Definition

An impression in Search Console is counted each time a link to a site is shown in a Google search result viewed by a user, including standard blue links, image thumbnails, carousels and other search features.

Counting rules vary by surface: a standard text result counts as one impression each time it appears on a viewed results page; results inside a carousel only count when the user scrolls to the result; image search counts a thumbnail when it appears in the visible block. Multiple results for the same site on the same page each count separately. Impressions are one of four core metrics in the Performance report, alongside clicks, click-through rate and average position.

Examples

• Blog post tracking

  A blog post ranks on page 1 of Google for a query searched 5,000 times in a week. Search Console records roughly 5,000 impressions for the post on that query, even though only 400 users clicked.

• Image search

  An e-commerce site's product photo appears as a thumbnail in Google Images. The impression is counted when the thumbnail enters the visible image grid for a user.

Sources

• Search Console Help — Performance report (metrics)

Related terms

• Click-Through Rate
  The percentage of search impressions that resulted in a click. CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100.
• Average Position
  A Search Console metric showing the average ranking of a site's topmost result for a query across all impressions, where 1 is the highest position.
• SERP
  The page a search engine returns in response to a query, including the list of results and any features such as ads, knowledge panels and rich snippets.
• Organic Search
  Search results that aren't paid for by an advertiser, ranked by the search engine's algorithm based on relevance to the query.
• Featured Snippet
  A search result that surfaces an answer extracted from a single web page in a highlighted box at or near the top of Google's results page.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Google Search Performance
• Keyword Research