Impressions · Click-through rate (CTR)

How are impressions counted?

Google Search Console counts one impression whenever your link is on the search results page a customer is viewing. It doesn't matter whether they actually scrolled down far enough to see it.

Even if two or more links to your site appear in the same search, they're counted as one impression in the chart totals. So it's more accurate to think of impressions as "chances to be seen" rather than "times a customer noticed you."

Naver Search Advisor only counts impressions in web-search-related sections. The blog search section, information sections like businesses and attractions, and search ad sections aren't included in impression and click numbers.

So treat impressions as a sign that "your page was picked as a candidate for that query." Naver also explains that the impressions metric can be used as a sign that a page has made it through crawling and indexing and been matched to queries.

How should I read average position?

Average position is the average of the highest spot your link held each time it was shown. A position is only recorded when there's an impression; searches where you didn't appear at all aren't counted.

Because it's an average, it's easy to misread. If you're #2 for one query and #40 for another, the average looks like around #20, but in reality you're doing very well on one and barely visible on the other.

So it's better to look by query and by page rather than at the site-wide average. In particular, looking separately at queries that include your business name and those that don't shows how you're really doing.

For example, searches for your business name, like "Haneul Hair," tend to show high positions and click-through rates. Generic queries like "Yeonnam-dong hair salon," on the other hand, often start low and climb slowly, so mixing the two makes you look better than you really are.

How do Google Search Console and Naver Search Advisor numbers differ?

They calculate click-through rate the same way, but count different scopes and time frames. Rather than adding the two tools' numbers together or comparing them directly, it's more accurate to compare each one with its own previous month.

Naver updates impression and click data based on search data from about 1 week earlier and shows the last 90 days. Google shows the last few days of data as "preliminary" and finalizes it later.

For a small business, opening both tools once a month, around the same date, is enough. Checking daily just makes you anxious about small ups and downs.

What should I fix first when my click-through rate is low?

When CTR is low, start by revising the title and description shown in search results for your pages with the most impressions. Changes to low-impression pages rarely make a visible difference, so they come later.

For example, if a flower shop's "Order a bouquet" page shows up a lot for "Mangwon-dong bouquet" but hardly gets clicked, try adding what customers choose by to the description, like "Same-day orders 3 hours ahead · From KRW 30,000 · In-store pickup."

Even after you revise the title and description, the search engine may pick a different sentence from your page content to show. In that case, put a sentence that clearly answers that query in the first paragraph of the page.

A change can also make results worse. If that happens, switch back to the previous wording you noted down and try a different direction, so always keep a copy of the text before you change it.

1. 01In the Search Console Performance report, set the date range to the last 3 months and turn on clicks, impressions, CTR and average position.
2. 02On the Pages tab, sort by impressions and pick out pages with an unusually low CTR.
3. 03Click that page, switch to the Queries tab and check which queries it showed up for.
4. 04Search those queries yourself and compare competitors' titles and descriptions side by side with yours.
5. 05Revise the title and description and note the date. Also request indexing through URL Inspection in Search Console.
6. 06After 4 or more weeks, pick a period of the same length as before the change and compare CTR.

What should I suspect if impressions suddenly drop or spike?

First check whether it's a natural change, like seasons or days of the week. It's normal for a bingsu (shaved ice) cafe to see impressions rise in summer and for graduation bouquets to rise in February and then fall again, so compare with the same month last year.

If the drop can't be explained by the season, check in order whether pages fell out of the index, whether you changed page URLs or titles, and whether a setting blocking search was added. You can check with the Page indexing report and URL Inspection in Search Console.

If impressions jumped but clicks stayed flat, you may have started showing up for queries that have little to do with you. On the Queries tab, check whether the new queries are things your customers would actually say.

• Is it down even compared with the same month last year?
• Did you recently change page URLs, titles or menu structure?
• Has the number of non-indexed pages grown in the Page indexing report?
• Did robots.txt or noindex settings change after a redesign or server move?
• Were there days when your website was slow or showing errors?

What are common misconceptions about impressions and CTR numbers?

A high click-through rate isn't automatically good. With 10 impressions and 5 clicks, your CTR is 50%, but the page may barely be seen at all.

It's also normal for clicks in search tools to differ from visitor counts in your analytics. They count things differently, such as the same person clicking several times, or someone leaving before the page finishes loading.

Search tools don't tell you what happened after the click. To know whether you're really getting more customers, measure how many times people tapped your call or booking buttons separately in a visitor analytics tool.

• Believing there's a fixed number, like "#1 gets an X% click-through rate"
• Looking at average CTR with business-name searches and generic searches mixed together
• Changing the title again after looking at only a few days of numbers
• Writing about queries unrelated to your business just to get more impressions