Anyone who’s wondered whether the ‘Average Position’ metric in Google Search Console may be hiding more useful data is not alone.
Anyone who’s wondered whether the ‘Average Position’ metric in Google Search Console may be hiding more useful data is not alone. It’s one of those metrics that looks straightforward on the surface, but can quickly lead us astray. Much like averaging our sales across every country in the world, it tells us something – but what?
A few filters will turn this misinterpreted metric from vague to valuable.
Let’s start with the basics: devices and geography. Mashing mobile and desktop data together is not smart. Mobile users scroll differently, click differently, and (common sense tells us) often have entirely different intent. Similarly, our search rankings might vary wildly from London to Lahore, so is averaging them what we really want?
Then there are branded keywords. These will (I hope) sit in the top spots, but non-branded ones could be lost in the Google wilderness. Segmenting by search intent also adds another layer — top ranking for ‘what is a blue widget?’ might feel great but also produce very few sales.
There are other distinctions we might like to consider, such as page type (home page, product pages, blogs etc), as well as new content vs old.
With a bit of slicing and dicing, ‘Average Position’ is a really great data point to monitor. But it needs to be filtered carefully, focusing on specifics, such as the segments above, the search terms and the page types that really matter.