Google Search Console · Metric
What is Average position?
Average position, also called keyword position, is the mean ranking of a site for a query or page across all the impressions it received in a period, as reported by Google Search Console. A value of 8.4 means the result typically appeared around the eighth organic slot.
- 1
- 2your page
- 3
- 4your page
- 5your page
- 6
- 7
- 8
Shown at 2, 4 and 5: an average position of 3.7.
- Data source
- Google Search Console
- Type
- Metric
- Formula
- Average position = sum of positions across impressions / impressions
Why it matters
Because it averages every impression, including rare deep-page ones, the number can worsen when a site starts appearing for many new queries, even while its best rankings improve. Position and ranking describe the same thing from two ends: ranking is the outcome you work on, position is the number Search Console gives you for it; because it is an average across impressions, a page can be "position 4.6" while never having sat at 4 or 6.
How to read it
In practice, read average position together with impressions: a stable position on rising impressions means growing visibility, while a worsening average during rapid growth usually just means many new queries entered at low positions. Per-query position is the actionable number; the site-wide average is only a temperature reading. Google computes it from the topmost position a property's results occupied on each impression, so a page appearing twice counts its better slot.
In a Data Studio report
In a dashboard the average position scorecard is best read next to impressions and clicks rather than alone, and the query table gives each keyword its own position with a period-over-period delta. A distribution chart, keywords in the top 3, in 4-10, beyond 10, turns the single average into a shape you can act on.
Where to find it in Google Search Console
Search Console: Performance, then Search results, with the Average position card enabled (it is off by default); per query in the Queries tab.
