How to Check Keyword Rankings In Google
So you are looking for a way to check your keyword rankings in Google? Well, there are a number of ways you can approach this. There are a lot of keyword tools that are expensive but here I will show you a free way of checking your rankings. Utilizing Google Search Console, a free tool accessible, it is possible to observe numerous components of your webpage.One of these elements is checking your keyword positions for free.
Firstly, lets look at three possible ways of checking your rankings:
1) Checking your keyword rankings manually
I will cut to the chase, checking for keywords manually is not the most efficient way of checking for your rankings.
It is incredibly time-consuming. Although it has some benefit, there are a few programs you can access for assessments which we will further discuss. However, not all tools give accurate information and it may be necessary to do an appraisal yourself to observe your current ranking.
If you want to do a manual check of your keywords, head to Google, type in the keyword and scroll through the results to look for your page position. As mentioned before, this is not very effective in terms of time management.
2) Check Keyword Rankings using Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to check keyword rankings within Google’s search engine. Not only can you check your rankings but it also allows you to see how your website is performing like performance, indexing to name a few. You can also carry out some vital keyword research in Search Console. Unfortunately you are unable to carry out any competitor analysis.
In the next section I will explain the five step process for using Google Search Console to check keyword positions for every URL on your website. Just know that Search Console is a free SEO tool provided by Google that can give you the average keyword rankings for every page on your site.
3) Track Keyword Rankings using Paid Tools
The purpose of this post is not to dwell too much on paid tools.
There are several available to you that you should be familiar with, yet it’s necessary to understand them.
It can be tough to pick which one is right with all of the available selections. Ahrefs and Semrush, two of the most trusted sources, are fantastic resources for search engine optimization but their cost could be too much. Additionally, more economical options are available such as SERPWatcher from Mangools or Keysearch.co.
How Do I Find Where My Website Ranks On Google?
OK, let’s go and let’s educate you on how to check keyword position in Google using Search Console.
Google’s tracking is the most reliable approach to ascertain a website’s positioning on the search engine when certain phrases are inputted and Search Console makes use of this information at no cost to any website proprietor.
Google Search Console tells you where your website ranks for a given set of keywords in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), but it doesn’t track individual keywords, give you insights about your competitors, or tell you about backlinking opportunities. Nor does it have the capabilities to show you your customers website details or strategy. In order to complete those objectives, you’ll need to purchase a tool like Semrush as I previously mentioned.
A) Google Search Console Set up
To start with you will need to have a Google Search Console account. If you have a Google account then simply log in and go to search console.
You will then need to add a property which will be your website domain. From there you will be asked to verify your website. There are a number of ways verification can be carried out:
- Upload an HTML file to your root domain.
- Add some HTML code to the <head> tag of your website.
- You can verify through your Google Analytics account. That is if you have set up GA already.
- Finally you could add a DNS record with whoever your domain provider is.
Once this is set up it can take a while for a suitable amount of data to be collected by Search Console. Usually around 30 days. If your site is relatively new and you have not done much work on it, then you may not see much data at all. If you see little data, then you may not have pages ranking which in turn collates into very little traffic.
B) Go to Performance Report
Located on the left-hand sidebar you will see the tab for the performance report. This is where you go to start checking your keyword rankings.
Once you have clicked the performance tab, you will see a new dashboard with four boxes at the top and a graph below. If you don’t see data, then either your website has no rankings or you may have another issue on your hands.
You now want to activate all the boxes at the top. You will probably have two activated by default. You want all four activated and they are total clicks, total impressions, average CTR (Click Through Rate) and average position for your keywords. Once you have activated all four boxes, you will see a line for each in the graph below. By default it is set for 3 months but you can change this to whatever you wish. For the purpose of this tutorial I will stick to 3 months.
C) Check the top queries for your website
You will see below the graph a table which provides all the data you selected from the four boxes from which you activated. You should see that the queries tab is already selected. This will show all the keyword data.
At this point I want to make a few things clear. This data shows keywords that rank, it does not provide data like a tracker, search volume, CPC information, Keyword density, keyword difficulty, competition comparisons or any other metric. Should you require this, then the paid tool option is for you.
In the first column you will see all the keywords that your website is ranking for. See image below.
If you want to see more keywords on one page in search console then you can adjust this by selecting the rows per page tab and change them accordingly. You can also click on the arrow to the right to go to the next page.
D) Now, let's find where your website ranks on Google.
As you can see in the image below on the far right-hand side there is a column called position. This shows you the position where your website currently ranks within Google’s Search engine.
If you click on the word position this will toggle the position in either descending or ascending order. This way, you can quickly see your best ranking keywords and also your poorest. The data you currently see is only based on how your overall website is ranked and not focused on an individual URL. We will come on to this next.
E) Finding the keyword queries for each webpage.
