If you have a website for your business or your individual brand and you want to grow it, you have to think about keyword ranking.
Of all the possible analytics you can get, this is the most telltale sign of what your web content is doing online: whether it is working, needs more effort, or is completely out of sync with what Google wants.
This process is a lot less complicated than most people think, and even if you are not a search engine expert, this is that one metric you need to know about.
Checking whether your website is ranking for the keywords that are important for your website is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process where you can use the ranking to understand the patterns and the opportunities.
Let’s explore the best ways you can check keyword rankings and find the way that suits your business workflow.
Why is Keyword Ranking Vital to Your Website’s Performance?
Every person who has ventured online has experienced this, and they have done so for years. You need to find something, buy something, or know something. What you do is you pop open your browser and type out the exact thing you are looking for, and Google finds you the best possible options within its capacity.
Now, most people would pick from the first three or five options that show up. But the websites online are not just five; there are hundreds and thousands swimming through the same industry.
Then, just imagine how much Google’s search engine ranking can limit not just what the audience has access to but also the website’s reach. But it’s not like there isn’t anything you can do about it, because Google’s ranking is not set in stone.
If you can make your website more noticeable and pickable to Google’s crawlers, you need to check your rankings first. That is the only way you would understand where your website stands, and if it’s not performing, you can go on to explore what you are doing wrong and what the other websites are doing right.
Best Ways to Check Your Keyword Rankings
There are a handful of ways you can check your keywords. Some are more convenient than others, or more effective. Here are the top three ways.
1. Checking Keywords Manually
Let’s say you want to check your keywords quickly, without having to invest in various tools or the time it will take to understand them. You can do so with your browser, and it can be exactly like just searching it up on Google.
However, there is a catch. All websites are generally global, and many businesses either operate worldwide or have a specific location in mind.
But when you are working from South Africa for a website with a target audience in the United States, you can’t just do that and get the right results because your general browser will show you the local ranking. This is how Google works to ensure it is giving its specific location-based audience exactly what they need.
The Process
To bypass this, you need to turn off your location first: go to your browser and disable location permissions for the search engine.
Log out of Google accounts from the browser. Open an incognito window and then type up your keyword into Google Search and look it up on the list; where it stands in the rank is how it’s performing.
But the problem generally is that even after doing all that, you may get local or subcontinental results. This is why the standard practice is to use a decent VPN like ExpressVPN, set it to the location where you are operating your website in, and then look up the keywords. More information is available on ExpressVPN’s website.
2. Using Google Search Console
If you don’t mind using a tool, then consider using Google Search Console. While navigating Google, it is only natural to use a tool that was made for the search engine. Coming directly from Google, this tool can help you find your site and see exactly where it stands.
The Process
Open your browser and look up Google Search Console. Log in to your account, navigate to the performance tab, and select search results. It is surprisingly easy to use.
You can configure your view for the performance chart by ensuring that you check in the boxes for Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position. This will give you a comprehensive idea about what is working for you and what is not.
This is a great source of data, and you can set the data range to get a more sizable sample, based on the months of record.
You can filter your data to show where your Average Position is. Even if you are behind, you can tweak your on-page content or work on building internal links to get to page 1 or to climb up the ranks if you are already there.
This is just one way to use these metrics for SEO; there are a few more, like sorting through impressions to find which keywords work, to optimize your title tag, or Meta Description. You can also look for keywords that may work for your website, but you don’t have any content for them yet, so that you can find and use them to grow.
3. Using Automated SEO Rank Trackers
Every SEO agency or business with its own dedicated team for digital marketing uses rank tracking tools to make the process easier, more efficient, and more effective.
Instead of focusing on just keyword ranking, these platforms act like an all-encompassing solution for SEO management.
These automated tools can check your keyword list daily or weekly, help you create a visual timeline, and predict stats based on data, so that you can see macro growth trends in real-time.
Here you don’t just keep an eye on your own analytics; you also get to keep an eye on your competitor and get to compare it side by side. If they are doing something better and stealing your spot, these platforms can help you figure out who did it and what page they are using to do it.
If you use one of the top keyword research tools, you can automate the process of checking, personalize it as needed, and ensure the result is always accurate. Here are a few tools that are available for checking keyword ranks.
Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that is here to help websites maximize online visibility. It provides comprehensive market intelligence that does daily keyword rank tracking, competitive analysis, and helps you figure out what your competitors are doing right.
They provide additional tools for technical website audits, local SEO management, and even for dealing with social media, working like a digital marketing command center.
Ahrefs
This is the SEO platform that deals with a lot of data and is well-known for owning one of the largest, most accurate live backlink indexes.
While it’s mostly used by advanced SEO professionals for reverse-engineering competitor strategies, it can also track long-term historical keyword rankings and massive keyword content gaps.
Surfer
While most other platforms are focused on more data analysis, Sufer specifically focuses on the content of the website. It works to help writers and marketers to rank pages higher by using real-time data.
The tool focuses more on the content creation process, telling you exactly what keywords to use, how many images to use, and what type of structural headings will help optimize your content for the algorithms.
Final Thoughts
Keyword rank checking is the first step in your website’s journey towards online visibility. There are many different ways you can do this, but ultimately, you need to choose which option helps you get the most for your website.
For individuals who only want to know their ranking quickly and without cost, they can do it manually. Those who have the capacity to deal with tools can try Google’s free in-house Search Console.
And people running SEO teams will need sophisticated tools that take care of everything digital marketing, to ensure that they not just find the ranking, but also how to reach the top and stay there on the search engine.
