What is average position in Search Console?
Average position is the mean of your highest-ranking result's position across searches. How Google calculates it, and why it can mislead.
Updated
Average position in Google Search Console is the average of your site’s topmost position in search results, across every search where your site appeared. If you show up at position 2 in one search and position 8 in another, your average position is 5.
How does Google calculate average position?
- For each search where your site appears, Google takes the position of your highest result. Lower numbers are better; 1 is the top.
- Those positions are averaged, weighted by impressions. Searches where you didn’t appear at all are not counted.
- Position counts every element on the page, not just blue links, so a result inside a carousel or AI feature also has a position.
Why can average position mislead?
Because it mixes very different searches into one number. A page’s average can rise or fall without any real change in rankings:
| Query | Impressions | Position |
|---|---|---|
| trail running shoes | 1,000 | 3 |
| shoes (new, after an update) | 4,000 | 45 |
| Combined | 5,000 | 36.6 |
Here the page still ranks 3rd for its main query, but it started appearing deep in results for a broad term, so its average dropped from 3 to about 37. Nothing is wrong. Always filter by query (and country and device) before reading position.
What should I use it for?
Trends for one query on one page, and finding striking distance keywords that rank just off the top spots. Read it with impressions and CTR, never alone.