Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Reporting & Analytics
    4. Google Analytics - Average Position

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Google Analytics - Average Position

    Reporting & Analytics
    5
    7
    6795
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Cocoonfxmedia
      Cocoonfxmedia last edited by

      Hi

      Just trying to get some clarity on Google Analytics Average Positions in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation".

      For a very competitive keyword Google Analytics is saying i am on average position of 6.  Is this Page 6?  I am assuming position six would be 1.6?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Travis_Bailey
        Travis_Bailey @Cocoonfxmedia last edited by

        There are a lot of factors that can influence where a page may rank for a given query. One of the largest differences would be a query that seems to have local intent. If I search 'pizza', there's a good chance I don't care about the history of pizza. I want a pizza place near me.

        So if we skip over the map pack, I see Pizza Hut, Domino's and Andy's. There's no way Andy's should rank #3 organic for 'pizza' for everyone in the United States. It only has three locations in my home town. So it might rank... maybe 403 for everyone outside of my hometown (just for the sake of argument, and ease of calculation). Perhaps it ranks a little higher for someone just outside the city limits... let's say... #8 organic. But that #8 doesn't matter. It's the highest and the lowest rank.

        3+403=406/2=203 So the average position for 'pizza' is #203. If you drop that number in front of Andy after paying you for months, he won't be happy. That's why you'll have to tell Andy that it's a high/low average based upon a complicated algorithm, and that he can easily see he ranks #3 organic when Google knows your approximate location.

        As for the average position you see above all of the queries in Google Analytics, that's just an X-bar-bar. X-bar-bar is the average of averages. You simply add up all the average positions and divide by the number of keywords. You'll see the number is pretty close.

        It helps if you have a little background in statistics or statistical process control. In case that was clear as mud, here's something on basic SPC that can help you better understand the calculations in GA. I was a machinist, prior to all this internet marketing nonsense. 😉 It helps.

        Edit: One thing I forgot to mention: If an average position still seems off - set the secondary dimension to Country. I've found instances where sites show up for queries in foreign countries. This is despite explicit national targeting in Google Search Console.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • anthonydnelson
          anthonydnelson @Cocoonfxmedia last edited by

          This is the Average Position for your Search Impressions.

          Example: Locally, you got 500 impressions at average position of 6.0. Nationally, you got 0 impressions at 122. It would report 500 impressions at an average position of 6.0.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Cocoonfxmedia
            Cocoonfxmedia @Alick300 last edited by

            What you've put makes sense, and I understand what google are showing now. but the calculation doesn't make much sense.

            Great Answer thank you.

            Travis_Bailey 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Alick300
              Alick300 last edited by

              Hi,

              I'm not agree with Lawrence on this . Calculation of Average position in Google search console under 'Search analytics' tab or in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation" is complicated. Google changes definition in 2012 and Here is how Google explains it:

              Let’s say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 3, 6, and 12. Jane also searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 5 and 9. Previously, we would have averaged all these positions together and shown an Average Position of 7. Going forward, we’ll only average the highest position your site appeared in for each search (3 for Nick’s search and 5 for Jane’s search), for an Average Position of 4.

              Please also check this thread @ http://searchengineland.com/google-changes-definition-of-average-search-ranking-position-109289

              Hope this helps

              Thanks

              Cocoonfxmedia 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Cocoonfxmedia
                Cocoonfxmedia @Laurensvda last edited by

                thought so... but I think it's wrong in Google as we're no way competing nationally or local for the said keyword.

                anthonydnelson 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Laurensvda
                  Laurensvda last edited by

                  No, pos. 6 is the sixth position on the first page.

