Measurement. Reviewed October 29, 2026
Impressions
Also called: Search impressions
An impression is one appearance of a page or ad in search results or on a screen, counted whether or not anyone clicked it.
In practice
Impressions rise before clicks do. A new page appears on page two for a month, earning impressions and no clicks, then moves to page one and the clicks follow. Rising impressions on non-brand terms are the first sign the work is landing.
Impressions on the company name are reputation. Impressions on the trade and the city are marketing.
Related terms
- Click-through rateClick-through rate is clicks divided by impressions, and in search it rises steeply with position: a first-place result earns many times the clicks of a tenth-place one.
- Non-brand searchNon-brand search is any query that does not include the business's own name, so non-brand clicks are the clearest measure of whether marketing, rather than reputation, is bringing in new customers.
- Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is Google's free report of how a site performs in search: which queries show it, how many clicks and impressions it earns, which pages are indexed and what errors Google found.
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