# How to Read Keyword Research Metrics

**Meta description:** Learn how historical keyword metrics, ad forecasts and observed site performance differ, including key caveats for reading Search Console data.

## Explanation

Keep three categories separate: historical keyword metrics, advertising forecasts and observed site performance.

Keyword Planner’s **average monthly searches** averages searches for a keyword and close variants over the selected period, location and Search Network settings. The default period is 12 months, and values are rounded. [A]

**Competition** describes advertiser competition for a keyword under the selected targeting, not organic ranking difficulty. [A] The **low and high top-of-page bid ranges** approximate the 20th and 80th percentiles, respectively, of historical top-of-page advertising bids for the selected location and network. [A]

**Forecasts** concern possible advertising performance, not historical search volume. Forecasted impressions account for bid, budget, seasonality and historical ad quality. [A]

Search Console’s **Search results Performance report** describes a site’s Google Search performance, including clicks and impressions. **CTR** is clicks divided by impressions. [B] **Average position** uses the topmost result for the relevant site or grouping. A fresh manual search can show a different position because results depend on time, location, device and search history. [B]

Treat the visible query table as incomplete: some queries are omitted for privacy, and additional rows may be omitted because of internal limits. [C]

Finally, **exported zeros need context**. Search Console converts report values shown as `~` or `-`, meaning unavailable or not a number, into zeros during export. [B]

## Proposed alt text

Teaching diagram comparing historical Keyword Planner metrics—search volume, advertiser competition and bid ranges—with advertising forecasts and observed Search Console performance: clicks, impressions, CTR and average position.

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