Impressions vs clicks in Google Search Console

The four Performance metrics

How Search Console defines each metric
Metric	What it counts
Impressions	How often a link to your site appeared in search results a user saw.
Clicks	How often users clicked through to your site. Clicks that stay within Google, such as expanding a result, don’t count.
CTR	Clicks ÷ impressions.
Average position	Your highest position in each search, averaged across all the searches where you appeared.

When does an impression count?

For a normal page of results, an impression is counted when your link is on the page the user loaded, whether or not they scrolled down to it. Results on page two only count if the user opens page two.

Carousels, expandable sections and infinite-scroll results such as mobile image search are different: the item usually has to be scrolled into view or expanded before it counts.

How average position is calculated

For each search, Search Console takes the highest position any of your links held, then averages those values. If one search shows you at positions 2 and 6, and another at position 3, your average position is 2.5.

Because it’s an average across every query, country and device, it can move without any change in your real rankings, for example when you start appearing for a new query at position 40. Filter to a single query and market before you read too much into it.

High impressions, low clicks: what it means

Common patterns
Pattern	Likely reason	What to try
Many impressions, average position beyond 10	You appear on page two or lower, or for loosely related queries	Improve the page for its main query, or accept that those impressions won’t turn into clicks.
Position 1–5, CTR well below your other pages	Your title or snippet doesn’t match what searchers want, or a competitor stands out	Search the query yourself, compare the results, then rewrite the title and meta description.
Good position, low CTR on a question query	Google answers the question on the results page	Target the follow-up searches people make after the quick answer.
Impressions jump, clicks flat	You started showing for a new, broader or lower-ranked query	Look at which queries were added before changing the page.

These are starting points, not diagnoses. Check the query, country and device before changing a page.

Compare CTR between pages at a similar position for similar queries. A page at position 8 will almost always have a lower CTR than one at position 2.

Things to keep in mind

Recent data is preliminary and can change. Use complete days for comparisons.
Some rare queries are left out of query reports to protect user privacy, so query rows can add up to less than the chart total.
Search Console reports Google Search only. Clicks in Search Console and sessions in your analytics tool are measured differently and won’t match exactly.

Find these pages without exporting a spreadsheet

HyperGSC lets ChatGPT, Claude, Codex or Cursor read your Performance data with read-only access, so you can ask for high-impression, low-CTR pages in a sentence.

Low CTR prompt

Use HyperGSC for [my property]. For the last complete 28 days, list queries with at least 100 impressions, an average position of 1–10 and a CTR below my site average. Show the page, clicks, impressions, CTR and position for each.

Sources and further reading

References checked on Oct 19, 2026.