I love data. Part of what’s so great about the web is that the data available brings amazing insights about our audience and how they are engaging with our organizations to enable us to improve that experience. In mid-April, Google Webmaster Tools significantly expanded the information they provide about the search queries that lead to impressions and clicks from the search results page. Now, they’ve made these new features easier to use by adding an average position column and a way to “star” the queries that are most important to you for handy access.

The average position information is interesting, but I’m hoping to get a bit of clarification from Google about it. If one page of your site ranks on the first page, another page ranks on the fifth page, and yet a third page ranks on the eighth page, is the average position the average of all of these pages or the average position of the page that ranks highest?

When used together, global search data, site-specific analytics information, and the details Webmaster Tools provides about how searchers interact with page-level search results can be a great basis for better understanding your target audience. Did I mention how much I love data?

Related Topics: Google: Webmaster Central

About The Author: Vanessa Fox is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. She shares her perspectives on how search impacts marketing, user experience, and web development at ninebyblue.com. Her book, Marketing in the Age of Google, provides a blueprint for incorporating search strategy into organizations of all levels. Follow her on Twitter at @vanessafox. See more articles by Vanessa Fox