Learn · Search · Beginner
Learn what clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position really count, how to set the report up, and how to check for known data problems before you act on a number.
By Dean Cruddace · 45 minutes to do · Updated · Last reviewed
The Performance report in Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google Search results through four numbers: clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. They count events in Google's results, defined by Google in a particular way.
It is easy to read more into them than they hold. This guide shows you how to set the report up, what each number means, and what to check before you decide a chart means something.
Google's own documentation says the report helps you see how your search traffic changes over time and which queries are most likely to show your site. It also warns that the position figure is a complex metric that can be misleading if you do not understand it. Knowing the definitions stops you drawing the wrong conclusion from a chart. See Google's overview of the Performance report.
In Search Console, open Performance and then Search results. Google says the default view shows clicks and impressions for the past three months. To see a drop or rise in context, choose the date filter and select Last 16 months, so you can check whether the same movement happened a year earlier. See Google's traffic-drop guide.
You will know it worked when The chart covers 16 months and you can compare the recent shape with the same months last year.
Above the chart, click the boxes for Total clicks, Total impressions, Average CTR and Average position. Then pick a granularity: Google says daily helps you detect issues or spikes, while weekly and monthly smooth out changes such as weekends and holidays. A dotted line marks preliminary data, which may change within a few hours.
You will know it worked when All four lines show, and you can tell which part of the chart (if any) is dotted and still preliminary.
Google defines an impression as a user having seen, or potentially seen, a link to your site. A click is a click that sends someone to a page outside Google Search, Discover or News; clicking the same result twice counts once. Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. Google says to aim for meaningful impressions, not simply more. These counts describe Google's results, not what visitors did afterwards on your site. See What are impressions, position, and clicks?
You will know it worked when You can explain each of the four numbers in one sentence, and say what it does not tell you.
For each query, the report takes the topmost position your site held, then averages those values across the queries where you appeared. Google's example: top positions of 2 and 3 across two queries give an average of 2.5. Google says a position number can mean different things in different situations, so watch how it changes over time, especially sudden changes. Your own search may show a different position: the report value is an average across all searches.
You will know it worked when You write down position as a trend (up, down or steady over time), not as a single fixed rank.
Scroll to the table and click through its tabs (Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance, Dates). Google says chart data is aggregated by property, so two results from your site for one query count as one impression. In the table, Queries, Countries, Devices and Dates are also aggregated by property, while Pages and Search appearance are aggregated by page, and Google says this usually explains differences between chart and table totals. Data is assigned to the canonical URL Google selects, not necessarily the address a visitor saw.
You will know it worked when If the chart total and a table total differ, you can say whether the grouping explains it.
If a number moves sharply, open Data anomalies in Search Console. Google says it records known issues from roughly the last 3 to 16 months, such as a change to aggregation methods or a logging error. Compare the dates listed with the date of your dip or bump. Google's traffic-drop guide also says to check this page first.
You will know it worked when You have noted whether a listed event overlaps the movement, or that nothing listed matches.
For longer history, Google's traffic-drop guide points to the Search Analytics API or bulk data export. Google describes the bulk export to BigQuery as a daily export of your performance data, with the exception of anonymized queries. Its anomalies page also records two days missing from bulk exports for some properties that will not be recovered, so an export can have gaps too.
You will know it worked when You have decided, and recorded, how your performance data will be stored beyond the report's own window.
Go deeper
Send Dean the property, the question you are trying to answer and what you have already looked at in the Performance report. You will get a reply from Dean, not a sales sequence.
