There has been a lot of confusion about Search Analytics, specifically what counts as clicks and how positioning is reported. When various search features are included in the search results, and when some sites may or may not show them, it can be hard for some site owners to figure out what some of the data is saying.

Google is looking to clarify this with a new document “What are impressions, position, and clicks?”  It goes into details about the different ways Google calculates positionings and how it determines what a click is – and why those clicks seem to not add up when drilling down deeper into the reports.

It does include some interesting information, such as how Google is positioning clicks in the knowledge panel in the right sidebar, something that many local SEOs have been puzzling about – Google considers these clicks as numbered AFTER the bottom of the regular search results, so a knowledge panel click can have the perception of being a very low position… but due to Google’s calculations, if the same URL is in the regular search results, then that URL is calculated for positioning.

The full document is well worth the time to read, since every site will have things calculated differently depending on whether they show things such as images, featured snippets or AMP.

You can read it here.