How to Check Your Website Rankings on Google – 5 Best SEO Tools (Free)

What is the best way to check your website’s ranking position for a keyword?

The quickest way would probably be to do a google search, manually check it by scrolling through the results.

But what if you have 100+ keywords to check? Doing this keyword check manually would be quite tedious and time consuming! Not to mention, inaccurate.

There are better ways to check your Google keyword rankings, which are more accurate. In this guide, you’ll learn how to check your website’s Google keyword ranking with Search Console for free and a few rank checker tools.

What is a keyword ranking in SEO?

A keyword ranking in SEO is the Google position your website is shown on the search results for a particular search query.

It’s important to track your website’s Google keyword ranking positions as they can cause website traffic to increase or decrease. If you have a rank checker tool, you can get detailed reports of your keyword rankings and monitor your SEO rankings over time.

This is one of the best practices to keep track of rankings and measure the results of your SEO efforts.

There are two main ways you can check your Google keyword rankings

• Check your rankings manually by typing a specific keyword into the Google search bar and see where your website appears on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Use a keyword rank checker tool that automatically checks which keywords your website ranks for and monitors how they have changed over time.

Manually checking your website’s Google rankings

You can check your Google rankings manually in Google by searching for a given keyword and scrolling through the results until you find your website.

This is the most straightforward way to see where your website is ranked on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

To check one keyword at a time, this is fine.

But if you want to check dozens of keywords, manually checking your ranking position one at a time can become quite time-consuming and inefficient right?

Search results personalized to the user’s location and search history

Another problem with manually checking your website’s ranking is that it may show inaccurate results.

Because Google personalizes your search engine results page depending on your search history, personalized settings, and location.

This means that even if you and another person search for the same keyword at the same time, you may see different search results based on your search history, personalised settings and location.

For example, if you frequently search for your own website or topic, Google may prioritize your website or topic in your search results. But that may not be what another person such as your potential customer in another state sees.

So, manually checking your website’s ranking may not provide an accurate reflection of where your website actually ranks on Google.

The ranking you see may be personalized to your search history and preferences, rather than an objective ranking based on the relevance and authority of your website on search.

This can make it difficult to track your website’s progress over time or compare your rankings to your competitors.

Instead, I recommend using SEO tools and Google search console to check your website’s ranking position on Google search results! You’ll also find some of the best free keyword rank checker tools below.

How to use Google search console to check your website rankings

The first method I recommend is using Google search console.

It is basically every website’s very own google rank checker.

Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, it is a free tool from Google that helps website owners and SEO professionals monitor their SEO performance. It is free and one of the best tools to check the position of your website on organic search results.

1. Google Search Console (Search Query Position)

Once you have set up Search Console, navigate to the ‘Performance’ section and click on the ‘Search Results’ report.

Click on the Queries tab.

Then, make sure to click on all the tabs at the top for Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position.

This way, you can see the number of clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position of keyword queries that your website is visible for.

The beauty of Search Console is that it tells you the exact search queries people typed into Google to find your website.

Every other third-party keyword tool (e.g, Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest, etc) can show you keyword ranking position. But Google search console is the only tool that tells you exactly what words and phrases brought you organic traffic and visibility from SERPs.

It is the only tool that tells you the exact search queries that people have typed into Google to find your site. And the number of clicks, impressions, and CTR of each search query. There is no other tool that can provide this raw data about your website and the search terms that led people to you.

How to check your website’s ranking position on Google with Search Console

So this is the best alternative to manually checking your website’s ranking position on Google.

Use Google search console instead and filter down to a particular keyword you want to check up on. You’ll see your website’s daily ranking position for a keyword on Google. This is the most accurate ranking data you can get from Google directly.

1. Click on the + New at the top
2. Click on Query
   
3. Type in the keyword you have in mind.
4. Hover over the chart to see the keyword’s daily ranking position.

Cool, right?

This is really one of the best free SEO tools out there to get accurate results for relevant keywords your website is ranking for.

