Google Search Console Now Separates Branded from Non-Branded CTR

Google just gave you a new way to see what’s actually happening with your click-through rates.

In November 2025, Search Console added a native branded/non-branded query filter to the Performance report. You can now separate your branded searches (people searching for your company name) from your non-branded searches (people searching for topics you rank for) with a single click.

This matters more than it sounds.

Why this distinction is important.

Branded searches — queries that include your company name, product names, or unique brand terms — almost always have high CTR. If someone types “SerpClix pricing” into Google, they’re looking for us specifically. They’re going to click our listing. That’s expected.

Non-branded searches are where the real competition happens. These are the queries where you’re one of ten blue links (or fewer, after ads and SERP features take their share). “How to improve organic CTR” or “click-through rate SEO” — that’s where your listing has to earn the click against competitors.

When you look at your overall CTR in Search Console, branded queries inflate the number. Your blended CTR might look healthy at 4–5%, but your non-branded CTR could be sitting at 1.5%. That’s the number that tells you whether your listings are actually compelling to people who don’t already know your brand.

How the filter works.

Google’s implementation uses AI — not regex — to classify queries. It recognizes brand name variations, common misspellings, and unique product names. The filter works across web search, image search, video search, and news results.

This is a significant improvement over the old approach, which required you to manually create regex filters to exclude branded terms. Those filters were fragile and missed variations. Google’s AI-based classification handles edge cases that manual filters couldn’t.

What to do with this data.

Here’s the practical move. Go into Search Console, apply the non-branded filter, and sort by impressions descending. You’re now looking at your highest-visibility non-branded queries — the ones where you’re appearing in front of the most people.

Now look at the CTR column for those queries. Any query with high impressions but below-average CTR is an opportunity. Your page is showing up, but people aren’t clicking. That’s a title tag problem, a meta description problem, or a positioning problem. Sometimes it’s all three.

These are your highest-leverage optimization targets. Improving CTR on a query with 10,000 monthly impressions has far more impact than improving CTR on a query with 100.

Google is telling you where to focus.

The fact that Google built this filter is worth noting on its own. They’re making it easier for site owners to identify non-branded CTR problems. They’re providing tools that specifically encourage CTR optimization.

Read between the lines: Google wants you to care about your click-through rate. They wouldn’t build tools to help you measure it if it didn’t matter to them too.

SerpClix uses an army of over 400,000 real human clickers to boost your organic CTR. Get started with a free trial or log in to your dashboard to set up your next click order.

Please note: there are no guarantees in search engine optimization, ever. There are innumerable factors that can affect search engine rankings. And, realistically, most sites should focus their efforts on traditional SEO before even thinking about using non-traditional techniques like SerpClix. All SEO efforts can involve an element of risk. Some techniques are certainly more risky than others. SerpClix employs real human clickers, so we think our service is far less risky than trying to use automated or robotic click methods. But, like all SEO strategies, there is an element of risk because Google’s algorithm is unknown and subject to change at any time. For more information please see our Buyer FAQs.