SEO

Three SEO reports side by side: what the numbers show and what they hide

Skin Body Health, Allen Jacobi Law and Pure Hope Weight Loss share a pattern, and an average position that hides a lot.

2 min read · Based on: Skin Body Health, Allen Jacobi Law, Pure Hope Weight Loss

Search Console reports are easy to read as a score: more clicks is good, fewer is bad. Put three of our SEO projects next to each other and the picture gets more interesting.

At a glance

Skin Body Health

clicks: 216
impressions: 7.3K
average CTR: 3%
average position: 17.5

Allen Jacobi Law

clicks: 471
impressions: 9.85K
average CTR: 4.8%
average position: 17.5

Pure Hope Weight Loss

clicks: 201
impressions: 3.83K
average CTR: 5.2%
average position: 24.5

1. The same average position can give different click-through rates

Skin Body Health and Allen Jacobi Law both averaged position 17.5, which is usually the second page of results. One earned a 3% click-through rate and the other 4.8%. Position decides whether people can see you. The title, the description and how closely the page matches the search decide whether they click.

2. A lower average position can still come with a high click-through rate

Pure Hope Weight Loss has the lowest average position of the three (24.5) and the highest click-through rate (5.2%). Average position blends every search the site appears for. A handful of well-matched searches ranking near the top can lift the click-through rate while many others sit far down the results. The report we were given does not break this down, so we treat it as a question to investigate, not a conclusion.

3. Impressions set the ceiling

Allen Jacobi Law had the most impressions (9.85K) and the most clicks (471). Pure Hope had the fewest impressions (3.83K) and the fewest clicks (201). Clicks follow impressions, so growth means appearing for more of the searches your customers really use. In the Allen Jacobi Law and Pure Hope projects that included adding long-tail keywords, the longer and more specific phrases people type. Skin Body Health started with targeted keywords and fresh content.

What we would do next with these reports

Open the query-level report and see which searches produce the clicks.
Rewrite titles and descriptions on pages with many impressions but few clicks.
Strengthen pages sitting between positions 11 and 30 with better content and internal links.
Track enquiries from search, not only clicks.

Figures come from the Google Search Console screenshots supplied with each project.

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