Knowing where your keywords rank in google is often overlooked when it comes to SEO. By keeping track of keyword positions you’re able to immediately notice when a keyword rises or falls in the SERPs. This can be helpful as you can take action if a keyword goes down in position. You can inspect which competitor has jumped above you and therefore make changes to that page to take the spot back.
In this post we’re going to cover the three different ways you can check keyword ranking in google, and how to rank higher, among some other things so continue reading!
How To Check Your Keyword Ranking in Google
There are three main ways you can monitor your keywords in google. You can either use a paid tool like SERPWatcher, inspect using Google Search Console’s performance report, or you can check your keywords manually.
Let’s look at each option in more detail.
Use a rank tracking tool
If you want to have a list of keywords that are automatically tracked, you’ll have to use a suite of keyword tracking tools.
SERPWatcher is a piece of software created by Mangools who are a company with a host of other SEO tools like KWFinder, SERPChecker, and LinkMiner.
It’s incredibly easy to use, all you need to do is enter your domain into the software and it will curate a list of keywords you’re ranking for.
SERPWatcher will then display a list of important metrics surrounding that keyword, they include :
- Where they currently rank
- Position changes in the last 24 hours
- The average ranking for that keyword
- Best ranking for that keyword
- Estimated keyword search volume
With the basic plan, SERPWatcher allows you to track up to 200 keywords every day and it’s an extremely beneficial tool for keeping track of your keyword rankings.
When it comes to pricing you can’t buy it on its own as it comes with the other Mangools SEO tools listed above.
Use Google Search Console
The next best way to check your rankings is through Google Search Console. It’s free and if you know how to use it properly it can be a very powerful tool.
Setting up Google Search Console is easy and doesn’t require any technical knowledge.
First, log into the google account of the website you want to track.
Next up you need to add your property and verify it. This doesn’t take long and you can verify your property by adding HTML code into the <head> tag of your website, using google analytics to verify, adding a DNS record through your domain provider, or uploading an HTML file to the websites root domain. I prefer to use the google analytics method but it’s up to you.
When you first sign up to Google Search Console it needs to collect all your website’s data so it can take a while but once it’s up and running you’re good to go.
To monitor your keywords you’ll want to go to the performance tab on the left-hand side.
When you’re in the performance section you’ll have four different boxes you can click on to filter them. As we want to track our keywords you need to click on the ‘average position’ box which is the very last one.
This keeps track of where all of your keywords lie in the SERPs and then gives you an average position of them.
To find the position of every single keyword you simply need to scroll down to the queries section and you’ll find a list of all your keywords and where they are currently in the SERPs.
This queries tab is very powerful as it gives you a comprehensive list of all your keywords and where they rank on Google. You can then use this tool to identify keywords that could do with improving.
Do A Manual Check
Checking your keyword positions manually is an effective but time-consuming way of doing this. If you only want to check a few keywords then this method is an option, but for multiple different keywords, it’s best to use one of the two options above.
Doing a manual check is as easy as it sounds, type in the keyword you want to check and manually check the SERPs for your page.
A benefit of doing things the manual way is that Google doesn’t lie. If Google shows your website as the #1 keyword then it’s right, whereas using tools might not be 100% accurate or updated in time.
How Do I Rank Higher on Google?
You’ve found your keyword rankings and you’re not happy with where they lie in the SERPs, now you want to rank higher on Google.
Simply improving your rankings isn’t something that can be done overnight and experts put a lot of time and money into gaining organic traffic from Google. There are three main things you can do as a website owner to rank higher on google, they are :
- Improve on-page SEO
- Improve off-page SEO
- Improve your keyword research skills
Improve On-Page SEO
When it comes to SEO and improving your rankings, getting better at on-page SEO is the closest thing you will get to a quick fix.
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your page to match the user’s search intent and be relevant. It includes things such as :
- The correct word count
- Images have alt descriptions
- Keyword density
- Using the correct header tags (H1, H2, H3, H4)
- External linking
- Optimized meta descriptions
On-page SEO is its own sub-category of SEO and if you want to succeed you’ll need to learn every aspect of it. Here’s a helpful guide that can get you started.
Improve Off-Page SEO
If you want to improve your rankings in Google then you need to work on your off-page SEO, otherwise known as backlinks or link-building. As the competition for SEO increases each year, the importance off-page SEO has increased.
When other websites link to your targeted page, this tells Google that it must be important and relevant. The algorithm then takes this information and moves it up in the SERPs to show it to more users.
There are three main different types of links used in off-page SEO, natural links, manually created links, and self-created links. Off-page SEO is generally harder to do compared to On-page is it usually requires spending money every month or performing outreach in the hopes of gaining a backlink.
Improve Your Keyword Research Skills
Lastly. If you want to rank higher on Google then an effective way is to become better at performing keyword research.
This means finding ways to target low-competition keywords. If you’re targeting keywords that no one else is writing about there’s a good chance you’ll make it to page one on Google without the help of backlinks.
Keyword research is a skill, and like any skill to get better at it you simply need to do that skill repeatedly. To do keyword research you’ll need a tool that can automatically find you low-competition keywords at the click of a button.
I recommend, SEMrush, Keyword Chef, or LowFruits.
I Can’t Find My Page On Google – Is There Something Wrong?
If you’ve tried to find where your page is ranking for a keyword and couldn’t find it then it’s probably not indexed.
It’s Not Indexed
If Google hasn’t indexed that page then it won’t be able to rank on page one or page ten.
A quick way to check if a page has been indexed is to do a simple search on Google.
Enter: ‘site:https://yourdomain.com/example-page/’
If you don’t see your page show up then this means Google hasn’t yet indexed it. This can be for a number of different reasons however the main one is time – give Google some time to crawl your website and index it.
If you do see your page then this means it’s indexed and can appear in the SERPs. However just because a page can appear in the SERPs doesn’t mean it will. This is common with websites that are new and still in the ‘sandbox’.
Build some links, improve on-page SEO, and having some patience can solve a lot of indexing issues.
Conclusion
Tracking your keywords in Google is good practice as you can monitor which keywords are doing well and which ones need improvement.
I like to track my keywords using a paid tool, like SERPWatcher. It’s easy to set up and once it is you can monitor all of your keywords in around 10 minutes. It is a paid tool however in my opinion it’s 100% worth it.
The next best options are to use Google Search Console or check your keywords manually. Each different method has its own pros and cons however, ultimately it’s up to you and your needs.
Remember try not to obsess over your rankings too much, as time spent checking where you rank in Google could be spent writing more content or building some links.