Search Console - Average position vs Page Views
-
Hello,
I would like to find out relation between Average position and Views, one of our sites have strange activity.Average position going up but Views going down in Google Webmaster tools. I mention exactly views to be more specific because clicks could fluctuate due to CTR but views should stay the same.
Anyone can describe what could going on ? I notice on other sites that on some days when Average Position drops 50% less than normal views going up on some day, but overall I can not see any relation ship between Average Position and Views.
-
Hi Dani! Did Matt or John answer your question? If so, please mark one or more responses as a "Good Answer." It'll give them some bonus MozPoints, and it helps us keep track of things.
-
You have products that get sold at Valentine's and impressions dropped after Valentine's but avg position went up? Yes, that's related. I would say you can't really judge impressions on time-specific events like Valentine's Day if you sell things related to that holiday. You should see them go back up around Easter if you sell candy, at least.
Give it a month or so, see if things normalized away from the holiday. If so, you're good to go.
-
Hi,
Thanks for you replies.
Yes I do mean impressions when i said views, i like to count impressions more than clicks because ctr could drop but impressions should stay approx same in relation to average position in my opinion except as you said those queries related to some event. I got a lot of long queries in shopping niche so they could be related to Valentine day thats could be one of the reasons in traffic spike but those queries are showing up as "not set" so can not check for sure.
Right now volumes are not that big but its over 5000 impressions and I still see declining in number of impressions compare to days before Valentine and average position as i said much higher than before.
So I decide to finish experiment and do not make any changes at all for at least another week to see if impressions would still go down while average position would stay in place.
-
There are a few parts to this:
-
Is overall search volume going down for the terms? You may see an increase in ranking for, say, "Jeb Bush campaign" but after this week, traffic is going to plummet so even if you got to #10 last week and #1 next week, you'd get more views last week.
-
Were the views before somewhat excessive? Do they fit what you believe the search volumes should be? For instance, I have a client who's on page 3 of a main term. He looks at page 3 every day. I don't think he ever clicks page 2 though. So he's responsible for at least 30-50 views per month on that term on Google. But he never looks at page 2. So if you were on page 3 with him, you'd get many more views than if you then improve to ranking on page 2.
-
Average position is often manipulated by your social graph on G+. If you have more than 500-1000 people on Google+, you could definitely see average rank go up (as more friends & connections see your link) but views go down (if they've already clicked your site and know what it is.)
-
Similarly, you could see views go down as people become familiar with your brand. I know most of the SEO brands in my market. But if a new one comes in, they'll get a lot of clicks from me & other competitors in the next 2-3 months. But over time those views will decrease.
I don't put a lot of stock in average position to be honest. I like "Views" as a leading metric but only when clicks start following behind. If they don't, check meta descriptions. But avg is just too ... weird. Five views from friends and 5 views from non-connections can move your average up quite a lot from 10 non-connections.
Also, the volumes you're looking at - are you talking about 50 views? Where "big" changes are still really just 10 people not looking? Or are you talking 1500 where yes, it's that significant?
-
-
Firstly have you limited the scope of the search to the relevant country?
When you say views, assuming impressions. If so we see it is as not usual... the correlation between the two can be limited for some pages. I find it relatively good for queries. Over the 90 days it is usually shows more consistency and a more realistic correlation. I have an issue that my CTR was 3% for a client on page 1 for a keyword getting a 300 clicks a month - then the keyword drops to page 2, CTR goes to 10% but gets 20 clicks. ie the CTR goes up but clicks goes down....
I personally use clicks as my measurement on WMT's and the other three as "helpers" to try and identify what is happening.
Not sure if that assists but hope it does.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
My site is showing indexed in search console but not appearing in Serps
hi, i have recently made sites.google site and submitted to search console but when I copy paste in google , its not appearing
Algorithm Updates | | alan-shultis0 -
Internal pages ranking over the homepage: How to optimise to rank better at Google?
