Contents
- Average position is weighted by impressions, not by clicks: high-volume queries carry more weight.
- It degrades mechanically when a site starts ranking on new queries, even as traffic rises.
- It only means something at constant scope: on a given query, or on a filtered set.
Definition
Average position is a site's average ranking in search results, calculated across every impression in the period.
Formula
Average position = sum of positions at each impression, divided by the number of impressions.
Worked example
A site moves from an average position of 8.2 to 14.6 in three months while its clicks rise 40%. It has not got worse: it started appearing on hundreds of new queries, ranked far down, which pull the average lower.
Orders of magnitude
No useful benchmark in absolute terms. What you track is the position on a defined set of queries, or the distribution of queries by position band.
The most common mistakes
- Tracking it as a global objective. It punishes widening visibility, which is exactly what you want.
- Comparing it between two sites. The query scopes have nothing in common.
- Forgetting to filter out brand traffic. Brand queries, ranked first, hide the state of everything else.
Where to find the metric
In Search Console, the Performance report, Average position column, filterable by query, page, country and device. Google Ads had a separate notion, since replaced by top of page impression rates.
Frequently asked questions
The Adwise team connects Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, GA4 and Search Console so agencies and freelancers can run their campaigns from a single place.