'Pages with first impressions' meaning in Google search performance report

Google has relatively recently started sending a month end summary of Google search performance to Webmasters who use the Google Search Console. See the picture for an example of the headline stats.

One of the metrics it lists at the top of the summary section is 'Pages with first impressions (estimated)'. But what does this mean?

Thankfully there's an accompanying explanation from Google themselves, if you dig hard enough:

Pages with first impressions: Pages that were seen by a user in Search Results for the first time last month. (This may be omitted for very large sites.)

So, these are pages that have only started appearing in the search results this month - they may indeed be old pages that simply haven't appeared in search results as they are not sufficiently well ranked to appear to end users themselves.

And to be clear 'impressions' means that the results have been shown to a user in their Google search results, not that they necessarily have clicked on them.

The reason why could be a combination of factors: very specific searches meaning that page is a relevant search result; tweaks to the pages themselves; updates to the Google algorithm; changes to the overall site ranking that affect the likelihood of one of the site's pages appearing above a competitor.

It does lead to the question of which pages these are precisely. Unfortunately, there's no link to a corresponding page in the Google Search Console even though the rest of the report features a number of links offering more detail on the monthly email overview of performance.

In terms of the overall report, if you're puzzled as to why you are seeing this for the first time, then not only is it relatively new in 2019, but also you'll only receive it if the site has been registered with Google Search Console for three months or more.

On the above image, the other metrics are simple enough. 'Impressions' is the number of times someone 'saw' your page listed in the search results and 'web clicks' is the number of times someone clicked on that listing and visited your site.

Chrome review part 2

Having started using Chrome again, there remain a few of irritations.

- The first and perhaps most annoying is that the mouse-pan doesn't work in Chrome.

- A more minor irritaiton for those of us that use multiple browsers is the order of the right-mouse menu bar with 'new tab' and 'new window' swapping positions. More logical in Chrome.

- Finally on an old PC where memory is a constant problem is that processes still run after the browser is closed

Chrome shows promise

After an initial underwhelming test of Google's Chrome browser, memory issues with other browsers have forced me back for a second look. There are now workarounds to adding the likes of Delicious buttons (simple bookmarks do fine), but the main attractions are the load speed of pages and the independent tabs which can crash in isolation.

The result - less 'not responding' errors, a quicker browser and once you get used to the UI a compelling competitor. 

I'm still sticking with Firefox in the main, but will certainly be making more and more use of Chrome.

Searching in colour

Google is adding colour filters to its image search. To use it look for the 'all colors' bar underneath the search box in image search and click on your colour.

The colour palette available is pretty limited, so it's questionable just how useful this is when you could add colour into your search term in the first place. For some, however, it could be a good way to filter your results quickly when trying to find the best colour of an object.

Either way it's a small step towards visual search, such a challenge in search where the search engine will analyse an object for its meaning beyond the metadata available (e.g. photo of red car only tagged as 'car').

Speaking Google's language

There's a good chance you will now with the announcement that the Google homepage now appears in over 100 languages.

Interesting to read in the story of adding Maori to the list of languages that it takes more than 1,600 phrases to translate Google's search interface - 'search'; 'I'm feeling lucky' that's two, how many more do you need! It's been a labour of love to add Maori to the list and there is no doubt considerable pride that it is now added to the list.

Where's Germany? Why, it's right here

According to Google, it's right here on this blog. A quick look (UK settings) shows Netcoms Dot Com as the number two result for 'Where's Germany'.

I was surprised to see the amount of traffic coming through for this term after this post started the ball rolling. No doubt a mixture of a recent post, plus the keywords in the title tag. Let's see how long it lasts.

Double Trouble

There's an excellent history of the online advertising industry, as part of Google's explanation of why they bought DoubleClick, essentially adding their ad sales network to DoubleClick's ad serving network.

As well as giving Google a significant foothold in another key area of the online ad industry, it also gives them access to DoubleClick's agency relationships, to capture both the short and the long tail of the ad industry. Smart move.

Google warming

Laudable initiatives from Google at ensuring that they become a carbon neutral company and beyond. Let's hope that this becomes a template for the corporate world.

Will be interesting to see how much their use their existing destinations as a way of campaigning online, as there are some topics where you shouldn't remain neutral...

Where's Germany?

So, YouTube is going international with sites in nine different major markets. However, the one surprising omission is Germany.

While Germany has Sevenload.com, this is still a huge digital market and a quick search shows plenty of German content already on YouTube. What will the locals make of the apparent snub? Maybe the German reaction to alleged Flickr censorship and the legal issues at the core played a factor in the delay...

It's harder than you think

Google has responded in the debate about video fingerprinting as a way of controlling the use of copyrighted content on YouTube. Both Microsoft's Soapbox and MySpace video already have video fingerprinting in place, so you can understand many content owner's frustration about the delay.

However, Google does make some interesting points about the difficulties in identifying copyrighted content when sometimes copyrighted content may be legitimately posted independent of Google's content deals. As it says, porn or violence are reasonably clear to all (but still a judgement call) whereas users may not know if a piece of copyrighted content is legal or not.

Whatever the merits of the arguments, Google needs to implement their technology sooner rather than later to appease the concerns of many content owners.

Going public about privacy

As you would expect from their communications policy, Google are using their blog on a corporate level to respond to the privacy storm caused by the controversial report from Privacy International, while Googler Matt Cutts responds on a personal level in his 'official' blog.

Their response and those of many of the blogosphere have successfully generated debate about the report and have put their side of the story across. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the report, it has put privacy at the centre of debate on the internet and that can only be viewed as a positive.

