🔍 What GSC organic keywords represent
Organic keywords are the search queries that generated impressions or clicks for your website in Google Search during the selected date range. They are not limited to keywords ranking in position one.
The report can include queries where your site appeared in any eligible organic position, including positions one, two, ten, or lower. A keyword may also appear if it received impressions but no clicks.
📊 How keyword position works
Google Search Console reports an average position for each query. This is calculated across the impressions recorded for that keyword during the selected period.
For example, if a query appeared in position one for some searches and position five for others, its average position could be three. Therefore, a keyword shown with an average position above one does not indicate an issue with the data.
Position can vary based on the searcher, location, device, search features, and the date of the search. The value is an average, not a fixed ranking for every search.
🧭 How to review the keywords
- Navigate to the GSC Performance section of the platform for the relevant project or domain.
- Locate the organic keywords report within that section.
- Review metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position.
- To focus on specific keywords or metrics, export the data and apply filters externally as needed.
✅ Key points to remember
- The organic keyword list is not a list of position-one keywords only.
- Keywords can be included when they generated impressions, clicks, or both.
- Average position summarizes performance across impressions in the selected period.
- A position greater than one is expected and does not mean the keyword is excluded from the report.
- For a position-one-only analysis, export the data and filter the position metric to the desired range externally.
💡 How to explain this to customers
You can describe the report as a list of organic Google searches where the site appeared or received traffic. It is not restricted to first-place rankings. The position shown for each keyword is an average across the selected date range, so it may be higher than one even when the site ranked first for some searches.
🛠️ Need more help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.