Impressions in Search Console count every instance your URL appeared in Google search results, regardless of whether the user scrolled to see it or clicked it. If your page ranks for "Ottawa web design" and shows up in results 500 times over a week, that's 500 impressions even if nobody clicks. The metric tracks visibility, not engagement. A page can rack up thousands of impressions with zero clicks if it ranks on page two or three where users rarely scroll. Conversely, a page ranking position 3-5 for competitive terms might get 10,000 impressions monthly with a 3-8% click-through rate depending on your title tag and meta description. Impressions get recorded when your URL appears in any Google property: standard web search, image search, video search, Discover, or Google News. Search Console breaks these down by search type in the performance report. A single search session can generate multiple impressions if your site appears for the same query across different result types or if you rank for multiple related queries triggered by one search. Three important nuances: - Impressions require the link to load in the results HTML, but the user doesn't need to physically see it. If your page ranks position 47 and the searcher never scrolls past position 10, it still counts. - Duplicate impressions happen when your page ranks for variations of the same query or appears multiple times in results through different features like rich snippets and standard listings. - Impression data has a 16-month retention window and updates with roughly 24-48 hour lag. At Ottawa SEO, we use impression volume to identify opportunity gaps. Pages pulling 5,000+ monthly impressions with sub-2% CTR usually need better titles or meta descriptions. Pages with climbing impressions but dropping average position signal increased competition worth monitoring. Raw impression count matters less than the impression-to-click conversion rate and whether impressions trend with your actual ranking improvements.