Before we get into answering this question, let's firstly discuss what is average position in google search console?
Google defines the average position in google search console as the average position of your site in search results. It is based on the highest position when someone performs a search. Do note that this can still be complicated by other Google features, such as the Google Carousels or even the knowledge panels.
So let's say someone types in a query related to your website and your webpage appears at position 1, 3, and 7. The top position, which is 1, is what gets counted.
Then there is another query where your website comes in at 2, 7 and 8. The top position in that case is 2.
To calculate the average position in google search console. Google looks at query one, which was 1, and then query two, which is 2.
So one plus two equals three, divided by two, equals 1.5. That is what you will see in Google Search Console.
You will see the average position in google search console for all your queries and web pages in the top right. However, if you want to do some analysis, I actually start looking at the queries themselves.
You tick the average position box, and that will come up on the right-hand side alongside clicks and impressions in orange.
What you might notice is that the average position in google search console says zero. You may think that means it is the best result. However, this is not true.
What this actually means is that the page is not getting any queries at all. It is not even showing up in Google when someone does a search. You will also notice that the impressions are zero. So even when someone types in your query, it is not showing up in Google at all.
If you are also seeing drops in impressions across other pages, have a read of our blog on why your Google Search Console impressions have plummeted.
This is actually quite a bad thing for your website. It usually happens if you have written a page that is very similar to your competitors. Maybe it has been copy and pasted, or you have used a lot of AI. Google may have penalised that webpage as a result. With AI search changing the SEO landscape, original content matters more than ever.
So having an average position of 0 is actually a very bad thing to have.
When clients come to me asking what 0 average position in google search console means, and why they are not getting any clicks and impressions, this is where we work to redo the whole page.
Even having a position of 116, for instance, is better than having a 0 average position in GSC. If you are curious about the broader picture of on page, off page and technical SEO, that blog is worth a read too.
I want to share a real client example. This was someone in the travel industry who came to me after their last agency had built their website using all AI. They asked what does 0 average position in google search console mean and why they were getting no results at all. This is a situation I see more and more when hiring an SEO expert becomes necessary after poor previous work.
What I tend to do when working with clients is show them the comparison that has been done. You can do that by hitting the compare feature. You will see options like the last 24 hours compared to a previous period, or 7 days compared to a previous period.
This is where I can show my clients the improvement.
In this case, the position for the previous 7 days for 9 terms were 0. Google did not like it at all, they were not ranking at all. The impressions were zero.
But after the work we did, 6 of their keywords had an average position in google search console under 10, in the first page of google. 3 of those keywords ranked an average of 1. This means they were taking the majority of all the traffic for our client.
That means I managed to increase the rankings from absolutely nothing, not even showing up in Google, to being listed on the first and second page of Google in just one week. The impressions went up from zero as well. You can see more results like this in our case studies.
The ultimate position is one and you cannot get higher than that. Position one is the best place to be. Our SEO optimisations that impact Google rankings blog goes into more detail on how to work toward that.
If you are experiencing a 0 average position for your keywords in Google Search Console, please reach out and we can look at what we can do.
If you want to learn more before reaching out, we also have a why your Google Search Console impressions have plummeted blog you can read.
It is the average position of your site in search results based on the highest position your page appears at when someone performs a search query.
A zero average position means your page is not showing up in Google at all. This probably means Google does not like your content on your webpage.
Position one is the goal. Anything above zero is a starting point, and from there the goal is to move up rank by rank. An SEO company like ours will always be monitoring google algorithms and your pages.
Yes. In the above client example, we moved queries on a page from zero to 1 in one week by redoing the page content entirely. How did we do it? We have over 10 years of experience and are very good at what we do!
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