Understanding Average Position in Google Anaylitics
-
Hello here,
I have a question about the Queries report under "Search Engine Optimization" in Google Analytics: is the "Average Position" information a reliable one? I have a lot of queries that appear, from that report, to average first position, but when I verify that on Google by connecting anonymously, I can't even find my result on the first page! To me, that information is worthless and makes me think all the rest of that report is unreliable. If anyone can help me to understand it, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance for any thoughts.
-
Thank you Dimitrii for clarifying how it works, what you describe makes sense even though it is still worthless for me.
Thank you again for your help, appreciated.
-
Hi there.
Well, yes, quite honestly, i don't use that metric at all. The way it works is explained here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6155685?hl=en and here is a moz post on the accuracy: https://moz.com/ugc/testing-the-accuracy-of-avg-position-for-search-queries-in-google-webmaster-tools
The problem is that it's literally average. for all phrases it ever ranked for, all locations, devices etc. So, if somebody searched with some weird configuration and the page ranked number one, even if that page ranks #100 for everybody else, the average rank will be #50, see the picture?
hope this helps
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
-
Unsolved Google Analytics (GA4) recommendations for SEO analysis?
Guides on Moz and elsewhere mostly refer to Google Analytics' Universal Analytics (UA). However, UA is being replaced with GA4, and the interface, options, and reporting are very different. Can you recommend a clear, thorough, and effective walkthrough of how to set up useful SEO reports in GA4? Is there a simple tool you recommend that will help connect historical data from UA to GA4 when GA4 is the only option available? If there's no simple tool, what values do you recommend retaining from UA for effective historical reporting? How would you use them? At minimum for reporting, I'd want to show month-to-month changes and year-to-year changes (in percentages and in real numbers) for the following: all site visits all organic visits organic visits as a percentage of all site visits organic visits that led to a specific goal completion organic visits that led to any goal completion Thanks in advance for your help!
Reporting & Analytics | | Kevin_P1 -
Best top 5 actionable insights from Google Analytics
Buongiorno from 14 degrees C cloudy wetherby UK 🙂 With a whole gamut of books out there are written around the topic of "Actionable Web analytics" where you have to wade through chapters of how to suck eggs and how to get analytics part of your business culture (whatever! most clients who look after their websites are entry level Marketing Execs who pay the digital agencies to do the thinking for them) I'd like to cut to the chase and list out say a top 5 of actionable insights a client would actually give the time of day for so heres my top five, whats yours? 1. Landing page bounce - showing them the £5k landing page designed with no conversion thinking is turning off customers
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing
2. Synching up PPC campaigns to analytics and showing them how much money they are waisting
3. Goal funnels - Showing them there 20 step shopping conversion funnel gets abandoned at step 3
4. Non brand keyword traffic (although a stack of this gets blocked by "not provided" Big groan...)
5. Event tracking on there 10 page carousel anner showing them no one clicks on banners 2 - 10 So under the strict label of "Actionable data only" from Google analytics whats your best insights you share with clients in the hope that they may actually give data reports the time of day! Grazie tanto,
David1 -
Google Analytics subdomain ecommerce tracking flatlines :-(
Buongiorno from 19 degrees C wetherby UK 🙂 This website http://www.philpotts.co.uk/ contains a shop sub domian @ http://shop.philpotts.co.uk/. I configured the site Ga analytics code to include the subdomain (see below code). I had to do this as i was getting refferal data from the actuall subdomain. But after following the instructions on p117 of cutroni's ga book things have gone wrong, mainly now eCommerce data has dissapeared 😞 So my question is please: "Why has installing the GA code above caused eCommerce tracking to suddenly go dead?" Grazie tanto,
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing
David0 -
Google Analytics "Undetermined" Keyword
Google analytics is suddenly showing a new keyword "undetermined". Traffic Sources > Sources > All Traffic with the primary dimension set to Keyword. It's currently our 13th keyword and it is displayed without parentheses around that you see with (not provided) or (not set). Anyone have any idea what this is? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Morris770 -
Google Analytics Tracking Code Queries
Hello, I have taken on a new client who has Google Analytics installed. The tracking code is set to 'single domain'. Recently they added a mobile site using a sub-domain (m.website.com) which means that Google Analytics is not picking up this traffic. I want to revise the account so that I have a master account (raw data) and then profiles for the mobile site, main domain (www.website.com) and one other for a sub-domain that they are using. I am aware that there is mobile specific tracking code however I thought it would be easier (re conversions/goals/eCommerce tracking) to not use this and by changing the account to 'multiple domains' we could also get data for another sub-domain that they are using . My questions are: Am I right to want to use individual profiles over web properties. If not please explain why. When installing the tracking code (where the profile number is changing) I believe that I need to add that code with the changing profile number to the sub-domain sections. So my question is a) is that correct, and b) if I use a profile number on a sub-domain section will the master account still gather the data for the main URL as well as all sub-domains. If I change the master account from using 'single domain' tracking code to 'multiple domain' tracking code will this affect historical data? Will I lose the data? When changing from 'single domain' tracking to 'multiple domain' tracking does this affect eCommerce tracking? Or do we only need to be adding the additional lines of tracking code that allow sub-domains to be tracked? The web developers are using asynchronous code however half is in the and the other half is at the bottom of the source code. Given that traffic is being reported in the Google Analytics account should I have any concerns that the code is split? I have done a lot of reading but seem to be going around in circles, so your help is much appreciated! Thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | Unity
Dinny0 -
Implications of Google discontinuing Website Optimizer
Hi Guys, As most of you probably know, Google is discontinuing Website Optimizer and introducing Experiments within Google Analytics. However, doesn't this mean that now, every site you want to run an experiment for has to be using Google Analytics? This is possibly one of the motivations for them making the change I guess? I also find it inconvenient that every 'experiment' now has to be based on improving a pre-defined goal in Google Analytics. This means that for a lot of situations we'll be creating goals just for the experiment and the clients actual goal conversions will appear quite inflated. I guess we'll just have to filter the new 'goals' out from the actual goals.
Reporting & Analytics | | David_ODonnell1 -
Does Google Analytics parse visits from search apps?
Does anyone know if Google Analytics reports visits to your website differently from individual search apps like Google and Bing? Or do they just treat them the same as any other keyword visit from Google or Bing search engine? I suppose the end result is probably the same as in the Google app you're using Google so it would just be a different access point versus a new tool. I'm just curious if there is a way to see how many Mobile visits are coming from the apps vs the browser. For me personally I have the Google and Bing iOS apps installed but rarely use them, opting for the Safari search bar 99% of the time.
Reporting & Analytics | | nsauser0 -
How to change a url for google analytics account
We recently changed the url of a client's website. Is there a way to change the url on the ga account instead of creating a new account so that we don't lose comparative data? Thanks! Sorry- I know this is a novice question.
Reporting & Analytics | | marketing12340