Impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position are the four metrics at the heart of Google Search Console's Performance report. Each measures a different aspect of your visibility in Google Search — and misunderstanding how they're calculated leads to misinterpreting your SEO data.
Impressions
An impression is counted each time a URL from your site appears in a Google Search results page (SERP) for a user's query. The URL doesn't need to be clicked — simply appearing counts.
Metric name: impressions
Key nuances:
- An impression is counted per result, per query, per user
- If the same user searches for the same term twice, you get two impressions
- Results that require scrolling to see (below the fold) may or may not count as an impression depending on the search type
Clicks
A click is counted when a user clicks a link to your site from a search result. Each click brings the user to a page on your domain.
Metric name: clicks
Clicks measure actual traffic delivered from search — the most direct indicator of how much organic search is contributing to your visitor count.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
CTR is clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage.
CTR = (clicks / impressions) × 100
Metric name: ctr
A CTR of 5% means that for every 100 times your URL appeared in search, 5 users clicked through. CTR is heavily influenced by:
- Ranking position — position 1 averages ~28% CTR; position 10 averages ~2%
- Title and meta description quality — compelling copy drives more clicks
- Rich results — schema markup (FAQs, ratings, recipes) can increase CTR significantly
Average Position
Average position is your site's average ranking in search results for a given query or page.
Metric name: position
Google calculates position this way:
- For each search, it records the topmost (best) position your URL appeared
- It then averages those positions across all searches in the selected period, weighted by impressions
Important: Position is an average. A position of 4.2 for a keyword doesn't mean you always rank 4th — you might rank 3rd on some searches and 7th on others.
How They Relate
| Metric | What changed | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions up, clicks flat | More visibility, same CTR | You're ranking for more queries but not attracting clicks |
| Clicks up, impressions flat | CTR improved | Your title/description became more compelling |
| Position improved, no click increase | Lower competition for a low-value query | The query may have low intent or low search volume |
Common Mistakes
- Treating position as an exact rank — position is an average across many searches and users. Use it for trend analysis, not as a precise rank checker.
- Comparing raw impressions across different date ranges without accounting for seasonality — search volume fluctuates by season, news events, and algorithm changes. Year-over-year comparisons are more reliable than week-over-week.
Using Sequel
Connect your Google Search Console account to Sequel and ask:
"Show me my top 20 queries by impressions with their CTR and average position"
"Which pages have the highest impressions but lowest CTR this month?"
"What's my average CTR for queries ranking in positions 5 through 10?"
Sequel queries the Search Console API directly and returns clean, tabular results — no manual report configuration needed.