Search and the web
The mean rank of your appearances weighted by how often each occurred — a single number averaging page one with page nine, and among the most misread statistics in search.
Also called Avg. position · Средняя позиция
Formula
Average position = Σ (position of each impression) ÷ Impressions
- position of each impression
- the topmost rank among your URLs for that query, at that moment
- Impressions
- every appearance in the period, at any rank, for any query
It is an average over impressions rather than over queries, so the queries you appear for most often dominate it — and those are usually the ones you rank worst for, because low ranks accumulate impressions across a wide tail.
Two properties make this number behave in ways its readers do not expect. It moves when the search engine changes how widely it considers you, with no change to any ranking. And it can only be interpreted per query: the mean of a bimodal distribution sits where nothing actually is.
There is a legitimate use, and it is narrow. Tracked for one query, over time, on one device class and one country, average position is a ranking. Everything above that level of aggregation is a summary of unlike things.
- Average position, all queries
- 35.9
- “data nexus”
- 24 impressions, 3 clicks
- “retention rate”
- 165 impressions, 0 clicks
- Queries in the period
- 192
The brand query converts and one glossary term produces almost seven times its impressions with no clicks at all. Both are inside the 35.9, and the number describes neither. Worse, the figure improves if the site stops appearing for the terms it ranks badly on — so a rising average position is compatible with losing reach.
A supplier reporting that average position improved from 42 to 35 has said nothing about whether any page ranks better. The same movement is produced by dropping out of a tail of queries at rank eighty. Ask for the figure per query, for the specific queries that matter, and ask what the impression count did at the same time.
Quantities derived from the counts. Each is only as sound as the definitions beneath it.
Cannot be computed without
- Impression
- One appearance of your page in a result set a person was served — counted whether or not they ever scrolled far enough to see it.
Knowing the definition is not the same as being able to check the figure. These are the procedures that do the second thing.
- Testing a ranking report
- “You now rank in the top ten for 47 keywords, up from 12.” · 25 minutes, 5 questions.
The definitions are the easy part. Whether the figure on your dashboard was computed this way is a different question, and usually the more expensive one.