Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate is the share of searchers who click your result after seeing it. Search Console reports it per query and per page. It reflects how compelling your title and description are relative to everything else on the results page.
Why it matters for your rankings
CTR is the one ranking-adjacent metric you can improve without building a single link. Two sites at position four can earn very different traffic depending entirely on how their snippet reads.
It is also a diagnostic. A page ranking third with a one percent CTR is telling you something specific: either the title does not match the intent behind the query, or the results above it are answering the question outright so nobody needs to click. That distinction changes the fix completely. Beware of comparing raw numbers across positions or query types, though. Branded searches routinely exceed thirty percent while informational terms sit near two, so only compare a page against its own history or against results in the same position.
How to check it on your site
Find high-impression, low-CTR pages
In Search Console Performance, sort by impressions and look for pages with CTR well below the average for their position. Those are your best rewriting candidates.
Read your snippet as a searcher
Search the target query in an incognito window. Compare your title and description against the competing results, not against your own expectations.
Check Google is using your description
Google rewrites meta descriptions often. If yours is being replaced, the page content probably answers the query better than your description does.
Test one change at a time
Rewrite the title, note the date, and compare 28 days before and after. Changing title and description together tells you nothing about which worked.