14 DAY TRIAL // Google has made a change to the way Webmaster Tools reports search engine rankings. Specifically, Google will now take into account the highest ranking link to your site rather than the average position of all your links.
What this means is that, for any given query, only the top result will be taken into account when determining your overall Average Position.
"Let’s say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 3, 6, and 12. Jane also searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 5 and 9," Google explained.
"Previously, we would have averaged all these positions together and shown an Average Position of 7. Going forward, we’ll only average the highest position your site appeared in for each search (3 for Nick’s search and 5 for Jane’s search), for an Average Position of 4," it added.
This will, of course, alter the figures in your Top Search Queries data, for current and future searches. The previous figures will not be affected though, historical positions will not be recalculated based on the new method.
The new numbers should be the same or lower, corresponding to a higher position, since lower rankings will no longer be factored in.
Google says it made the change since this is what most webmasters believed the website's ranking meant. Webmaster Tools is simply adjusting the report to people's expectations.
"Based on their research, the answer to the question 'What is your rank in search results?' is the first position of a link to your site," Google further explains.
The change will also affect Google Analytics, which has recently started including search engine data, coming straight out of Webmaster Tools. In Analytics, it only affects Search Engine Optimization Reports. Historical data will not be changed.