Google raising the stakes

There have been a significant number of Google offerings of late as they extend this offering into mashups, desktop and extend the functionality of the mapping tool:

- Google Gears: allowing you to read your Google Reader RSS feeds offline with the technology open to external sites and services
- Purchase of Feedburner: feed distribution and management tools
- Google Mashup Editor: rival to Yahoo Pipes
- Google Mapplets: embed mini applications within Google Maps
- Purchase of Panoramio: geo-located photo sharing

All part of the battle for acquisitions and innovation between the big three of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

Computing injuries and how to avoid them

For those of us over-active in the screen time department, Google is offering advice on how to avoid common conditions caused by excessive computer use.

The advice covers everything from regular breaks (naturally, timed by software), posture, even yoga. I'd add making sure you print out long documents rather than trying to read anything over three pages long on the screen.

It also omits that one important piece of advice that our American cousins seem to neglect - taking regular holidays (and that means more than two weeks a year!).

Travel to Mars

Google Earth has released a Google Mars version of its popular mapping software. Google Mars allows you to explore the planetary surface using NASA imagery, showing elevation, the view your eyes would see and what you wouldn't see without infrared.

It fails however to point out signs of life or even rudimentary accommodation details for the casual planetary explorer, an oversight I hope they will address in version 2.

Sipping Google Bourbon with GoogleGuy

No, not another Google Gulp drinks launch, but instead the latest algorithm update.

Within the search engine community the mysterious, yet knowledgable, GoogleGuy provides the kind of positive PR that Scoble has been doing for Microsoft. He demonstrates a degree of openness that can only benefit the SEO community and the perception of Google within it.

He has been commenting on the recent Google Bourbon update advising the SEO community that the update is not yet complete:

"Take a break from checking ranks for several more days. Bourbon includes something like 3.5 improvements in search quality, and I believe that only a couple are out so far. The 0.5 will go out in a day or so, and the last major change should roll out over the next week or so. Then there will still be some minor changes after that as well."
GoogleGuy has also demonstrated his openness in a new Questions for GoogleGuy thread with interesting responses on topics such as reinclusions (suggests allowing 4-6 weeks) and why they are not planning on going down the pay-for-inclusion route anytime soon (avoidance of conflict of interest).

After a mammoth Q&A session on the boards, he hints that maybe there's something in this blogging thing after all:

Maybe I ought to get me one of these blog things; I hear they're really popular with the kids these days. :)

Google toolbar PageRank bar, where are you?

The Google toolbar features a handy PageRank bar which lets you know the PageRank of any page that you are viewing. There has been some debate recently about just how accurate the figures are with claims that the total shown is often months out-of-date or just plain wrong.

My own experience of using the calculator is that the figures it shows are reasonably accurate and are logical. Thus, Google-owned Blogger.com's homepage has a PageRank of 10, new pages show 0 and those in-between generally conform to my understanding of how influential a site is. I find it a helpful tool when reviewing longer term (note: longer) progress on sites that I have been working on.

However, today the PageRank bar vanished from my Google toolbar without explanation. This may be a temporary blip while it gets it's annual springclean. A quick search of the SEO forums show that some have it, some don't, and some see a universal grey or 0 Page Rank for every site they visit, so it looks more like a blip than the end for one of my favourite pieces of internet trivia.

Let me know if you've experienced this in the comment section.

Updated: It was just a springclean (if you're in the southern hemisphere of course) with regards to my PC. After a well deserved break, the toolbar decided to reset itself to US Google and switch off its PageRank bar option.

So that's where all the IPO cash is going

Not content with its parasitical relationship to the browser through the Google toolbar, it seems that Google may be putting all of that lovely IPO cash to good use in taking on a serious challenge. Google is rumoured to be planning a rival browser to Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.

Google has been steadily expanding its list of services from blogging (Blogger), to email (Gmail), to e-commerce (Froogle) and is in increasing competition with Microsoft, who have of course invested serious amounts in their revamped search capability.

Microsoft have shown that they know how to deal with browser competition in seeing off Netscape and it will be fascinating to see how this story develops in the coming months.

Looking for Google, perhaps?

Despite plenty of posts about Google in recent times, this blog was somewhat suprised when investigating a recent surge of traffic to find out that many readers arrived after a search for 'Google dot com'.

A quick check of the logs revealed that this blog is number 3 on MSN UK (among others) for 'Google dot com' which explains the traffic. Although this blog is powered by Google-owned blogger, you may well be after this Google dot com.

Contrary to rumours, I'm not planning to float the blog just yet, but any potential investors should just send cash for now (unmarked notes in brown paper bags please).

Google goes Oogle: founders in shock Playboy appearance

A headline worthy of the Sunday Sport (international readers: it's like a newspaper but without the news). The reality behind it is not quite as exciting as it suggests, with news this week that the Google founders have been caught with their pants down (metaphorically, of course) by giving an interview to the magazine. Apparently, this may violate rules that company leaders should maintain 'a quiet period' pre-IPO (no, I didn't know that either. Oh, you did?).

Legal experts were reportedly going over the magazine with a fine tooth comb for any further evidence of questionable material.

Send your own Playboy-related gags, here, and I'll publish the best (and worst).

Will it, won't it IPO?

The big story in 2004 looks like being the will they/won't they Google IPO. Things are starting to reach a head with speculation that it is "expected to file for its $1bn IPO later this week".

One interesting question is whether UK investors bitten by the Lastminute.com share price IPO will be tempted to gamble once more. With the growing number of good news stories in new media that have been trickly through recently and the recent profits at big names Amazon, Ebay and the like (even Lastminute, kinda), this blog believes there'll be plenty of takers if the big announcement does prove true.