Impressions
In SEO, an impression is counted each time a URL appears in a search result that a user could have seen — regardless of whether they scrolled to see it or clicked on it. Impressions are reported in Google Search Console and provide a measure of search visibility: how often a site's pages appear in relevant SERPs.
Impressions are influenced primarily by keyword rankings. A page ranking on page one for a high-volume keyword generates many more impressions than a page ranking on page three, even if both pages technically appear in results. Impression data, combined with click data, yields the CTR metric, which together tell a more complete story about how a page performs in search.
Why it matters for SEO
Impressions are the foundation of the search visibility funnel. They represent the pool of potential traffic available to a page. Monitoring impression trends helps SEOs identify when rankings are fluctuating, when new keywords are being indexed, or when SERP layout changes (such as the addition of SERP features) are affecting visibility even without ranking changes.
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