Stop 02 · Definitions

Impressions, clicks, CTR and position

In Search Console, an impression is counted when someone sees, or potentially sees, a link to your site; a click is counted when someone follows one to a page outside Google; click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions; and position is roughly where your link sat on the results page, where 1 is the top. Each one has small print, and the small print is where most misreadings start.

Below are Google’s definitions word for word, then what each one means in practice.

General information, not business advice. This page explains Google’s published documentation in plain words. Google’s tools change: check Search Console Help, Google Search Central and web.dev for the current version, and ask a qualified professional about your own site.

02.1

The four numbers, as Google defines them

IMP Impressions

“How often someone saw a link to your site on Google.”

On an ordinary results page, a link counts as an impression whether or not it was scrolled into view, as long as nobody had to click to see more results. Inside a carousel, or an expanding section, the item usually has to be scrolled into view or expanded first. Scrolling away and back during one search doesn’t add another impression.

CLK Clicks

“How often someone clicked a link from Google to your site.”

For most results, a click counts only when it sends someone to a page outside Google Search, Discover or News. Clicking the same result twice after coming back counts once; clicking a different link counts again.

CTR Click-through rate

“The calculation of (clicks ÷ impressions).”

So a page with 312 clicks from 18,400 impressions has a CTR of 312 ÷ 18,400, about 1.7%. (Those figures are invented for the arithmetic.)

POS Average position

“A relative ranking of the position of your link on Google, where 1 is the topmost position, 2 is the next position, and so on.”

It is shown only for Google Search results, not for Discover or News.

02.2

How position is averaged

The position in the report is the topmost position your site held in each search, averaged across all the searches in which it appeared. Google’s own example, set out as a timetable:

Google’s worked example of average position
Search	Your links appeared at	Counted as
Query 1	2, 4 and 6	2
Query 2	3, 5 and 9	3
Average	(2 + 3) ÷ 2	2.5

Two consequences follow. A link has to get an impression for its position to be recorded: if your result sat on page 3 and the person only looked at page 1, no position is counted for that search. And where the report shows a dash instead of a number, there is no recorded position because nobody saw your site for that query.

Position also counts elements, not links. In most results, each element takes one position, however many links it holds, so every link inside a carousel or a knowledge panel shares that element’s number. An AI Overview occupies a single position too, and all its links share it. Ads don’t occupy a position at all.

02.3

Counted by site, or by page

The same searches can produce different totals depending on how the report groups them. In the chart, and when the table is grouped by query, country, device or date, data is counted per property: two of your links on one results page make one impression. Grouped by page, each URL is counted separately.

Google illustrates it with one person who searches, sees three pages from the same site and clicks all three:

Google’s example: three results from one site, all clicked
Metric	Counted by property	Counted by page
Impressions	1 for the site	1 for each URL
CTR	100%	33% per URL
Average position	1	2 for each URL

That is why chart totals and table totals can disagree, and why Google notes that CTR and average position are generally higher when counted by property, if several pages from the same site appear in the results.

02.4

The small print that changes a reading

Data goes to the canonical URL. Clicks, impressions and position for all versions of a page are usually assigned to the URL Google chose to represent it, so mobile and desktop versions aren’t split.
A redirect after the click changes nothing. If your site sends a visitor on to another page after they arrive, the click stays with the URL they clicked.
Searches inside Google aren’t clicks. A link that starts a new Google search, such as switching to image results, is a query refinement and records no clicks or impressions for you.
One number, many meanings. Google lists ways a position of 11 might arise: the top right of a knowledge panel on desktop, the first result on page 2, or a row of image results. It recommends watching change in position over time, particularly sudden change, as well as the number itself.
Your own search won’t match. If the report says 5 and you see your page at 8, that is expected: the figure is an average, and results vary with search history, location and other factors.

02.5

Which number matters

Google doesn’t ask you to chase any one of these. On impressions it says to aim for meaningful ones, from people who will find the page useful, rather than simply more. On position, its traffic-drop guide says not to focus too much on the absolute number: “Impressions and clicks are ultimately the measure of success for your site.”

The numbers make most sense read together and over time. The next stop puts all four on one sixteen-month timetable.