Knowing your website’s rankings on Google helps you see how visible your website is to your prospects. The higher your ranking, the more people are likely to find and visit your website. This, in turn, contributes to boosting your traffic and potentially increasing your website’s popularity and your return on investment (ROI).
Checking the website position in Google is also crucial for SEO itself. Analyzing the changes in rankings allows you to evaluate the keywords your pages are supposed to be optimized for. High positions indicate that these search terms are well-selected, which means that your SEO process is going in the right direction.
On the same note, remote positions in the SERP ranking clearly show that your website requires some SEO improvements.
There are many factors that can affect your Google website position rank. The reason may be in the domain itself, the choice of keywords, competition activity, or the content (or its lack) on your site. Monitoring your Google position allows you to evaluate whether your activities are performing well and bring you measurable profits. If not, it’s a great starting point for you to rethink and improve the strategy. However, remember that Google algorithms are constantly changing and your position in SERPs will never be permanent – that’s why you need to see the monitoring as a process and not a one-time action.
Doing keyword research before checking your website’s position is crucial because:
Plus, by doing keyword research before checking your website position on Google you should need to take into consideration the search intent. That’s basically the reason behind a user’s search query, and these are divided into four categories: informational (“how to,” what is”), transitional (“buy,” “discount”), navigational (brand-specific queries), and commercial (comparisons, reviews, testimonials).
If you’re wondering how to check website ranking in Google search yourself, we have good news for you. There are dedicated tools that present the data and clearly show how your website ranked on a particular day in the past, for a specific keyword.
Below you can find a list of special online tools that help you check your website position on Google and even may spark some ideas on how to win this highly-desired position zero.
? Cost: free
To check your website position on Google with Google’s tool make sure it gives you the correct data. To do so, you may want to verify Google Search Console from time to time. Once you’re sure, everything is running correctly:
STEP #1: Go to Google Search Console and click the Performance tab on the left.
SETP #2: Select a time range which you want to check your website positions for. You’ll see a chart illustrating the number of total clicks, impressions, your average CTR, and position in the chosen period:
Besides, you can find out which keywords your website shows up for and create a smart strategy to win even more visitors.
? Cost: from $129.05 to $499.95 per month
SEMrush is an extremely useful and popular paid tool that can help you gain valuable insight into your SEO process. With its use, you can discover your main competitors, get inspired by their keywords or content, and quickly determine areas for improvement. To check your positions on Google in SEMrush
STEP #1: Click the Organic Research tab on the left.
STEP #2: Enter your URL in the search bar.
STEP #3: Select the Positions tab, and you’ll see a list of organic keywords (and positions) your website is displayed for.
As you can see, apart from that, you can also analyze individual subdomains, pages, and your competitors.
? Cost: from $99.00 to $399.00 per month
Ahrefs is another popular SEO tool that can help you check your website position on Google. It’s very intuitive and allows you to verify many elements such as your backlinks, outgoing links, paid search, and much more. To use it,
STEP #1: Click the Organic keywords tab on the left.
STEP #2: Enter your URL in the search bar at the top of the page.
You’ll see a list of positions of organic keywords your website is displayed for together with their volumes, difficulty, CPC, and traffic.
EXTRA STEP: If you click on a keyword, the tool will show you related words and questions you can use. This helps a lot when you’re planning what to write about to make the most out of those keywords.
? TIP: SEMrush and Ahrefs offer really powerful features that give you tons of insights about your website performance and your competitors’ SEO strategies. Buying both may be out of the table for you, which is totally understandable. So, if you’re on the fence, not knowing which tool to pick, be sure to check out Ahrefs vs SEMrush – Which SEO Tool to Choose?
? Cost: from $19.90 to $89.90 per month
SERPWatcher is another exemplary tool in our ranking. Although it’s paid, you may want to go for a free trial.
You can check your positions on Google by following those steps
STEP #1: Choose SEO Tools from the menu at the top of the page.
STEP #2: Go to the SERPChecker.
EXTRA STEP: This tool allows you to analyze backlinks and research keywords so you may want to look at those metrics too.
? Cost: free to $449.00 per month
RankWatch is an ideal tool for every person who doesn’t want to spend a lot of money but still needs to check basic website parameters.
To access needed data
STEP #1: Select Resources & Free Tools from the menu.
STEP #2: Pick Website Analyzer.
STEP #3: Provide your website’s URL and click Analyze.
The tool will present you with an insightful report – which you can download as a PDF – showing you the information concerning:
EXTRA STEP: In the Visitors section, the tool shows you the bounce rate, global and country rank, as well as traffic estimator.
? Cost: from €89.00 to €159.00 per month (basic functions are free of charge)
SearchMertics offers some basic functionalities for free, and this is what we’re going to use now.
STEP #1: Go to the tool’s website and enter your URL.
You’ll see SEO rank and PPC rank, your top organic keywords and competitors, as well as linked pages.
While you can try checking your website’s rank by googling keywords yourself, remember it’s pretty time-consuming. However, if you feel like giving it a go, do the following:
STEP #1: Before you start, make sure to log out of any Google apps, add-ons, or extensions to avoid messing with the search results.
STEP #2: Just search for a keyword that’s important to your page.
Just keep in mind that the results you get this way aren’t always accurate. Things like your location can change what you see in the SERP. Geolocation affects Search Engine Results Pages because Google aims to provide the most relevant results based on where a user actually is.
For instance, if you search for “coffee shops,” Google will show coffee shops near your current location. This means someone in New York will see different results from someone in Los Angeles for the same search. You will find more information on that in Local vs International SEO Explained as well as International SEO and Sales Strategy.
Also, trying to check lots of keywords this way is a big task and the results can be skewed by so many factors. It’s a lot of effort for something that might not give you the full picture.
Keeping track of where your website stands in search results is super important, and it’s great you know to learn how to do it yourself. The good news is that if you don’t want to pay for fancy SEO tools to see how your keywords are doing, there’s a way to do this without spending any money. You can actually get information on your website position changes for free using Google Search Console and Looker Studio (what used to be called Google Data Studio).
When combined, these tools let you check out your website’s performance and see how your keywords are ranking without having to pay for anything. But there’s more. These tools aren’t just about checking data – they let you set up alerts and reports that run on their own.
Here’s the manual for you on how to create your own Looker Studio SEO Report so be sure to check it so that you don’t need to check your website position on Google manually.
If you’ve come that far it means you’re familiar with the tools needed to check your website’s position on Google, and you understand the steps required for this task. You also know how to use Google Search Console and Looker Studio to receive alerts about any sudden changes in your rankings. This knowledge is valuable because it enables you to act swiftly and adjust your strategy in response to any unforeseen shifts that could negatively impact your visibility.
One last thing: If you want someone to keep an eye on your online store, blog, or website, think about teaming up with us. At Delante we can help you get to the top of search results, make the most out of your website, and pull in more of the right kind of visitors.
This is an update of an article first published in 2018.
It’s worth checking regularly on what position is your website to monitor whether your (or your agency’s) SEO activities bring desired results. If your website is, for quite a long time, in the low position in Google search results it’s a clear sign that you need to think about optimizing it. Drawing conclusions from the ranking monitoring will help you improve your SEO strategy.
Remember that the higher is your rank in Google search results, the more visible your website is online. Why is it so important? It’s because users tend to choose websites that appear higher in the search results more often. This contributes to an increase in organic traffic and later on better conversion of the site.
What is more, a high Google rank positively affects your brand recognition and allows you to increase your competitive advantage. That’s why it’s so important to constantly work on your Google website rank. You can do it with a well-composed SEO strategy.