Website keyword ranking shows where your pages appear in Google search engine result pages(SERPs) for specific search terms, for example, Gemini vs ChatGPT or a Wix SEO expert. This comprehensive guide will help you to check, track, and improve rankings using top market-leading SEO tools like Google Search Console(GSC) and Semrush to boost SEO ROI.
What Is Website Keyword Ranking?
Website keyword ranking is the position of your page in search results for a given term, whether it is your page’s primary or a secondary keyword. Knowing your rankings shows how well your content matches user search intent and lets you measure SEO performance. Website keyword ranking refers to the position your pages hold in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific search terms. These positions vary by country location, device type(Mobile, Desktop and Tablet), and personalisation. Tracking top-ranked keywords helps you to understand how well your content aligns with user search intent and relevance.
For example, a local bakery may rank number 3 for “birthday cakes in Austin” on a mobile device but number 6 on the desktop version. Monitoring those positions helps them to optimise your content for each digital device and targeted location.
Why Keyword Rankings Matter for SEO Performance?
Tracking keyword rankings reveals if your website SEO is working, shows ROI, and highlights opportunities for local or international expansion.
Ranking higher in SERPs increases your business’s visibility and attracts more targeted organic traffic. Monitoring your keyword rankings allows you to:
- Measure ROI from your niche-specific SEO campaigns
- Understand how Google algorithm’s latest updates impact your website because some niches use full AI-based content, and they are still in the top ranking position. One of my previous project case studies has proved that the website is on “building materials”.
- Identify local or international SEO opportunities.
- Find and fix technical issues affecting your current rankings.
- Optimise for featured snippets and other SERP features
For example, an e-commerce store in the clothing niche notices a sudden drop in rankings after an algorithm update. By tracking keyword positions daily, they identify which product or category pages lost visibility and can fix them quickly.
How to Check Google Keyword Ranking for Your Website?
You can check your Google keyword rankings manually on your targeted country Google(.de, .co.uk, .fr, or a .dk) for a few keywords or automatically with digital marketing tools like Google Search Console, Semrush Position Tracking, and Organic Research to monitor many keywords at scale.
Semrush Position Tracking:
Learning how to track keyword rankings accurately is one of the first steps in improving them. Keyword manual tracking involves searching for your target keywords(Primary and LSI) in the Google search bar and noting their positions. While useful for small checks, it’s not practical for multiple-keyword scenarios. Automated tools save time and provide reliable data. Look at this manual keyword tracking of our digital marketing agency blog keyword error code 525.
Manual Keyword Tracking:
Comparison Table:
| Manual checks | A list of few keywords | Free, but simple | Absolutely time-consuming, inconsistent |
| Google Search Console(GSC) | Mid-size | 1005 Free, shows organic queries with positions | Limited historical depth |
| Semrush Position Tracking | Many keywords of her own website, competitor data | Reliable, scalable, alerts | 100% Paid subscriptions |
A marketing agency like Real Digital Era can track 1K client keywords. Manual checking would take days with a team, so we can set up Semrush Position Tracking with weekly email alerts.
Top Tools for Monitoring Website Keyword Rankings:
The best way to monitor keyword rankings at a large scale is to use a mix of both free and paid tools, such as Google Search Console(Google Webmaster), Semrush Position Tracking, Organic Research, and Website Audit to track positions, issues, and competitors.
To effectively monitor your top search engine rankings, you need the right mix of tools.
- Google Search Console (GSC): Shows organic queries, impressions, clicks, and average positions and CTR. These are the perfect stats for finding keywords you rank for and understanding the best user search intent.
- Semrush Position Tracking Tool: I already mentioned a screenshot as proof of how to monitor your SEO keyword rank across different locations and devices. Run a competitor analysis to see where others stand till now.
- Organic Research Tool: Discover how your niche competitors perform for your target terms(Keywords), first to identify a list of keywords and NLPs a website ranks for, and build a smarter content plan according to the latest algorithm updates, including AI SEO.
- Keyword Overview Tool: Get a detailed look at each keyword search volume, keyword difficulty(KD), and Google Trends to plan your content optimization strategy accordingly.
- Site Audit Tool: Find technical issues like missing HTTPS status, poor robots.txt configuration, Schema markup, Sitemap, AI-based content, crawling, indexing, no index tags enabled, or other critical barriers that may be hindering rankings.
- Sensor Tool: Track SERP volatility with free tools like Algoroo, AccuRanker, Google Grump, MozCast, Rank Ranger Rank Risk Index, Advanced Web Ranking(paid), and understand how Google algorithm updates may impact your rankings.
A large-scale company uses Google Search Console to identify their current keyword positions, Semrush to monitor competitors, and the top leading market sensor tool to be notified directly when Google updates cause fluctuations.
Creating a Keyword Ranking Report:
A keyword ranking report is a juice of your current positions, search engine visibility and changes over time. It helps you and your other business stakeholders see ROI and identify more optimization opportunities.
A comprehensive keyword rankings report mostly includes:
- Keyword rankings and visibility by service page, product category and for blog post
- Changes in ranking positions on weekly or monthly basis
- Overall performance of multiple keyword rank checker campaigns
- Competitor comparisons using expert SEO keyword ranking report templates
- Opportunities for content optimization on newly NLPs and quality backlinks audits
It’s a predefined rule; our digital marketing company sends a monthly PDF documented report to our clients showing keyword progress, number of traffic changes before/after work and ROI. This will help us to rethink about our current strategy for the next month round and also detailed information for the client to see he is spending his project budget at the right place.
Creating a Keyword Ranking Report:
A keyword ranking report is a juice of your current positions, search engine visibility and changes over time. It helps you and your other business stakeholders see ROI and identify more optimization opportunities.
A comprehensive keyword rankings report mostly includes:
- Keyword rankings and visibility by service page, product category and for blog post
- Changes in ranking positions on weekly or monthly basis
- Overall performance of multiple keyword rank checker campaigns
- Competitor comparisons using expert SEO keyword ranking report templates
- Opportunities for content optimization on newly NLPs and quality backlinks audits
It’s a predefined rule; our digital marketing company sends a monthly based PDF documented report to our clients showing keyword progress, number of traffic changes before/after work and ROI. This will help us to rethink about our current strategy for the next month round and also detailed information for the client to see he is spending his project budget at the right place.