In 2024 alone, eight new SERP features were added, pushing the total beyond 30. Most notably, AI Overviews (AIOs) now occupy prime top-of-page real estate—appearing in about 20% of all US and UK queries, and even more in some industries.
These significant SERP changes are pushing more users to get answers without ever clicking. For SEO professionals, this creates a frustrating disconnect—organic rankings may be strong, yet traffic doesn't reflect it.
Struggling to explain that to executives asking why traffic is down?
By quantifying the impact of year-over-year SERP changes on organic click-through rate, this study helps you answer a critical question: Is declining traffic really a content performance issue—or just the reality of a changing search experience?
Use this data to defend your efforts, reset expectations, and adapt your strategy in a no-click world.
Position 1 remains the highest-performing spot on both platforms, but both saw modest declines in CTR (-0.66 bp on desktop, -0.13 bp on mobile). This underscores the increasing difficulty of capturing even top-tier organic clicks amidst growing SERP distractions.
After position one, a steep drop-off occurs. This decline is sharper on desktop, where CTR falls by more than half between Positions 1 and 2.
Position 3 saw the steepest decline across both desktop (-2.41 bp) and mobile (-1.31 bp). This consistent drop suggests a structural shift—likely due to SERP features or AI Overviews pushing this position below the fold or making it visually less prominent.
The fact that declines occurred across both desktop and mobile platforms suggests that the impact of SERP changes is not device-specific, but rather a broad shift in how searchers engage with results.
While Position 1 appears the most resilient of all top 10 rank positions YoY on desktop, it still wasn’t immune to the decline (-0.66 basis points).
Benchmark your CTR with this chart to compare actual decreases to industry average.
Download the full report to see year-over-year change in CTR on desktop by position.
Similar to desktop data, Positions 1 CTR declined modestly YoY on mobile while most other positions saw steeper declines.
For a position-by-position breakdown of year-over-year CTR changes on mobile, download the full report.
Curious how these CTR shifts are playing out in your space?
We analyzed thousands of keywords across key industries to uncover how mobile and desktop click behavior is evolving—what's holding steady, what's falling off, and where your biggest opportunities may lie.
Download the full report for detailed mobile vs. desktop CTR data, including year-over-year changes by position, to help you spot patterns and prioritize.
See how your click-through performance compares to the average in sectors like:
Finance
Retail
Health
Real Estate
Service
B2B
This study compares click through rates between Monday, April 7, 2024, and Monday, April 8, 2025. Analyzing the same day of the week controls for natural behavioral differences in click-through rates across weekdays.
To ensure consistency, the dataset includes only the exact same set of nearly 12 million keywords year over year—eliminating any impact from added or removed queries.
In total, the analysis includes ~750 million impressions and ~32 million clicks.
The data confirms what many SEO professionals have felt: declining traffic isn’t always a reflection of poor organic performance—it’s a symptom of a shifting search landscape.
As SERPs evolve to provide more answers without clicks, traditional organic listings are losing visibility, even at the top.
Understanding this shift allows marketers to reframe the narrative. It’s not just about rankings or traffic anymore—it’s about visibility, share of voice, and adapting to an increasingly zero-click world.
