If you really think that Google rankings mean little or nothing to your website, then you are wrong. For instance, moving from page 10 onto page one on Google, you will enjoy a great increase in CTR and traffic. However, if you’re not tracking your Google rankings regularly, it will be hard for you to know where you need to focus your efforts in order to increase visibility and expand organic traffic.
It’s an overview of why you need to monitor your Google ranking, with further explanations on how you should properly go about it with the likes of Google Search Console and Rank Math.
Why Is It Important to Track Your Google Rankings?
A study by Sistrix estimated that the average click-through rate in Google Search is 28.5% for the first organic result, 15% for the second position, and 11% for the third. It goes to prove that with the improvement in results over Google search, your content magically jumps up with respect to visibility and success.
That means monitoring your rankings will help you understand which of those effective keywords, concentrated on strategies toward, attract more targeted visitors. You can also learn how well your SEO efforts are performing over time by regularly monitoring to keep fine-tuning your strategy. Moreover, search engines change their algorithms so often that more frequent rank checking will keep you better informed and allow quicker changes in strategies anytime necessary.
How to Track Google Rankings
Now, let’s talk about three effective ways of monitoring your Google rankings, and which tools will most likely yield the best insights.
2.1 Tracking Google Rankings Manually
One straightforward method to check your rankings is by searching for your target keywords directly on Google. However, it’s important to note that Google customizes results based on your search history, geographic location, and even your browsing behavior. This personalization can skew the rankings you see and may not reflect how others encounter your website.
For the most accurate manual results, I recommend opening a new incognito or private browsing window in your browser. In this mode, your search history and cookies are not factored into the results, giving you a clearer view of your actual ranking. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “best productivity app,” search for it in incognito mode to identify where your site stands among competitors.
To make manual tracking more efficient, you can complement this approach with a tool like Ahrefs’ Keyword Rank Checker. This free resource allows you to input a keyword, select your domain, and specify your country. With just a few clicks, you’ll receive valuable insights such as your ranking position, the page ranking for that keyword, and metrics like Domain and URL Rating. For instance, if your keyword is “team communication software,” you could instantly see whether your landing page or blog post is performing better in search.
If you’re serious about understanding trends over time, manually tracking results in a spreadsheet can be helpful. Create a simple log in Google Sheets or Excel where you enter rankings daily or weekly. Over the course of a month, this data will provide a clear trajectory of your keyword performance. For example, if you notice your ranking for “remote work tools” dropping from position 5 to position 8, you can analyze potential causes and adjust your strategy accordingly.
While this method requires some effort, it offers a hands-on way to stay in tune with your keyword performance. Combining manual tracking with tools and consistent logging ensures that you’re not relying solely on intuition but have concrete data to back your decisions.
2.2 Tracking Google Rankings with Google Search Console
For a more systematic and detailed approach, I strongly recommend using Google Search Console, a free and reliable platform developed by Google. This tool provides invaluable insights into how your site performs in search results, helping you track, troubleshoot, and optimize your content’s visibility.
To start, set up your Google Search Console account if you haven’t done so already. After verifying your website property, navigate to the Performance section. Here, you’ll find key metrics such as:
- Total Clicks: How many times users clicked on your website from search results.
- Total Impressions: How often your site appeared in search results.
- Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks.
- Average Position: Your site’s average ranking for all queries.
This dashboard provides a summary of your site’s overall search performance. For instance, if you run a blog about fitness tips, you might see that “home workout routines” generates more clicks and impressions than “gym equipment reviews,” helping you focus on high-performing topics.
Scroll down further to view a list of search queries that led users to your site. For each query, you can see metrics like clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position. This is especially useful for identifying which keywords drive the most traffic. For example, you might discover that “healthy eating habits” ranks at position 3 but has a low CTR, prompting you to optimize your meta description to encourage more clicks.
The Pages tab is another valuable section, offering insights into how specific pages on your site are performing. You can drill down into each page to see associated keywords and their metrics. For instance, if your “Beginner’s Guide to Yoga” page has high impressions but low clicks, you might consider revising the content or adding a call-to-action to make it more engaging.
Regularly monitoring Google Search Console enables you to stay informed about how your audience discovers and interacts with your content. For example, if you notice a drop in impressions for “remote collaboration tools,” it could indicate increased competition or a need to update your content.
By combining Google Search Console with manual tracking, you create a comprehensive system for understanding and improving your site’s search performance. These insights empower you to make data-driven decisions that align with your goals, ensuring your site continues to rank and attract the right audience.
2.3 Google Rankings Tracking with Rank Math
Rank Math is an all-in-one WordPress SEO plugin with a plethora of features that help you optimize your website. Among the biggest guns the plugin is equipped with is its integrated rank tracker, which enables you to track your Google rankings right from within the WordPress dashboard.
To get started, set up Rank Math by going to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Analytics and setting up some basic settings. When connected to your Google Search Console account, Rank Math will begin pulling in impressions, clicks, and average positions; this data is available from your dashboard.
The type of data some of which you can see with the Analytics integration of Rank Math includes:
- Search Traffic: The total clicks from results in searches, inclusive of all extra page views generated from these clicks.
- Search Impressions: How many times your website appears for certain search queries.
- Total Keywords: Keywords for which your website is ranked in search results.
- Total Search Clicks: Clicks users make on your search appearance.
- Average Position: The average position of ranking in which your pages appear for the respective keywords.
Well, in Rank Math PRO, it gets even fancier. You get this fancy tool called the Rank Tracker that lets you keep track of selected keywords over some time. You put in your target keywords, and Rank Math can track it for you to show which one’s ranking is improving and which downhill.
In the section of Keywords, Rank Math illustrates keyword movement trends: whether your rankings went up or down, or remained unchanged. Under the tab Site Analytics, it is possible to click upon the title of any post and observe its ranking history with keywords associated. This tracking capability provides a holistic view of your SEO progress so that you will be able to make data-driven adjustments to your strategy.
Conclusion
It means so much more than just numbers; understanding how well or poorly your website is performing is a crucial way of making informed decisions to enhance its visibility. That’s where you get tools in the form of Google Search Console and Rank Math, giving the right direction to know reasons behind variation in rankings and how you could change your strategy to remain competitive.
Regular monitoring allows you to stay on par with the constant changes of algorithms and to outline areas for improvement. Thus, keep monitoring, be flexible, and watch your presence grow. And having the proper tools up your sleeve, combined with ongoing optimization, your website is capable of bringing in even more visitors, sustaining their attention, and reaching its full potential.