Proper Use and Interpretation of new Query/Page report

[ExploreConsulting]

When I'm in WMT/Search Console -

1. I start a process of looking at all of the data initially unfiltered
2. Then I select a query. Let's say its a top query for starters and I filter my results by that top query (exactly)
3. With the filter on, I flip over to Pages and I get about a dozen results.
4. When I look at this list, I get the normal variety of output: impressions, clicks, CTR, avg. position

One thing that seems a bit odd to me is that most of the average positions for each of the URLs displayed is about the same.  Say they range from 1.0 to 1.3. Does this mean that Google is displaying the dozen or so URLs to different people and generally in the 1st or 2nd position. Does this mean that my dozen or so pages are all competing with each other for the same query?

On one hand, if all of my dozen pages displayed most of the time in the SERP all at the same time, I would see this as a good thing in that I would be 'owning' the SERP for my particular query.  On the other hand, I'm concerned that the keyword I'm trying to optimize a particular page for is being partially distributed to less optimized pages.  The main target page is shown the most (good) and it has about a 15x better CTR (also good). But all together, the other 11 pages are taking in around 40% of impressions and get a far lower CTR (bad).

Am I interpreting this data correctly? Is WMT showing me what pages a particular query sends traffic to? Is there any way to extract the keywords that a particular page receives? When I reset my query and then start by selecting a specific page (exact match) and then select queries - is this showing my the search queries that drove traffic to that page?

Is there a 'best practices' process to try to target a keyword to a specific page so that it gets more than the 60% of impressions I'm seeing now? Obviously I don't want to do a canonical because each keyword goes to many different pages and each page receives a different mix of keywords. I would think there would be a different technique when your page has an average position off of page 1.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Steve

Yes, it sounds like if you're looking at pages showing in search for only one query they may be ranking interchangeably, or simultaneously.

Have you manually performed searches in Google (de-personalized etc) to see if you have multiple pages showing, or if they are switching? Also - do you track daily rankings for these keywords? That's another way to see what's ranking there - rank trackers like Authority Labs will show you all URLs ranking for a query.

Would there be any other reason two different users might get a different page? Location, language?

How specific is the search query vs. how targeted/focused are your pages? Or is there overlap in content? It really depends on the types of pages and content as far as determining your next step. Normally, we do see secondary pages occasionally ranking for one query, but your percentages sound high (unless you are getting two results a page).