Hi, We have experienced a shift in SERP from internal pages ranking over website homepage for more than a year. Previously website homepages used to rank for the primary keyword like moz.com for "SEO". Now we can see that internal pages like moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo been ranking for the primary keyword "SEO". Google is picking up these "what is ABC" pages than the homepage. All our competitor sites are ranking with these internal pages which are about "what is (primary keyword)". We do have the same internal pages "what is....", but this pages is not ranking; only our homepage is ranking. Moreover we dropped more than 15 positions after this shift in SERP. How to diagnose this? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
On page vs Off page vs Technical SEO: Priority, easy to handle, easy to measure.
Hi community, I am just trying to figure out which can be priority in on page, off page and technical SEO. Which one you prefer to go first? Which one is easy to handle? Which one is easy to measure? Your opinions and suggestions please. Expecting more realistic answers rather than usual check list. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Where can I find a list of CTRs by search engine position, beyond the top 20?
I'm trying to find a comprehensive list of CTRs by search enginge position. The most exhaustive list I've found is this one: https://www.advancedwebranking.com/cloud/ctrstudy/ - which shows CTRs by industry for the positions 1-21. I'm interested in seeing the rates for lower positions as well - does anyone in the community know any (preferably recent) resources for this? Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | PrebenKaas0 -
Doorway Algorithm Update Affecting Location Based Pages?
Hi all, I read this article concerning the doorway algorithm update - http://searchengineland.com/google-to-launch-new-doorway-page-penalty-algorithm-216974 This quote is what got my attention: "How do you know if your web pages are classified as a “doorway page?” Google said asked yourself these questions: Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site’s user experience? Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific? Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic? Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality? Do these pages exist as an “island?” Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?" We utilize location based pages for ourselves and a few clients too. **Example Case: ** -We attempt to rank for "keyword city/state" - "keyword city/state" - "keyword city/state" The keywords will often be the same such as "AC Repair" or "Physical Therapy" etc. with city / state combination such as "Tulsa, OK" "Seattle, WA" etc. The goal is to rank locally for those terms (NAP is applicable in some circumstances). Does the above case classify as a Doorway page? According to that definition, it does. However, this is a business that services that area. Some don't have physical address there but they do service that area (whether it be AC Repair or Website Design). Please advise me as to what a doorway page is exactly & if my practice is in-line. Thanks, Cole
Algorithm Updates | | ColeLusby0 -
Big hit taken on Google Search in Jan - Any Ideas?
Hello, I manage a news site that gets new items posted daily. We had had a pretty even keel with Google search and ranking for some time now only on the 9th Jan we took a massive drop and have no recovered except for one big spike on the 29th January. The only think we had done differently was not post as much over Christmas for about a week as people were on holiday but if this was the reason for it the posting is back to normal now and has been since the 6th Jan and nothing has recovered. The site is wjlondon.com - any ideas greatly appreciated. Thank you
Algorithm Updates | | luwhosjack0 -
How did my Page Authority and Page Rank disappear?
I've hit a problem. A couple days ago my site's page authority was 51 and the PR was 3 and now they're 1 and 0 respectively. The developer did adjust some of the code in the site in the past couple days but that shouldn't have affected this. It was last cached by Google on the 5th. Can anyone offer some good advice? If it helps the page is www.duracard.com
Algorithm Updates | | Andrea.G0 -
Google removing pages from Index for Panda effected sites?
We have several clients that we took over from other SEO firms in the last 6 months. We are seeing an odd trend. Links are disappearing from the reports. Not just the SEOmoz reports, but all the back link reports we use. Also... sites that pre Panda would show up as a citation or link, have not been showing up. Many are these are not Indexed, and are on large common Y.P or other type sites. Any one think Google is removing pages from the Index on sites based on Panda. Yours in all curiosity. PS ( we are not large enough to produce quantity data on this.)
Algorithm Updates | | MBayes0