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.
New GSC Search Analytics report: position mixes web and image
-
Dear all,
I am auditing a site in Google Seach Console (GSC, formerly Google Webmaster Tools) and find the Position data in the new Search Analytics report very, very improbable.
I suspect that even if you filter by "SearchType = web", the Position data does count the ranking of images in the Image search widget as a search position.
Has anybody observed this as well?
Here is the case: the site targets a quite broad search query in the bath room domain. I have made a number of searches with private browser sessions, different browsers, alternative IP address via a VPN, etc, and the look of the search result in the relevant geographical market is consistently the following.
- Three Adwords ads
- #1 organic result
- Images universal results widget
- #2-10 organic results
The site’s first page ranks consistently around #15 of the organic results, hence on the second SERP. But it also consistently has an image in the Images universal results widget (usually #2 or #3).
This is consistent with the data I have in Moz Analytics.
Yet, the GSC Search Analytics report shows 2.2 as average position with the default SearchType=Web setting.
I have done the search over and over, and never has a PAGE of the site ranked that high.
Is there any public information how exactly the position is calculated? I mean, something more precise than the very general information on https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6155685?hl=en
Is there any way to get the correct position/ranking?
Thanks for sharing your experience!
-
Thanks for your observations!
That'd be a really biggy, wouldn't it, if the Position data was really biased by Image boxes?
Did you find any statement by Google on this topic?
Schöne Grüße nach Berlin
Frank
-
When I compare image and web, I can see that image searchers aren't counted as web searchers.
When I check positions, I can see that some search querries of one of my sites are at positions 1.1 to 1.9 based on web and 3.1 to 45.4 based on image search. Thats working - as long as it is picture search vs. web search. And as long as the search querry has no image-box.Now your question - I checked another side wich has a lot of rankings in image boxes in web search. And I think you are right:
- Search Console is telling me I am on the web at postion 1.1
- When I Google it, my picture is the first one in a picture box at the top of the Results.
- Than there is a website (wich is not mine)
- And finally I am on Positon 2 (Picture Box, other Website, my Website)
- the same with a lot of querries. Google is here counting my image result (first result) in a picture box @ web search.
Tried to find some clients - found one. A search result he simply couldn't have with his website. But he had - it was a picture somewhere in the middle of the SERPs. I also saw that google seems to count each image as one result.
So finally you are right. If you have a Picture somewhere in an Image Box (wich is displayed in a Web Search) is a Web Search Position in Google Search Console.
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
-
Google Search Console not loading some resources
When I check an URL with Search Console it cannot load some page resources, even from other domains (like: ssl.google-analytics.com, www.facebook.com and www.google-analytics.com).
Reporting & Analytics | | TottiataHUN
Have any of you experienced this issue?
Steps to reproduce: open Google Search Console check an URL click "View crawled page" link select "More info" tab click "Page resources" {?}/{?} couldn't be loaded When I check the listed resources, all of them can be loaded from a web browser.
So I do not understand why Google cannot load them.
And there is no additional info why the resources could not be loaded.
Any ideas? google-search-console-other-error-1.png google-search-console-other-error-2.png0 -
Conflicting average position data from Google Search Console?
I'm looking at Google Search Console data in Google Analytics, specifically Average Position as given in the Landing Page report, and the same metric broken out by mobile and desktop in the Devices report. In the Landing Page report, I see an aggregated average position that's much higher/worse than an actual average of what is reported for mobile, desktop and tablet traffic under the Device reporting. For example: Mobile: 5 Desktop: 5 Tablet: 5 So the average still should be roughly 5, right? Why would the Landing Page then show an aggregate Average Position of 8? I wouldn't expect to see a precisely same average given that different device types have different proportions that could render differently when the buckets are combined, but this is a huge swing. In fact, the aggregate Average Position as given in the top level Devices report is closer to 5 than to the 8 shown in the Landing Pages report. (These aren't actual numbers, but are illustrative of what I'm seeing, by the way.) Unless I'm missing some vital difference in the way that Average Position is reporting for the Landing Page report versus the Device reports, it doesn't seem like this should be possible. What am I missing?
Reporting & Analytics | | BradsDeals0 -
% Change - Google analytics - how to calculate?
Hi All,
Reporting & Analytics | | JohnPalmer
I have two dates with two different numbers I want to calculate the "% Change" like google analytics, The numbers of June 2015 - 127,931 sessions
The numbers of June 2014 - 90914 sessions please tell me what is the %Change. Best. J0 -
Help With Understanding Chrome Web Store Analytics
Hi all, our website Creately is listed in the Chrome Web Store. Its not an extension or an app, but just a link to app which users can use to quickly log into the app and start drawing their diagrams. They do provide you a way to add Google Analytics to track some visitor data like user visits. But we want to figure out from which sections of Chrome Web Store is sending us traffic. When looking at the Source/Medium reports I can see the following. chrome-ntp-icon / (not set) chrome-app-launcher / (not set) chrome-ntp-launcher / (not set) chrome-app-launcher-search / (not set) chrome-app-launcher-info-dialog / (not set) I'm guessing these indicate where we're getting the traffic to the Chrome web store page but I can't seem to find any information about what they mean. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | Nishadha0 -
How to identify rising keywords in analytics?
Hi Guys I just spotted in the Google Analytics > Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimisation > Queries section a keyword that on the 27th Feb went from generating 35 impressions per day to 2000 impressions per day. This was down to people searching for a newly launched product. Does anyone know how I can identify any increases like this easily? I only came across this by accident, and I am 1 month behind the times. It would have been ideal to pick this up closer to the time so I could capitalise and write some great content on the topic. Thanks Paul
Reporting & Analytics | | TheUniqueSEO0 -
Google Analytics and DNS change
Our new alumni application is going be tested at domain uva.imodules.com . We are going to collect traffic data with a Google analytics account number UA-884652-XX. So going to uva.imodules.com/myPage.html would send its data to Google Analytics with that account number. Then when it is ready for production we are going to just change the domain name of the application and switch the DNS over to dardencommunity.darden.virginia.edu . So going to dardencommunity.darden.virginia.edu /myPage.html would send its data to Google Analtics with that SAME account number. Aside from having the testing domain data in the same profile are there any other issues/problems we may run into?
Reporting & Analytics | | Darden0 -
Setting up Google Analytics for Subsites
I currently have one main .com site and am planning on launching geo-location subsites .co.uk, .com.au, .ru, etc... Traffic will flow between both sites and some of the content on the subsites will be duplicate and therefore include a canonical tag to the main site. I want to set up GA to capture who is going to the subsites and vice versa and correctly capture crossover traffic. Any advice on implementing advanced analytics directly (or links to sources that will direct me the right direction for this project)
Reporting & Analytics | | theLotter0