SEO Glossary: Search Console Terms Explained
Every term you meet in Google Search Console and in a cannibalization or quick-wins report — impressions, average position, striking distance, double ranking, keyword mapping — defined in plain English, with a worked example from real Search Console data. Written and reviewed by practitioners; every page dated and sourced.
11 terms ·
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Keyword cannibalization
3 terms
Pages on one site competing for one query — how to tell a real clash from a harmless double ranking.
Quick wins & striking distance
2 terms
The rankings closest to paying off: page-2 keywords, striking distance and the CTR you are leaving on the table.
Search Console metrics & reports
5 terms
What clicks, impressions, CTR and average position actually count — and why the numbers never quite add up.
Fixes & site structure
1 term
Consolidation, redirects, canonicals and internal links — the moves every cannibalization report ends in.
All terms A–Z
A
- Average position (Search Console) — The topmost position your site held each time it appeared for a query, averaged across all of those impressions.
C
- Clicks (Search Console) — One click is counted when a user leaves Google for your page from a search result; repeat clicks on the same link in one search count once.
- Content consolidation — Merging or redirecting competing pages so one URL carries all the signals that were split between them.
- CTR (Search Console) — Click-through rate — clicks divided by impressions — the share of appearances in search that turned into a visit.
I
- Impressions (Search Console) — Counted each time a link to your site appears in a loaded page of search results, whether or not anyone clicks it.
- Internal keyword cannibalization — Your own URLs competing with each other for one query — as opposed to competing with other sites.
K
- Keyword cannibalization — Two or more of your own pages ranking for the same query with the same intent, splitting clicks and ranking signals.
- Keyword mapping — A record assigning one primary keyword and one intent to every URL, so no two pages target the same query.
L
- Low-hanging fruit SEO — Prioritising the rankings closest to paying off: low-difficulty keywords where a small push moves traffic.
P
- Performance report (Search Console) — Search Console's main report: clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by query, page, country and device.
S
- Striking distance keywords — Queries where a page already ranks just off page one, typically positions 11–30, one nudge from real clicks.