Glossary

SEO reporting glossary

This glossary defines the 25 terms that show up in a Search Console client report, from impressions and average position to hidden queries, the map pack and AI Overviews. Each entry gives a short definition, shows how the term appears in a RankUpside report on sample data, and says how to check it yourself in Search Console.

What it doesn't do: It covers search reporting terms only. Ads, social and analytics vocabulary live elsewhere.

Updated Oct 22, 2026

Search Console basics

Impressions: An impression is counted each time a link to a site appears in a Google results page a searcher loads, in most cases whether or not they scroll to it. Impressions show reach, not interest. They can climb on informational searches that never turn into customers, so judge a client's progress on buyer clicks, with impressions as context.
Click-through rate: Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions: the share of times a result was shown that someone clicked it. A low CTR at a high position usually has one of three causes: a map pack above the result, an AI Overview answering the question, or a title that doesn't match the search. Each needs a different fix.
Average position: Average position is the mean of the topmost position a site's result held each time it appeared in Google, weighted by impressions. It blends every device, location and day, so it rarely matches one live search. Lower is better: 1.0 means the top result every time, and a fall from 8 to 25 means fewer people see it.
Hidden queries: Hidden queries are searches Google counts in Search Console but doesn't name, to protect searcher privacy. Their clicks show in a page's totals but not in the queries table, so the named searches add up to less than the page. On many small business sites, most clicks come from hidden queries.
Page indexing: Page indexing is whether Google has crawled a page and stored it in its index, so it can appear in search results. A page that isn't indexed gets no impressions or clicks, however good it is. Search Console's URL Inspection tool shows a page's status, its last crawl and the reason when it's left out.; Not indexed
Search intent: Search intent is what a person wants when they type a search: to learn something, compare options, find a specific site, or hire and buy. The same topic can carry different intents, such as "how to clean gutters" and "gutter cleaning near me". Sorting a client's searches by intent shows which traffic can turn into customers.

Why clicks move

Map pack: The map pack, also called the local pack, is the block of Google Business Profile listings shown with a map for local searches, usually three businesses. It sits above the regular results, so a site can rank #1 organically and still get few clicks. Rank in the map pack depends on the Business Profile, not the page title.; Map pack
AI Overview: An AI Overview is a summary Google writes with AI and shows above the regular results for some searches, with links to the sources it drew from. It answers many how, what and comparison questions on the results page, so pages ranking below it can get impressions with very few clicks.; AI answer
SERP features: SERP features are the parts of a Google results page other than the standard organic links: the map pack, AI Overviews, ads, People also ask, video and image blocks, and others. They push organic results down the page and often answer the search directly, so a page can hold its position and still lose clicks.
Geo-tagged title: A geo-tagged title is a page title that names a city, such as "Gutter Tiger Stripes Fairview". It helps on local service searches but hurts on searches that don't name a place, like "tiger striping on gutters": the result looks local, so searchers elsewhere skip it. Leading with the searched words usually fixes it.; City in title
Ranking drop: A ranking drop is when a page loses clicks because its position in Google fell, not because fewer people searched or a map pack or AI Overview appeared. Both signals move together: clicks down, average position worse. The usual causes are a competitor's stronger page, an outdated page, or lost internal links.; Losing rank
Healthy drop: A healthy drop is when a page's impressions fall sharply but its buyer clicks hold steady. It usually means the page stopped showing for loosely related searches that never brought customers, after a content change or a Google update. The traffic that mattered stayed, so there's nothing to fix.; Healthy drop
Demand drop: A demand drop is a fall in clicks caused by fewer people searching, while the page holds its position. Seasonal services are the usual case: searches for them fall outside their season every year. Impressions fall with clicks, average position stays flat, and the same searches show lower volume in keyword data.
Keyword cannibalization: Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on the same site compete for the same search, so Google alternates between them and neither ranks as well as one strong page would. In Search Console it shows as one query with impressions split across several URLs and positions that swap week to week.
CTR curve: A CTR curve maps each search position to the share of searchers expected to click that result. Clicks fall fast after the top three. Published curves are averages across many sites, so a client's own curve, fitted from its Search Console data, predicts its clicks far better, especially on local and non-branded searches.

