Impressions

Example

In March, Search Console shows that a mountain hotel’s site had 40,000 impressions and 600 clicks. The clickthrough rate is 600 ÷ 40,000 = 1.5%. In April impressions rise to 55,000 while clicks stay at 600. It looks like progress, but the rate has fallen to about 1.1%: the site is appearing more often, including for searches that bring no guests, or on results pages where an answer sits above the links and nobody clicks.

In advertising the same number is read differently. An Instagram ad with 50,000 impressions and a reach of 12,500 people was shown to each of them four times on average. At €200 spent, the cost per thousand impressions is 200 ÷ 50,000 × 1,000 = €4.

Why it matters for a business

Impressions measure visibility, not results. They rise when a site starts appearing for new searches, and they also rise when it appears in low positions that almost nobody clicks. That is why they are always read alongside clickthrough rate, position and enquiries. More impressions with flat clicks is a reason to look closer, not to celebrate: the searches may be the wrong ones, the titles weak, or the answer already sitting on Google’s own page.

One caution when comparing periods: Google occasionally changes what it counts and how. A sudden step in impressions with no change on the site deserves a check before anyone draws conclusions.

How to improve it

• More impressions for the right searches: new pages for the questions buyers actually ask.
• More clicks from the same impressions: clearer titles and descriptions, and structured data for rich results.
• In advertising: watch frequency, and widen the audience or refresh the creative when the same people see an ad too often.

Impressions are one of the three figures in the monthly report of our SEO work, next to rankings and enquiries.