Impressions dropped 54%, clicks stayed nearly flat and average position improved. What would you investigate first?
I’m building a frontend interview preparation website and trying to understand its Google Search Console performance before making more SEO changes.
Comparing September 1–28 with August 4–31, 2026:
| Metric | Previous 28 days | Latest 28 days |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | 36,370 | 16,815 |
| Clicks | 98 | 93 |
| CTR | 0.27% | 0.55% |
| Average position | 19.4 | 13.6 |
Impressions dropped substantially, but clicks barely changed. Average position and CTR both improved.
Some technical articles have page-level average positions around 7–8 but receive very few clicks. For example, one article received 2,128 impressions and just 1 click, with an average position of 7.2. Broader interview preparation pages generally rank further down.
We’ve also acquired some backlinks. I’m mentioning this as context, but I don’t want to assume they should have produced an immediate increase in impressions.
I understand that average position can improve because the query mix changes, rather than because the same queries moved up. Another limitation: the visible query rows account for only 2 of the 93 clicks, so query level analysis is incomplete.
What would you investigate first?
- Which GSC breakdowns would help distinguish a change in query mix or search demand from an actual loss of ranking visibility?
- For pages averaging positions 7–8 with very low CTR, what would you check before changing titles or descriptions?
- What additional information about the backlinks would be useful for evaluating their possible impact?
Website is 10 months old.
I’d really appreciate your help on this because I feel so stuck