What is average position in SEO, and how do you measure it in Metabase?

Average position is the weighted mean rank of your pages in search results — weighted by search volume when it comes from a rank tracker, by impressions when it comes from Google Search Console. The two conventions measure different things, and the metric only means anything when the weighting and the keyword set are held fixed.

What average position measures

A single rank number for a single keyword is legible; a portfolio of thousands of rankings is not. Average position compresses the portfolio into one trend line — at the cost of hiding which end of the distribution moved. Weighting is what keeps the compression honest: multiply each position by its search volume (or impressions) so the average reflects where searchers actually are, not how many filler keywords you track.

The number is also convention-dependent. Google Search Console averages the topmost position over every impression, across all queries, devices, and locations — so gaining visibility on new long-tail queries makes it worse. A rank tracker reports the best position per keyword per crawl over a fixed set you chose. Comparing one to the other, or blending them, produces a chart that contradicts itself.

What data does it need?

• A seo_keyword_positions table with keyword, target_domain, stat_date, position, and search_volume, synced from your rank tracker on each snapshot.
• A gsc_performance_daily table with stat_date, query, impressions, clicks, and position for the impression-weighted view.
• A stable, versioned keyword set — the average is only comparable across time if the set underneath it didn't change.

SQL patterns

SELECT
  stat_date,
  ROUND(
    SUM(position * search_volume)::numeric
      / NULLIF(SUM(search_volume), 0),
    2
  ) AS volume_weighted_position,
  ROUND(AVG(position)::numeric, 2) AS unweighted_position,
  COUNT(*) AS keywords_tracked
FROM seo_keyword_positions
WHERE target_domain = 'yourdomain.com'
  AND stat_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '6 months'
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

SELECT
  date_trunc('week', stat_date) AS week,
  ROUND(
    SUM(position * impressions) / NULLIF(SUM(impressions), 0), 1
  ) AS impression_weighted_position,
  SUM(impressions) AS impressions,
  SUM(clicks) AS clicks
FROM gsc_performance_daily
WHERE stat_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '12 months'
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

Pitfalls

Where this metric applies

• Google Search Console + Metabase — impression-weighted position at query × page × day grain
• Ahrefs + Metabase — tracked keyword positions with search volume for proper weighting
• SE Ranking + Metabase — daily rank snapshots segmented by search engine and location

Related

Metrics

Dashboards

FAQ