Google Search Console's Performance Report is facing fresh questions from webmasters over its average position metric, after Search Engine Roundtable flagged what may be a bug in how the tool reports rankings.

The report centers on the average position figures inside Search Console's Performance Report — the section of the tool that publishers and SEO teams rely on to track where their pages rank in Google Search results. Site owners use this metric as one of the most fundamental indicators of search visibility, making any inaccuracy in it a serious measurement problem.

What is being reported

Search Engine Roundtable, which has a long track record of surfacing Google Search anomalies and tool glitches, published a report raising the question of whether the average position data in the Performance Report is currently displaying incorrectly. The publication titled its coverage "Google Search Console Performance Report Average Position Bug?" — the question mark itself signaling that the issue is suspected rather than confirmed.

It is important to distinguish what is established from what is not. Google has not, at this point, issued any statement confirming a bug in the Performance Report's position calculations. There is no confirmation from Google's Search Liaison accounts, no entry on the Search Console status or known issues pages, and no acknowledged defect in the reporting pipeline. What exists is a reported anomaly — site owners and observers noticing position figures that appear inconsistent with expectations, prompting the Roundtable's coverage.

That places this firmly in the category of tool-signal speculation rather than a confirmed Google statement. Readers should treat the suspected bug accordingly until Google responds.

Why the average position metric matters

Average position in Search Console is one of the four core metrics in the Performance Report, alongside clicks, impressions, and click-through rate. SEO practitioners use it to:

• Track ranking movement for individual queries and pages
• Measure the impact of algorithm updates and site changes over time
• Benchmark visibility across sections of a site

If the position metric is misreporting, downstream analysis built on it becomes unreliable. Any conclusion drawn from position trends — whether a recovery from a core update, the effect of a content refresh, or a comparison against a competitor — inherits the error.

Search Console has a documented history of reporting quirks. Past incidents have included data delays, impression-count changes tied to feature formatting in results pages, and discrepancies between Search Console figures and third-party rank-tracking tools. In most prior cases, Google eventually explained the anomalies as changes in how results are counted or displayed, rather than data corruption. Whether the current reports fit that pattern remains unknown.

What site owners should watch

For publishers and SEO teams that depend on Search Console position data, the practical advice is caution rather than alarm. Cross-check position figures against third-party rank trackers and manual searches before acting on any sudden movement in the Performance Report. Sudden, unexplained shifts in average position that do not correlate with known ranking changes — and do not appear in independent tools — are the classic signature of a reporting issue rather than a real ranking change.

The next development to monitor is a response from Google, either through its Search Liaison channels or via an update to Search Console documentation. If Google confirms a bug, a correction to historical data would typically follow. If it attributes the anomaly to a change in how results or positions are calculated, expect an explanation of the new methodology. Until one of those happens, the question mark in the original report stands.