Fixes

Striking distance: Striking distance keywords are searches where a page already ranks just outside the top results, usually positions 4 to 15. A small edit, such as putting the search in the title and H1 or adding internal links, can lift them into the top three or onto page one, where most clicks go.; Close to the top 3
Live rank check: A live rank check reads Google's results for one search, from one location and device, at one moment, and records where a site appears and what else is on the page. Search Console's average position blends every appearance over weeks. The live check shows what a searcher sees today; the average shows the trend.
Geo-grid: A geo-grid checks a business's map-pack rank for one search from many points laid out across its service area, such as a 7×7 grid of 49 points, and shows the results as a colored map. It reveals where the listing ranks well and where it fades, which a single check from one address can't show.

Revenue

Buyer clicks: Buyer clicks are clicks from searches that show intent to hire, buy or check a price, such as "gutter repair near me" or "gutter guard installation cost". They leave out how-to questions and brand searches. Tracking them shows whether SEO work is reaching people who might become customers, which total clicks and impressions can hide.
Click-share attribution: Click-share attribution assigns a won deal to the page the customer landed on, then splits its value across that page's searches by each search's share of clicks. Search Console never says which search one visitor typed, so the split is a stated rule, and clicks from searches Google hides keep their own line.
Allocated revenue: Allocated revenue is won-deal revenue assigned to a landing page and its searches by a stated rule, not by tracking each visitor. In RankUpside the rule is click share: each deal goes to the page the customer landed on, then splits across that page's searches by their share of clicks. Hidden searches keep their own line.
Revenue per click: Revenue per click is the won-deal revenue allocated to a page divided by the search clicks that page received in the same period. It turns a page's traffic into a dollar rate, so you can compare pages and size a fix by what an extra click on that page has been worth.

Market data

Cost per click: Cost per click is what an advertiser pays Google Ads when someone clicks their ad for a search. In an SEO report it signals how much a search is worth to businesses: a high CPC usually means buyers. Multiplied by organic clicks, it prices search traffic at ad rates, which is called ad-equivalent value.
Ad-equivalent value: Ad-equivalent value is what a client's organic search clicks would cost if bought as Google Ads clicks: each search's clicks times its cost per click, added up. It gives a dollar figure for search traffic on day one, before any won deals are connected. It's an estimate of replacement cost and never counts as revenue.

Reporting

White-label report: A white-label report is a client report that carries only the agency's brand: its name, logo and colors. The software that built it stays invisible to the client. Fuller white-label setups add a custom report domain, a branded email sender and a client login, which not every tool offers.

Chips mark the terms that are RankUpside findings: the report names that cause and its fix when the rule fires. Sample numbers on term pages come from a fictional business on a reserved .example domain.

Glossary questions.

What does "hidden queries" mean in Search Console?

Search Console counts some clicks without naming the search behind them, to protect searcher privacy. Those clicks show in page totals but not in the queries table. RankUpside shows that share for every client instead of leaving it out.

Is average position the same as rank?

No. Average position is the mean of the top position a site held each time it appeared, across devices and locations. A live rank check shows one results page at one moment. The two often differ by a few places.

Which of these terms are RankUpside findings?

Map pack, AI answer, City in title, Losing rank, Healthy drop, Close to the top 3 and Not indexed are finding types in RankUpside. Each comes with the evidence and the fix. Demand drop and keyword cannibalization are defined here but aren't flagged as findings yet.

See these terms in a real report layout.

Every term here shows up in the weekly client report RankUpside builds from Search Console, with the cause and the fix next to it.

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What your client sees each weekSample data

Oxbow & Vane

Weekly search report · Copperline Gutters

Sep 14 – Oct 11, 2026 vs the 4 weeks before

Copperline Gutters got 27 clicks from named buyer searches in the last 4 weeks, up 23% from the 4 weeks before. Google hides the search terms behind 84% of all 289 search clicks. Rankings rose across the site: pages that steadily show up are up about 2.4 positions.

Buyer clicks23%

27from 22

All search clicks14%

289from 253