I am looking at my analytics and seeing 'average position' fluctuating wildly for my target keywords. Does a position of 5 actually mean I am the fifth link down? Sometimes I see ads, snippets, and maps taking up the whole screen. Does the 'position' account for those, or is it purely about organic blue links? I am trying to explain this to my boss and want to be precise.
Average position represents the mean ranking of a URL across all search queries, including organic links, paid advertisements, and feature snippets, which often results in fluctuating data that does not represent a static list order.
1 answer
Average position is a flawed aggregate metric that treats every pixel row differently, making it functionally useless for precision reporting. It essentially calculates the mean rank of your URLs across all impressions, but it conflates organic links, snippets, and ads into a single noisy number.
