Editing Click fraud (section)

==Manipulation of organic search results==
One major factor that affects the ranking of websites in organic search results is the CTR (Click-through Rate). That is the ratio of clicks to impressions, or in other words how many times a search result is clicked on, as compared to the number of times the listing appears in search results.

In contrast to PPC fraud, where a competitor leverages the services of a botnet, or low-cost labour, to generate false clicks, in this case the objective is to adopt a "[[beggar thy neighbour]]" policy against competitors by making their CTR rate as low as possible, thereby diminishing their position in search results.

Bad actors will therefore generate false clicks on organic search results that they wish to promote, while avoiding search results they wish to demote. This technique can effectively create a cartel of business services controlled by the same bad actor, or be used to promote a certain political opinion etc. The scale of this issue is unknown but is certainly evident to many website developers who pay close attention to the statistics in webmaster tools.