Click-through rate
Clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage; in search it measures how compelling a result is at the position and in the SERP…
Analytics
Impressions
In Search Console, the number of times a site's links appeared in results for a query, counted when the link is scrolled or expanded into view.
In full
Impressions are counted per property and per query, and links that require scrolling or expansion count only once they enter view. Impressions from generative AI features are included on the same basis. Because impressions capture visibility independent of clicks, they are the more robust top-line metric in a zero-click environment, and impression trends often reveal SERP layout changes that clicks alone would misattribute to ranking loss.
Example
A page's impressions rise 40% while clicks fall, revealing that an AI Overview now sits above it.
Related terms
Average position
Search Console's mean of the highest position a site achieved for each impression of a query, averaged across those impressions.
Google Search Console
Google's free property-level reporting and diagnostics service covering search performance, indexing status, enhancements, manual actions…
Zero-click search
A search where the user's need is satisfied on the results page itself — by a snippet, knowledge panel, calculator or AI Overview — and no…
Generative AI performance report
Search Console views introduced in 2026 showing impressions and clicks for a site's links inside Google's generative AI features on Search…