                  Page six would generally be 61-70 depending on the type of SERP

                  Cocoonfxmedia 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • Meier

                    Google analytics suddenly stopped tracking all my landing pages

                    Hey guys. I love the new update of GA. Looks so clean. So, of course, I was excited to see how my landing pages were doing. I went to behavior, all content, all pages. And I noticed it's only showing me 19 pages out of the 93 I have indexed. And none of the top ones at all! Can't find them anywhere in GA! Anyone seen this before? Thank you so much

                    Reporting & Analytics | | Meier
                    0
                  • cceebar

                    "index.htm" for all url's in google analytics

                    I don't have this issue with other wordpress websites, only this one website, and I don't know what's causing the issue: Google Analytics is adding an "index.htm" to every single page on the website.  So it is tracking the pages, I see no errors - is it tracking the right page? When I click on the page link in a report, I naturally go to a "404 page not found" since the website address isn't "www.example.com/rewards/index.htm" - but instead the actual address would be:
                    "www.example.com/rewards/". I have navigated to View Settings in GA to insure "default page" is empty. Although adding anything else to this field does not effect the page url in analytics reports either. Could it be htaccess file - or a plugin effecting the htaccess file?_Cindy

                    Reporting & Analytics | | cceebar
                    0
                  • DaveGuyMan

                    Is it possible to use Google Tag Manager to pass a user’s text input into a form field to Google analytics?

                    Hey Everyone, I finally figured out how to use auto event tracking with Google Tag Manager, but didn't get the data I wanted. I want to see what users are typing into the search field on my site (the URL structure of my site isn't set up properly to use GA's built-in site search tracking). So, I set up the form submit event tracking in Google Tag Manager and used the following as my event tracking parameters: Category: Search Action: Search Value When I test and look in Google Analytics I just see: "search" and "search value." I wanted to see the text that I searched on my site. Not just the Action and Category of the event.... Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Do I need to set up a different event tracking parameter? Thanks everyone!

                    Reporting & Analytics | | DaveGuyMan
                    0
                  • Towelsrus

                    How do I manually add transactions to Google Analytics

                    We are seeing Google Analytic's drop transaction on our site so therefore all the figures are skewed. Is there a way I can manually add transactions to GA to cover the missing one?

                    Reporting & Analytics | | Towelsrus
                    0
                  • inhouseseo

                    How can I verify if someone is Google Analytics certified?

                    I am looking to hire an IC to help with analytics. I need to know how I can verify if they are GA certified. They gave me a link to a http://www.starttest.com profile. Is that legit?

                    Reporting & Analytics | | inhouseseo
                    0
                  • pwpaneuro

                    Custom Variables to track Vimeo plays on website with Google Analytics?

                    Hello Everyone, I'm trying to track how many times a Vimeo video is played on my site via GA. Does any of you have any knowledge of how can this be achieved? I've read the documentation and came up with this: After the iframe embed i insert this: Of course the GA is loaded in the header. Does not work, at least i cant see anything in analytics. I have set up the segment as per the attached image. Thanks in advance! Alex E6XnO.png

                    Reporting & Analytics | | pwpaneuro
                    0
                  • eMagineSEO

                    Google Analytics: Difference Between Goal Conversions & Goal Completions

                    When using Google Analytics, what is the difference between total goal conversions and total goal completions? We have many goals set up in a lead generation environment. Therefore, the only element of conversion is submitted a lead and arriving on the "Thank You" page. THose thank you pages are tagged accordingly. When we run reports though, the number of "Total Goal Conversions" and "Total Goal Completions" never match up.

                    Reporting & Analytics | | eMagineSEO
                    0
                  • Alexey_mindvalley

                    Google Analytics - paid & unpaid visits messed up

                    I guess Google Analytics messes up my paid and unpaid visits. In the list of top 10 kw's sending non-paid traffic it shows 5 very short kw's that we don't rank for at all (checked with RankTracker - we are not in first 50 search results). But these are the kw's we advertise for... One more proof: Webmaster Tools 'Search queries' shows 10 times less 'Clicks' from organic search than Google Analytics. Is there anyone who is experiencing this kind of problems with GA? Is there anything you can do with it?

                    Reporting & Analytics | | Alexey_mindvalley
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.