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
-
% 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 -
Migrated website but Google Analytics still displays old URL's and none new?!
I migrated a website from a .aspx to a .php and hence had to 301 all the old urls to the new php ones. It's been months after and I'm not seeing any of the php pages showing results but I'm still getting results from the old .aspx pages. Has any one had any experience with this issue or knows what to do? Many thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | CoGri0 -
Google Analytics - Keywords (not set) or ( not provided) WHY???
In Analytics, most of my visitors are landing on my home page, but when trying to see wich keywords they use, most of them are: (not set) or ( not provided) See screencast: http://screencast.com/t/AKwPW76qLVsN Can you tell why? What is going on? Is there a way to solve this? Thank you, BigBlaze
Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze2050 -
How do I manually add transactions to Google Analytics
We are seeing Google Analytic's drop transaction on our site so therefore all the figures are skewed. Is there a way I can manually add transactions to GA to cover the missing one?
Reporting & Analytics | | Towelsrus0 -
Localhost:4444 Showing Up in Google Analytics
Hello All, Lately in my Google Analytics account I have noticed a referral source labelled: localhost:4444 The number of visits is really high from this source, but I have no idea (no clue!) what it actually means. Can anyone shed some light on what this is about? Should I be creating some sort of filter to screen out this as a referral source (assuming it is not legitimate)? Many thanks in advance. Cheers!
Reporting & Analytics | | Robert-B0 -
Setting up Google Analytics default URL
If someone has set: the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com) then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website... ... and then set the permanent 301 redirect in the htaccess file to redirect to the www address (http://www.mysite.com). How less accurrate will my GA analytics measurements be considering the default url within GA is non-www and the permanent 301 redirect in htacess is to the www-address? Anyone know how reliable GA reports are until the default url in GA analytics is changed to match what is the redirected url in htaccess file? _Cindy
Reporting & Analytics | | CeCeBar0 -
AW Stats vs Google Analytics
Hey Moz Community, I am looking to get opinions on the best practice for analytics/traffic analysis. From experience I know that AW Stats reads high and Google Analytics reads low for traffic for reason in this article http://www.smartz.com/blog/2009/01/23/analytic-confusion-%E2%80%93-awstats-vs-google-analytics/ It drives me a little nuts how far off both are for some pages. I have one article that shows 100 views (GA) and AW stats shows 5 times that number of views. Any suggestions or systems you recommend? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | johnshearer0