In today’s world, digital marketing is more important than ever, as it offers more cost efficient methods of new customer acquisition as well as a higher ROI when compared to traditional marketing methods. Among these digital marketing techniques are numerous methods that allow you to improve your keyword ranking with Google, from search engine optimization to search engine marketing.

Organic traffic with Google can be a massive boon to your business by driving growth with the potential to bring in new customers for years to come. If you want to see which keywords your website ranks for, don’t just “Google it” and expect to be provided with the results you’re looking for, as manually searching Google is not only time consuming but the results are often skewed by everything from your search history to browser preferences. Instead, utilize the many free online tools at your disposal to make informed and intelligent decisions about your own web strategy and determine how you can rank for keywords on Google.

Not sure where to get started with SEO? See our article at What is SEO and How Does it Work?

Step 1. Check Individual Keywords

When attempting to check your website’s current keyword ranking with Google, the first step you should take is to check individual keywords, although you should be aware of the fact that this method can be time-consuming even with the plethora of online tools. One of the primary tools that you can use to check your rankings is that of SERPS.com keyword search tool. This tool allows you to enter an exact keyword and see how your website ranks on search engines like Google and Yahoo. You can also filter this search by an exact location for more precise details.

While this tool is completely free to use and can be beneficial towards helping you make sure that your website ranks well on Google search results, it’s important to understand that the information provided by this tool doesn’t give you the whole picture.

For example, your website could be ranking on the first page of Google search results when a certain keyword is typed in, but you should be aware of the fact that not all keywords are created equally. Some keywords will be searched more frequently by prospective customers than others, providing greater exposure through higher search volume, which is why your website appearing high on Google search rankings for a single keyword doesn’t mean much on its own. To mitigate these issues, you want to do keyword research in order to determine where opportunity lies and which keywords you really want to rank for. Keywords that are successful for your competitor’s websites could also be successful for yours. If you start optimizing your website around keywords that are searched more frequently and provide value to your visitors, your ranking with Google will improve.

Step 2. Check Your Website’s Rankings With Google Search Console

The next step that you should take when attempting to check your website’s keyword ranking with Google is to make use of a wonderful tool that’s known as Google Search Console. This tool is designed to help users determine their website’s search traffic, website health, as well as the keywords that pull in traffic for their website. All of this is accomplished from a user-friendly dashboard that’s easy to use and takes very little time to understand. This service is free and can be used on a variety of devices, including smartphones and desktops. There are a variety of features that you obtain when using Google search console, all of which assist you in monitoring your website’s performance when it comes to Google search rankings.

If you want to take advantage of all of the features available through Google Search Console, the first thing that you’re going to want to do is to add and verify your website on the Google Search Console, as this will prove to Google that you’re the webmaster or owner of the site in question. There are a variety of ways in which you can verify your site, including by adding a meta tag to your website’s home page, by signing in to the provider of your domain name, through your Google Analytics account, or with your Google Tag Manager account. Once you’ve verified your website, you can start measuring the performance of your website in accordance with Google search rankings.

Although there are a wide array of features available with Google Search Console, the main one that should be of interest to you is the ability to see which keyword searches with Google have caused your website to appear within the search engine results. This feature also allows you to see the click-through rates of these listings, which means that you’ll be able to identify how often a user clicks on your website when typing in a specific keyword. This feature is called Search Analytics and comes with its own set of features that you should be aware of. Search Analytics delivers accurate reports about your website’s search engine rankings with up-to-date information while also allowing you to identify the types of devices that most commonly access your website from the Google search engine.

Once you’ve identified how well or otherwise your website is ranking when it comes to certain keywords, you can then use some of the features included with this tool to improve the issues that may be causing your website to appear lower on search results than you would like. A feature available with this tool that can assist you with website optimization is one that allows you to get a list of the pages on your website which Google has had difficulties indexing, meaning that your pages are unable to be crawled by Google and will not appear in the search results. Correcting these errors will help to improve your website optimization strategy, which will in turn build trust with Google and cause your site to rank higher in search results!

Step 3. Check Third Party Organic Search Tools With SEM Rush

Our favorite tool is a third-party organic search tool known as SEM Rush. This tool provides you with the means of measuring estimated search traffic based on a variety of factors, including search volume and keyword competition. If your competitors are outranking you in the search results, this tool can help you turn things around.

You can not only do a free audit of your own domain but you can obtain a sample of keywords that you currently rank for and analyze your competitors. By analyzing the competition, you’ll have a better idea of how to create a more effective strategy. There are a variety of ways to analyze the competition with these tools, the most important of which allows you to ascertain which websites would classify as your direct competition when it comes to organic search rankings, which means that the tool lists which websites have common keywords with your own. You can even see which keywords and keyword phrases work the best for your competitors, allowing you to adjust your search engine optimization strategy as necessary.

When you enter your domain name into this tool, you’ll be provided with a comprehensive breakdown of the organic search data that’s tied to your website, including how much traffic your website receives, how many keywords your site has been optimized with, and the traffic cost associated with your website, which is an estimate on how much it cost in marketing to obtain the traffic numbers that you currently have. When you’re using this tool, you’ll quickly notice how easy it is to use.

For instance, when you see the number of keywords associated with your website, you can select this number and will be provided with an organized list of each keyword that leads to a page of your website. You can then filter these keywords by a number of metrics, such as which keyword receives the highest amount of traffic for your website and if you were to begin a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign, you could explore keywords which may be the most cost-effective options. With the SEM Rush tool, you’ll be able to know which keyword phrases are more likely to generate a high amount of traffic. When selecting a certain keyword, you will also be provided with different variations of that keyword that can also be used. As you’re using this tool, make sure that you track your past and current rankings to see what’s working and what isn’t and optimize your SEM strategy.

Step 4. Do a Competitive Analysis to Determine Your Position and Traffic Potential

As touched upon previously, conducting a competitive analysis is absolutely essential towards keeping your website at the top of search engine results. If you don’t analyze the keywords that are bringing success to your competition, you won’t be able to find opportunity, create an effective strategy, and optimize your website properly.

By analyzing your competition, you’ll be able to measure your own traffic against theirs and see where you fall short or succeed in outranking your competitors. For example, you may appear towards the top of search engine results when a specific keyword is entered but not receive much of a boost to your website traffic, which could indicate that the keyword itself isn’t that popular of a search. When this occurs, look at which keywords have worked for your competition (and which haven’t) and adapt from there, as your customer base is likely very similar to the one of your competition.

SEM Rush, in particular, is a very effective site when it comes to competitive analysis. Although with a free account you won’t be provided with every detail of how the competition ranks on Google, you can obtain the top 20 keywords used for each site, which can be very helpful. Stuffing your website with keywords isn’t going to help your boost your ranking on Google, but using the right keywords in the right content on your website can position you towards the top of search engine results and provide an increase in how much traffic your website receives. The goal for this analysis is to find an opportunity for growth. Even when your website ranks well on Google, there is always going to be room for improvement. By focusing on the keywords that do well on your website and with your competition, you will invariably increase the amount of traffic that comes into your site.

There are many tools out there that can help you determine the Google search rankings for your website, but the hard part is deciphering exactly where the opportunity lies. Finding this opportunity will assist you in growing your business through increased traffic, a boost in lead generations, more conversions, and greater revenue for your business.

Looking to improve your website’s SEO and ranking potential? See our article which lays out some of our SEO tips and tricks that anyone can do — for free.

Contact us today as we’re more than happy to provide a free audit of your website and discuss your current web strategy — and how we can help!