Impressions are counted by Google Search Console at the moment a result would be visible if the user scrolled to it. On desktop this is generous — an impression is logged even for results the user never sees.
How it is measured
Search Console logs an impression when a URL is loaded into the SERP HTML. For image and video packs, an impression is only logged when the user scrolls the row into view.
Example
A page ranked at position 15 might accumulate 10,000 impressions per month with only 40 clicks — a click-through rate of 0.4%, typical for the second page.
How SEM Optimiser reports it
Impressions are imported from Search Console and paired with the tracked position for the same keyword-URL combination, so you can identify pages that appear often but are not clicked.
Related terms
- CTR (Click-Through Rate)
Click-through rate is the percentage of impressions that result in a click, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
- Average Position
Average position is the mean SERP position a URL held for a query across all impressions in a given date range.
- GSC (Google Search Console)
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that reports how a site appears in Google Search, including impressions, clicks, position, and indexing state.
- Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is the practice of monitoring a website's position in search engine results for a defined set of keywords over time.