Impression
In one line
Impressions count how many times your pages were shown in the search results — the foundational metric in Google Search Console, paired with clicks, CTR and average position.
Going deeper
An impression is logged whenever your page is shown in the search results, even once. Google Search Console pairs impressions with clicks, CTR and average position, which makes it the natural starting point for SEO diagnosis.
Impressions earn meaning in combination, especially with CTR. Plenty of impressions but a low CTR usually points at title or meta drift; few impressions in the first place tend to mean a keyword-coverage or indexing issue.
Under GEO there is a new layer to watch: GSC's Search Appearance now includes an 'AI Overview' line in eligible markets. Standard impressions and AI-answer impressions don't mean the same thing, so the metric is gradually splitting into per-surface views.
Related terms
Google Algorithm
Google's algorithm is the layered system of hundreds of ranking signals that decides what shows up where in the SERP — periodically reshaped by core and topic-specific updates.
SEOKnowledge Panel
The Knowledge Panel is the SERP feature that surfaces entity info — brands, people, works — in a card on the right of the results, rendered directly from Google's Knowledge Graph.
SEOLocal Pack
The Local Pack is the SERP block that surfaces three nearby businesses on a map for queries with local intent — and the headline visibility surface for local SEO.
SEODwell Time
Dwell time is how long a searcher stays on a page before bouncing back to the results — frequently cited as an indirect signal of whether the page actually satisfied the query.
GEO·AEOAI Overview
Google AI Overviews is the AI-generated summary that appears above the standard results in Google Search — one of the most prominent zero-click surfaces today.
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