- First you need to click on the “Pages” tab, which is to the right of the “Queries” tab. This will change the display of the table to how each URL on your website is sorted by clicks. You will see the URLs shown in the first column under “Top Pages”.
- You can then click on a URL on which you wish to check the rankings for. This will filter out all other URLs so you can focus on just this one website page.
After you finish the first two steps, go back to the ‘Queries’ tab. This will show a list of keywords only for the URL you selected. The table will have removed all other URLs and keywords. You’ll now see a new filter appear above the table to the right of the Date: Last 3 months filter. This new filter shows the URL you selected in the table. If you ever want to reset the table to show all queries for all URLs on your site, just click on the X button.
After you finish the first two steps go back to the ‘Queries’ tab. This will show a list of keywords only for the URL you selected. The table will remove all other URLs and keywords.
You will now see a new filter appear above the table to the right of the Date: Last 3 months filter. This new filter shows the URL you selected in the table. If you ever want to reset the table to show all queries for all URLs on your site just click on the X button.
You can now review your of queries to find out what keywords the selected URL ranks for in Google, as well as that URL’s position for those keywords.
You can sort the queries in alphabetical order by clicking on the ‘Top queries’ column header. The ‘Position’ column can also be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column header.
F) Finding the keyword queries for each webpage.
Finally, if you want to find a specific keyword that the selected URL is ranking for, then this can be done by showing instances of that specific keyword.
Here is the process how to achieve this:
- Click on the 3 line icon on the top right of the table.
- Check the box for the “Top Queries”
- Finally, type the keyword you want to search in the field under “Filter by Top queries”
Once you complete those steps, the query list will only show phrases that include the specific keyword. You can click the “Done” button to apply the filter whenever you want and start scrolling through the keywords in the list.
You now know the entire process on how to locate where your keywords within Google Search Console. You can repeat each step to find the positions for any keyword for any URL on your website. Good luck, I wish you the best of luck with your future website success.
How Long Does It Take for Google to Rank Your Web Page?
For Google to rank a web page, it can vary widely depending on a variety of things. Some pages may be indexed and rank within a few days, while others may take weeks or even months.
Some of the points below that can influence the time it takes for a web page to rank include:
- The age of the website: Older websites may rank faster than newer ones as they have had more time to establish authority and build backlinks.
- The quality of the website: Google tends to rank websites that are well-designed, user-friendly and provide a good user experience more highly than those that are poorly designed or provide a poor user experience.
- The content of the web page: Google prefers web pages that contain high quality, unique and informative content.
- The competition for the keyword: If there is a lot of competition for the keyword you are targeting, it may take longer for your web page to rank highly.
- The strength of your website’s domain authority: Websites with a strong domain authority (as determined by factors such as the number and quality of backlinks) tend to rank faster than those with a weaker domain authority.
If you do have a new website then don’t worry if it doesn’t rank immediately. Just keep publishing optimized pages and the content will eventually rank for the keywords you want on Google and other search engines.
Why does it take so long to rank on Google?
There are definitely four conceivable explanations as to why it may take some time for your website to appear on Google’s search engine results.
- If your sector is intensely contested, your website may take a while to ascend in Google search results, especially if other businesses that are fighting the same fight have been around for an extensive period and have built up reliable webpages.
- Google search engine desires to offer the ideal outcomes to its customers so it will prioritize websites that are well-crafted, user-friendly, and give superior-grade content. If your website is designed ineffectively or bears minimal or inferior material, it may take longer for it to ascend on Google.
- It may require a while for Google to identify, traverse, and categorize your website. If the website is new, it could take several weeks or even more before it logs and Google starts ordering it in search results.
- Search Engine Optimization: Utilizing proven techniques to make your website appear more frequently in a higher position on searches conducted by Google and other engines, increments the rate at which your website is displayed to users. If you fail to institute the correct protocols, it could slow down the viewership of your page when using those search giants.
How Can You Rank Higher On Google?
Here are several strategies to enhance your position in search engines, which I have outlined below.
It will take effort but you can effectively increase your ranking and establish yourself as an expert in your specialized field, assisting you in accomplishing your traffic and conversion objectives. Additionally, Google has now started emphasizing visible and easily skimable content in their search results instead of the typical collection of 10 blue links.
ere is a straightforward compilation to assist you in beginning:
- On-Page Search Engine Optimization
- Target suitable keywords
- Check the intent
- Make your content niche specific – dont deviate
- Include meaningful visuals where applicable
- Have a table of contents
- Add breadcrumbs at the top of the page to help with navigation
- Modfit Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions
- Target Specific niche search queries
- Get Backlinks
- Off-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Serp Analysis
- Schema Markup
I could go on and on but this provides you a flavour in how you must give your your pages the love they deserve and more importantly what your customer really need.