How To Find Out What Keywords Your Website Ranks For

Updated: 13 August 2025

Making assumptions about your keywords vs the facts can be the difference between online visibility and online anonymity. There’s no substitute for real data.

As an SEO specialist with over 20 years of hands-on experience, I’ve found Google Search Console to be one of the most reliable (and free) tools for discovering exactly which keywords your website is ranking for. The best part? This information comes directly from Google, so you can trust its accuracy.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how I use Google Search Console to uncover key keyword data for my own clients, and how you can apply the same process to improve your rankings in the search engine results pages.

Why Google Search Console is One of the Best Keyword Tools

There are some great keyword research tools you can use to find the search terms (keywords and phrases) your target audience is entering into search engines like Google, but you can also access a heap of valuable information from your own website using Google Search Console.

This gives you insights straight from Google, helping you focus your efforts and uncover new content opportunities to improve your SEO rankings. It’s a reliable way to make informed decisions that generate traffic and have a measurable impact on your visibility.

For a comprehensive overview of the tool and all that it offers, check out this article on awesome tips for using Google Search Console.

Three Ways to Use Google Search Console to Improve Your Keyword Rankings

1. Discover Keywords You Almost Rank For

Find keywords your site ranks for that are just off page one of Google (ie those in positions 11 to 30 on pages two and three).  These are valuable keywords, hey’re close enough to drive results but not yet pulling in a meaningful number of clicks. If Google is ranking you for them already, it means your business is seen as relevant for these terms.

It only takes the smallest tweak to convert them to high-impact keywords.

From my own client work, I’ve seen simple updates to page titles, meta descriptions, adding internal links, content updates and adding EEAT signals move a keyword from position 15 to position 5 in just a few weeks, with a noticeable boost in enquiries.

Here’s how to find and optimise striking distance keywords:

• Open Google Search Console
• Click on the ‘Search Results’ tab (found under the ‘Performance’ tab)
• Click ‘Average CTR’ and ‘Average Position’
• Once the data has loaded, scroll down and sort from high to low using click-through-rate
• You can then see which keywords are ranking well, but which aren’t getting many hits
• Optimise these by updating meta data, page content, internal (and external links), strengthening on-page copy to make the page the best quality result for that keyword and adding EEAT signals.

2. Discover Long-Tail Keywords Which Are Already Related To Your Pages

Long-tail keywords often convert better because they’re more specific to a searcher’s intent. You can use the ‘Queries’ report in Google Search Console to find these keywords that are already linked to your pages, then make small optimisations to capture more of that traffic.

Here’s how:

• Open Google Search Console
• Click on ‘Search Results (located under the ‘Performance’ tab)
• Click ‘+ New’ in the filter row, then click on ‘Page…’
• Type in the URL that you want to optimise, then click ‘Apply’
• The list of keywords which your page has shown for in Google search results will be displayed
• Identify opportunities where you can optimise for long-tail keywords
• Target these keywords through meta data and copy edits if the search volume is good and the keywords are relevant.

3. Uncover Competing Keywords Ranking on Multiple Pages

Sometimes you may have two or more pages competing for the same keyword, and this can dilute your results and you may be able to consolidate this information into one blog post that will rank better overall.

• Open Google Search Console
• Click on ‘Search Results (under the ‘Performance’ tab)
• Click ‘+ New’ in the filter row, then click ‘Query…’
• Enter a valuable target keyword
• Then scroll down to find the ‘Pages’ tab to see all the pages which rank for that target keyword
• Use this info to find pages which are competing with one another for impressions and clicks for the same keyword
• Identify the most appropriate page, then make meta data and content edits to optimise the keyword
• Remove that keyword from other competing pages wherever possible

Why It’s Important To Know What Keywords Your Pages Are Ranking For

A strong keyword strategy and optimising your content are crucial to online visibility, but that’s only half the battle. You also need to check your keyword rankings regularly to see exactly what your audience is looking for and to stay ahead of changes in search behaviour.

The data from Google Search Console gives you:

• Search terms straight from Google’s own records

• Positions of keywords and their traffic volumes

• Clear opportunities to boost rankings through small, focused updates

By reviewing this regularly, you can spot where extra attention is needed and push more pages onto page one, where the real traffic happens.

Found this information helpful? If you’re looking after your website’s SEO and would like some expert guidance, The SEO School is a great way to learn smart, practical SEO strategies that get results without being overly complicated.

Karen Dauncey

Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and is an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.

Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. She was recently recognised as an SEO Expert for the popular course creation platform, Kajabi as well as appearing on ABC Radio
for her expert opinion on the ACCC's investigation into search engines.

Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).

To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.