What Is Google Impression?
Google processes 88 billion searches every month, or 2 million every single minute, according to statistics from ComScore. For each of these searches, Google creates a list of what it deems the most relevant websites and offers it to the searcher. The search result page, or SERP, then shows both paid ads and natural search results. A Google impression is basically any time that a person views one of these ads or search result links.
Other People Are Reading
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PPC Impression
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PPC stands for pay-per click. This is a form of paid search advertising offered via Google's AdWords program. Users bid on certain keywords and their short ad gets displayed on relevant SERPs if they're the highest bidder. These ads appear alongside and above the main search results. In terms of PPC, Google impressions therefore measures how many times your ad is getting seen by Google users. Each impression is the equivalent of one ad view.
Google Instant
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If you have Google Instant turned on when searching, which is Google's default setting, then you'll see search results before you even finish typing. This is Google's effort to offer results faster. However, as you type, results appear and change as your word/phrase becomes clearer. Not every single ad or result that pops up counts as an impression. According to Google AdWords Help, a listing only counts as an impression if it either appears for at least three seconds, is clicked on by the user, or if the user hits search or Enter to complete the search.
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Organic Search Impression
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A Google impression also applies to each organic search result listing. These are the large blue links you see in the middle of the page after running a Google search. However, Google doesn't count every link that appears in the listing as an impression. For example, sometimes Google lists different page links underneath the main link for a website. But, only the main link counts as an impression. However, if two separate main links on a Google SERP are from the same website, each counts as an impression.
Application
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Impressions are useful metrics for advertisers and people tracking their search engine optimization. In both cases impressions show the volume of people that see your ad or search listing, versus the number of people that click the link. In terms of a paid ad, if you're getting lots of impressions but very few clicks, then you could tweak the ad copy. It may be that your listing isn't attractive enough to entice people to click.
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