How to Check Where Your Website Ranks in Google

Every once in a while, Google puts out a new algorithm to throw all internet marketers and website developers for a loop. The thing is, we need to stay on top of these changes in order to make sure the websites we are working on continue to rank high. It’s no secret that websites will fluctuate in ranking position from time to time – it’s all part of the game. This is normal and nothing to be alarmed about. Fluctuations that are restricted to just a couple of positions shouldn’t cause any concerns, though it can be disheartening to see your page rank fluctuate a great deal – for example, from 3rd spot to 18th.

Not only do changes in algorithms change the rank of your website, so do factors such as personalization and localization.

Personalization

Personalization refers to the alteration of results that Google displays for a keyword based on what is known about the searcher from previous searches. This may occur if the searcher is signed into Gmail, Youtube, or Google Chrome. If someone has visited a website a number of times in the recent past, the website may rank higher in the search results for that particular person than it would for other people searching the same keyword.

Localization

Localization refers to different search results being returned by Google, or the same search results in a different order, depending on the location of the person searching. For instance, a person who is based out of Toronto and types in ‘pet groomers’ in Google will see a different list of websites in the search results compared to a person based out of Miami who searches for that same keyword.

You’ll be able to verify which keywords your website is ranking for and what position they rank in if you check your Google Search Console.

How To Use Google Search Console to Check Where Your Website Ranks

1. Sign in to Google Search Console (sign up if you don’t have an account).
2. Click on your website’s name (or add it if you haven’t already done so).
3. Click on ‘Search Traffic’, then ’Search Analytics’.

It should be noted that the impressions, click-through-rates, and clicks that are shown in Google Search Console are not exact numbers, but only approximations. In addition, they might be different from the information that is displayed in Google Analytics.

Here are all the options available in Google Search Console, what they mean, and how to use them:

• Metrics To View – Check off all 4 boxes.
• Data To View – Choose the ‘Queries’ option to view website ranking information.
• Filters – Set the ‘Countries’ filter to ‘Canada’ and the ‘Search Type’ filter to ‘Web’. Set all other filter options to ‘No Filter’.
• Dates – Select the date range you’d like to look up.
• Totals and Averages – All the keywords that your website ranked for during the date range you chose will be displayed.
• Queries – This is the specific keyword that your website has ranked for in the search results.
• Clicks – This is the number of times that someone clicked through to your website from the search results after typing in a specific keyword.
• Impressions – This is the number of times your website has been displayed in the search results for a specific keyword.
• CTR (Click-through-rate) – The higher this number is, the better, which will help your site rank higher in Google. It represents Clicks / Impressions x 100.
• Position – This is the average position that your website ranks in the search results for a specific keyword. This number is only an average, so your website may not actually rank in this precise position.

Understanding where your site ranks in Google can give you a ton of insights on how well your online marketing efforts are working, and whether there is any room for improvement.

If you need help setting up your Google Search Console, please contact us and we will be more than happy to help!