Impressions
How often someone saw a link to your site on Google, as Search Console counts it in its performance reports for Google Search, Discover and News.
Impressions is one of the metrics in Search Console’s performance reports: “How often someone saw a link to your site on Google” (Search Console Help). An impression means someone has seen, or potentially seen, a link to your site in Google Search, Discover or News. The same reports show clicks, average position (for Google Search only) and click-through rate, which is clicks divided by impressions.
How Search Console counts one
- In general, an item counts once it appears on the current page of results, scrolled into view or not, as long as the user doesn’t have to click to see more results.
- In a carousel or an expanding result such as an FAQ, the item typically has to be scrolled into view or expanded.
- With infinite scrolling, such as image search on mobile or a card in Discover, the item typically has to be scrolled into view.
- Scrolling or paging away and back during a single query or session doesn’t add another impression.
- Links in AI Overviews follow the standard rules.
Data usually goes to the canonical URL Google picks for each page. Grouped by property, several links to your site in one result count as one impression; grouped by page, each page gets one. Google notes that these heuristics “are subject to change.”
What to aim for
Someone has to see a link to your site before they can click it, which is why Google calls impressions important. It also says to aim “not simply for more impressions, but meaningful impressions,” meaning being seen by people who will find your information useful. In Google’s view, being seen or clicked by people who don’t find your content useful and quickly leave is not a healthy way to build traffic and loyalty.
Related terms
Tools for it
Sources
- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7042828 (Oct 12, 2026)
Updated Oct 12, 2026.