Advanced Web Ranking's Q2 2026 CTR report shows desktop click-through rates at the top organic positions falling while mobile rates climbed, according to Search Engine Journal. The pattern reverses what happened in Q1, when desktop improved and mobile declined. The problem is that the comparison straddles the end of a Search Console logging error that ran from 13 May 2025 to 27 April 2026 and affected how impressions were reported, which means the Q2 figures sit partly inside the error period and partly outside it.

Google confirmed at the time that the error distorted impressions and CTR, though clicks themselves remained accurate. Q1 data fell entirely within the error window, most of Q2 came after the fix, and part of April remains affected. Advanced Web Ranking itself says Q3 will show whether the mobile gain is real or seasonal noise. If you are comparing your own Q1 and Q2 performance in Search Console, annotate 27 April as the correction date so you are not chasing a measurement artefact.

What the Q2 report shows

The report tracks average international click-through rates by position from April to June compared to January to March. Across all searches, desktop CTRs in the top two positions saw a combined decline of 5.27 percentage points, while mobile CTRs in those same spots grew by a combined 6.59 points. These figures add together changes from several positions and do not reflect any single site's change.

For single-word queries, desktop CTR at position one dipped by 4.15 points, but mobile increased by 7.42 points. All top 20 desktop branded query CTRs dropped between 1.47 and 3.08 points each, yet mobile position one saw a positive rise of 1.40 points. For informational, commercial and location queries, desktop CTRs also saw a decrease, but mobile CTRs performed better.

Industry results mostly followed the split. Arts and Entertainment was an exception, gaining 2.40 points at desktop position one. Law, Government and Politics gained at desktop positions two and three and had the largest single-position increase among industries, with mobile position one up 17.31 points. The largest single-position drop was 13.31 points, at desktop position one in Style and Fashion.

The AI Overview CTR gap widened

The Q2 report looks at how CTR varies with the presence of an AI Overview, focusing on US data only. On desktop, the combined CTR for positions one and two was 29.05% on results pages without an AI Overview, while it was 10.04% on pages that included one. The resulting 19.01-point difference was 6.03 points larger than in Q1, according to the report. On mobile, position one had a 35.95% CTR without an AI Overview and 8.51% with one.

The company's monthly CTR figures put US desktop position one at a 1.96% CTR on AI Overview pages in April and 10.23% in June, a spread the quarterly figures do not show. If you are seeing traffic declines in markets where AI Overviews dominate, this widening gap is part of the reason. The effect is particularly pronounced on desktop, where the combined top two positions lose nearly two thirds of their click-through when an AI Overview appears.

The Search Console error and what it means

Google's Search Console help page explains that a logging error caused impressions to be reported inaccurately from 13 May 2025 to 27 April 2026. This issue affected the CTR and average position, but it did not impact the number of clicks. Advanced Web Ranking points out that its free CTR tool uses data from Search Console, and the Q2 report credits its tables to that tool. This suggests that all the data from Q1 was within the error range, while most of the Q2 data came after the fix.

Since CTR is calculated by dividing clicks by impressions, it depends on the impressions Google says were misreported. The report does not specify whether the figures were updated after the error was fixed. Q3 covers July to September, which occurs entirely after Google's correction, but most of April is still included in the Q2 comparison, and the error continued during that time.

What to do with your own data

You might see the same break in your own Search Console comparisons, since Google's impression error persisted until 27 April. Keep this date in mind as a possible measurement break, rather than a sign of people clicking differently. When you look at traffic shifts between Q1 and Q2, treat anything that changed sharply around the end of April with caution. The correction will have moved the baseline for impressions, which moves the calculated CTR even if actual clicking behaviour stayed flat.

If you run technical SEO audits or performance reviews that compare quarters, note the correction date in your reports so stakeholders understand that part of the movement is an artefact of how the data was logged, not a real change in user behaviour. This matters especially if you are being asked to explain a drop or justify a tactical shift based on a single quarter's movement.

The device split is not yet a trend

Advanced Web Ranking's reports show that desktop and mobile CTRs split once more, this time in reverse. Data from just one quarter is not enough to confidently predict CTR by device, particularly when that quarter sits across a known measurement error. Advanced Web Ranking says its Q3 report will determine if the device split seen in Q2 is a permanent trend or a temporary seasonal spike.

The pattern is interesting, but it would be a mistake to rebuild your content strategy or paid media mix around it until Q3 confirms whether it holds. If you are planning a mobile-first push or reallocating budget based on the Q2 figures, wait for data that does not have a correction boundary running through the middle of it.

What this means for audits and forecasting

If your forecasts or business cases rely on Search Console CTR data from Q1 or Q2 2026, flag the error window. Any model that treats those quarters as comparable to earlier or later periods is sitting on a shaky baseline. In keyword audit work, we often use historical CTR to estimate the traffic value of ranking improvements. If the historical data includes the error period, the estimates will be off unless you adjust for it.

The AI Overview CTR gap is the sharper problem. If your market is seeing AI Overviews on a meaningful share of your target queries, the desktop combined top-two CTR of 10.04% is less than half what the same positions deliver without one. That changes the ROI of ranking improvements, the value of holding position one versus position two, and the economics of content investment in those areas. It is worth running your own numbers: filter Search Console for queries where you rank in the top three, check what share of them show AI Overviews, and model what your CTR would be if that share grows. The Q2 data suggests the gap is widening, not narrowing.

For most sites, the takeaway is caution. Do not read too much into device trends until Q3 data arrives. Do annotate the 27 April correction date in your own reporting. And if you are in a market where AI Overviews are common, start treating CTR at the top positions as a variable that depends on what else Google puts on the page, not a constant you can rely on.