Search Console - Average position vs Page Views

[logoderivv]

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.

[MattRoney]

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.

[MattAntonino]

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.

[logoderivv]

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.

[MattAntonino]

There are a few parts to this:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.)

4. 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?

[ClaytonJ]

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.