do AI Overviews increase zero-click searches?

On a same-keyword basis, Semrush found the zero-click rate moved only from 33.75% to 31.53% when AI Overviews appeared, a small decrease, so the effect is not a uniform increase (Semrush, 2025).

What is Google’s search market share?

Roughly 90% of the worldwide all-device search market through the first half of 2026 (Statcounter Global Stats, 2026).

Is most search mobile?

Yes. SparkToro modeled US search as about two-thirds mobile and one-third desktop, and the 2024 Datos baseline was 63% mobile in the US (SparkToro, 2024 and 2026).

Why do CTR studies disagree?

They use different panels, devices, query mixes, and SERP-layout handling, so absolute values differ even when the curve shape agrees; treat them as ranges (Backlinko and Sistrix, updated 2025).

Methodology Note and Next Step

If you want help translating these benchmarks into a position-and-layout-aware forecast for your own keywords, CO Consulting offers a research consultation.

Related research

• Local SEO Statistics
• Search Engine Market Share
• Voice Search Statistics
• AI Search Statistics
• Page Speed & Core Web Vitals