Overall average rank
also called Site average position across tracked keywords
Definition
The mean of your per-keyword average ranks across every tracked keyword where your site holds a position, as a single headline figure.
How it's calculated
Each keyword's impression-weighted average rank is collected, rows without a position are dropped, and the remaining values are summed and divided by the number of keywords, rounded to two decimal places. Computed in the MCP over the returned rows. Note the weighting boundary: each keyword's own value is impression-weighted, but this mean over keywords is not, every keyword counts once.
- Numerator
- sum of the per-keyword average ranks
- Denominator
- count of tracked keywords with a position
Scope, grain and dimensions
- Grain
- One segment × period × medium, across the segment's tracked keywords.
- Dimensions
- device · country · brand
- Required filters
- segment_id · selected_period · source_medium
- Aggregation
- Already an aggregate. Do not average it again across periods or segments; recompute from the keyword rows.
- Metric type
- derived metric · results-page position (1 is best; higher is worse)
Data sources
Where you'll see this
Named reports that normally include this metric.
Competitor search reportKeyword ranking and movement reportSERP volatility and algorithm update report
Skills and analyses that use it
Skills carry the judgment; the analysis verbs do the reading.
Analysis verbs
competitive_keyword_ranking
Method rungs and levers
A rung tells you what a movement here can and cannot explain, read the rungs below it first.
Ask Quattr
- "What is our average position across tracked keywords?" Simulate this →
- "Did our overall ranking improve this period?" Simulate this →
How to read it
A directional headline only. Because every keyword counts equally, a long tail of low-demand keywords can move it while the keywords that matter sit still. Treat a move as a prompt to look at the keyword rows, not as a result.
Caveats, freshness and failure modes
Unweighted across keywords: the demand behind each keyword is discarded at this step, even though it shaped each keyword's own value.
The keyword rows it averages come from a single five-thousand-row read spanning every tracked domain in the segment, so a wide segment or a long roster silently truncates the set the mean is taken over.
Keywords whose position resolves to zero are dropped before the mean. That filter is load-bearing: the semantic layer defaults a keyword with no impressions to zero, and counting those rows would drag the average toward one.
The denominator is the count of keywords with a position, so keywords entering or leaving the tracked set move the figure by themselves.
It is scoped to one segment's tracked keywords, never to the whole site.
- Freshness
- ~1 day behind, Daily observation, available the following day.
Common failure modes
- Reporting it as "our average position" without the tracked-keyword scope.
- Comparing it across periods in which the tracked keyword set changed.
Not the same as
The confusions that cause the most wrong decisions.
Overall average rank Average SERP rank vs competitors Compare definitions →
The per-keyword figure is impression-weighted; this mean over keywords is not, so the two answer different questions and can move in opposite directions.
Watch this metric read in a real run
All runs →
Related metrics and workflows
Verification
A definition is the smallest part of this.
The measurement matters because something acts on it. Here is the rest of the showcase, in the order most people find useful.