The definitions
- Impression: "a user has seen (or potentially seen) a link to your site". In a carousel, "an item must be scrolled into view" to count.
- Click: "How often someone clicked a link from Google to your site." Returning and clicking the same link again "counts as only one click".
- CTR: "The calculation of (clicks ÷ impressions)."
CTR calculator
Segment before you compare
A site-wide CTR mixes brand searches (high CTR), core product searches and long-tail informational queries (often low CTR). Segment in this order:
- Country, then state or province. Search Console filters by country only. For the United States and Canada, use page groups (for example, state landing pages) as a proxy and say that you did.
- Device. Mobile and desktop results pages differ in layout, so their CTRs differ.
- Query group. Use regex filters (RE2 syntax) for brand, product and informational groups. See the branded vs non-branded guide.
- Search appearance. Google lets you filter by one search appearance at a time; compare groups with comparison mode, which allows "only one comparison at a time".
Know the data limits
| Access route | Rows | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Report interface and export | 1,000 rows | "Totals shown are actual totals, not totals with any row limits applied." |
| Search Analytics API | 50,000 rows per day per search type | Up to 25,000 rows per request, paged with a start row; Google says the API returns the top rows rather than guaranteeing every row |
| Bulk export to BigQuery | No 50,000 limit | Daily export; tables kept "forever, by default" |
Search Console itself keeps 16 months of data. If you need longer history, set up bulk export now; Google does not describe a backfill of earlier data.
Treat low volumes as unstable
CTR from small numbers jumps around. Ten clicks from 200 impressions (5%) can become 3% with four fewer clicks. Our rules:
- Below 100 impressions in the period, show the row but label the CTR "unstable".
- Compare equal-length periods with the same weekday mix.
- For trends, group queries into clusters and report cluster CTR, not single-query CTR.
What moves CTR on casino results pages
- SERP features. AI Overviews, video blocks and "People also ask" change how many clicks reach organic links. Track features alongside CTR; see our SERP feature guide.
- Title links and snippets. Google may rewrite titles. Check what searchers actually see before attributing a CTR change to your edits.
- Seasonality and events. Sportsbook CTR changes around fixtures and tournaments.
- Reporting changes. Google's data anomalies page notes that a logging error affected impressions from May 13, 2025 until April 27, 2026, which affects CTR for that period too. Clicks were not affected.
Worked example (synthetic)
| Query group | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | 6,000 | 2,700 | 45.0% |
| Core casino | 12,000 | 360 | 3.0% |
| Informational | 30,000 | 450 | 1.5% |
| All queries | 48,000 | 3,510 | 7.3% |
If informational impressions double next month with the same group CTRs, the site-wide CTR falls to about 5.1% (3,960 clicks from 78,000 impressions) even though every group performed the same. Report group CTRs, and treat the blended figure as context only.
Questions
What is a good CTR for a casino site?
There is no reliable universal benchmark. CTR depends on the query group, position, device, market and SERP features. Compare your own segments over time instead of an industry average.
Why do my exported rows not add up to the report total?
Exports are limited to 1,000 rows, and Google omits anonymized queries from query-level data. The totals in the report are actual totals, so rows will usually add up to less.
How should zero impressions be reported?
As no data. CTR is undefined when impressions are zero, so showing it as 0% would be wrong.
Sources
- Search Console API: searchanalytics.query reference checked October 26, 2026
- Search Console Help: What are impressions, position, and clicks? no date shown
- Search Console Help: Export data directly from a Search Console report no date shown
- Search Console Help: Exporting data (topic overview) no date shown
- Search Console Help: Table guidelines and reference (bulk data export) no date shown
- Analytics Help: Connect Search Console to Google Analytics (16-month retention) no date shown
- Search Console Help: Advanced filtering and comparison no date shown
- Search Console Help: Data anomalies in Search Console entries through 2026
Spotted an error? Tell us with a link to the source. Corrections are logged on the page they affect (corrections policy).
