How Reliable is the Avg Query Position in GA?

[znotes]

Hi Moz Community,

I wanted to know how reliable the average position data is for queries in Google Analytics search console report. I know this report is fairly new this year and the numbers are calculated a bit differently than they were in the old search engine optimization report.

I want to know what the biggest differences are between this search console report vs. the old SEO report in GA. I'm also pretty confused about how GA reports on the average position. Obviously it's an average position of whatever date range your choose. But for instance, if your site shows multiples landing pages for one search query will it roll that into the average or just take the landing page that ranks higher? Does the position average take into account video or photo serp results and is this the average across mobile, desktop and tablet?

This number has always been a guess since it's sampled data but I want to know how accurate it is. I read this article in 2014 (linked below) but I'm not sure if it all still applies now that that data might be presented differently.

https://moz.com/ugc/testing-the-accuracy-of-avg-position-for-search-queries-in-google-webmaster-tools

Any answers or discussions would be great here.

Thanks

[znotes]

I've heard a lot about STAT, what's your experience with them and in your option how is their ranking data better than GA's?

Thanks

[znotes]

Yep, trying to incorporate them in a rankings report but I find it to be slightly different from Moz rankings.

[TheSymmetran]

Are you using these numbers for a report?