The daily average position chart shows you your website position for any keyword query is seriously one of the most underrated or under utilised feature that marketers should use more of.

How to make use of the search query data:

Review the search queries per page. If you don’t see the keywords that you should be ranking for, your website might not have enough relevant content to target those keywords.

This is a good chance to beef up keyword targeting on your website’s content.

Find search queries with high impressions but low CTR. These are keywords which are getting most views on SERPs but are not getting a lot of clicks.

You can use these search queries to improve your search snippet and increase CTR.

Make sure to connect your Google Analytics with Search Console to get even more insights!

How to use SEO tools to check your website rankings

If you want to find out your website’s ranking position for an SEO keyword, Google search console may not be sufficient as your SEO keyword may not be found in the list of search queries.

You will need a keyword ranking tool that can check the ranking position of specific SEO keywords you are targeting.

You can also use your rank tracker for keyword research. Find important metrics such as keyword search volume and keyword difficulty that help you choose the right keywords to target.

2. Ahrefs Keyword Rank Tracker (Free tool)

Ahrefs has a free Keyword Rank Tracker to check any website’s ranking position for a keyword.

Just type in the keyword + website URL. Choose the location where your primary target audience searches from.

Enter the entire website domain to see which is the best ranking page for your target keyword.

You will see your own ranking position and the current top 10 web pages on the first page of search results.

There are no limits to the number of checks you can do per day. So you can use this for as many keyword queries as you like!

Here’s an overview of Ahrefs’ keyword rank tracker:

With a paid subscription, you can monitor your keyword rankings on a daily basis and get insights such as SERP features.

3. SEMrush position tracker (Free with limited results)

SEMrush has a free position tracker tool that can track up to 10 keywords using a free account.

You can access SEMrush’s position tracking dashboard and see what keywords your website ranks for and their ranking position distribution.

The keyword data is limited on the free trial, but you can get started on gaining some insights for your most important SEO target keywords.

I have a pro subscription with SEMrush and track my SEO keyword rankings this way.

The organic keywords trend dashboard is one of my favourite reports on SEMrush. You can see how your website’s keyword rankings have evolved over time.

How to find SEO keywords a website domain ranks for

What if you want to find all the SEO keywords that your website ranks for?

And what if you want to find out what keywords your competitors are targeting?

This can help uncover keyword opportunities you may not know yet.

Semrush has a Black Friday deal right now and you can save up to 40% OFF their Guru 3-month and 6-month plans!

4. Moz Keyword Explorer (Free for 10 queries per month)

Moz keyword explorer allows you to enter a website domain or specific page URL to find its top ranking keywords.

You can get 10 queries every month on a free account. 

It shows the number of keywords your website ranks for and their top positions on the first page.

On the free account, you can see the top 50 ranking keywords and useful data such as monthly search volume and keyword difficulty.

5. Google Keyword Planner

Did you know you can use Google Keyword Planner to source keyword ideas using a website domain or page URL?

Google Keyword Planner provides relevant keyword ideas and the average monthly searches (in a range).

This is helpful to find plenty of niche keywords with a website domain.

If you are looking for keyword ideas from your competitors, this is a wonderful free tool to get started!

Local SEO search results

For local businesses with stores in a specific location, it is important to see what your audience in a specific location sees when they search for you.

Advanced Web Ranking released a new free chrome extension, AWR Search Anywhere that allows you to simulate the search results from any location in the world.

SEO Fundamentals: Keyword Research Course

Want to learn how to do SEO keyword research? Check out my SEO Fundamentals: Keyword Research Course! You’ll find strategies on how to pick the best keywords with high traffic potential and low ranking difficulty. You’ll learn what is the ideal search volume to look out for, and how to analyze keyword difficulty and target keywords in your content to drive SEO traffic.

At only $39, this course will be the most pocket-friendly investment you’ll make to learn how to do SEO keyword research the right way.