See every keyword a
domain ranks for.

How to find out what keywords your website ranks for

There are two free ways, and they answer different questions. Google Search Console shows the real searches your site appeared for, straight from Google, but only for a site you've verified. A ranked keywords checker like this one works on any domain, yours or a competitor's, and adds search volume, keyword difficulty and intent, which Search Console leaves out.

For your own site, start with Search Console. Its positions are averages across every time you appeared, it hides very rare queries for privacy, and it needs a few weeks of data before it's useful. Here's how to pull your list:

1. 1Open Google Search Console and pick your site
2. 2Go to Performance, then Search results
3. 3Click the Average position card so the column shows in the table
4. 4Set the date range to the last 3 months for a stable picture
5. 5Read the Queries tab: every search your site appeared for, with clicks, impressions and position
6. 6Open the Pages tab and click a page to see the queries that one page ranks for
7. 7Paste your domain into the checker above for search volume, difficulty and intent

Why checking your rankings by hand doesn't work

Googling your own keywords is the obvious way to check, and the least reliable. Google personalizes results by your location, device, language and search history, and it knows you visit your own site. What you see is rarely what a new searcher sees.

A ranking database records results without that personal layer, which is why tools and your own searches often disagree. Treat any single position as a snapshot: rankings move daily, so the trend over weeks matters more than one number.

Why check a domain's rankings

Every keyword a site ranks for is a page that's earning it traffic. Pulling that list, for your own domain or a competitor's, tells you what's working, what's slipping, and where the easy wins are hiding.

On your own site it's a health check. On a competitor's, it's a map of the demand they're capturing that you aren't.

Every column in your report, explained

The report lists up to 20 keywords the domain ranks for in Google's US results, highest search volume first. Here's what each part means:

Keyword

A search the domain ranks for. We leave out navigational searches and any keyword containing the domain's own name, because those are people looking for that brand.

Position

Where the domain's page sits on the results page for that keyword. It counts every block on the page, including features like People Also Ask and video results, so it can read a little lower than a count of the blue links alone. We only include keywords ranking in roughly the top 30 results.

Volume

Estimated average monthly searches for the keyword in the US. It tells you how much traffic a top spot could be worth.

Difficulty

A 0 to 100 estimate of how hard the keyword is to rank for, based on how strong the pages already ranking for it are. The report marks 0 to 30 as Easy, 31 to 60 as Medium and 61 and above as Hard.

Intent

What the searcher wants. Informational means they want to learn, commercial means they're comparing options, and transactional means they're ready to buy or sign up. Your page has to match it to rank.

Keywords shown

The total is how many non-branded keywords the domain ranks for in roughly the top 30. The report shows the 5 with the most search volume in full.

Reading position, volume and difficulty together

Position tells you where you sit today; volume tells you how much traffic that spot is worth; difficulty tells you how hard the keyword was to win in the first place. A keyword on page two (positions 11 to 20) with real volume and beatable difficulty is often your fastest win: a small push moves it onto page one.

Ignore branded and navigational terms. A site ranking #1 for its own name isn't an opportunity for anyone else, which is why this tool filters them out.

What are high-ranking keywords?

Usually it means the keywords a site already ranks well for: page one, and above all the top three positions, where most of the clicks go. People also use it loosely for high-volume keywords, which isn't the same thing. A high-volume keyword you rank 40th for brings almost nothing.

The keywords worth protecting are the ones where you rank on page one and the intent matches what you sell. Keep those pages updated, link to them from related pages on your site, and watch them for slips.

How to choose keywords to rank a website for

Picking keywords is a filter, not a wish list. Run each candidate through these checks:

Intent you can serve

Look at what already ranks. If the top results are product pages and you're writing a blog post, or the other way round, pick a different keyword or change the page.

Enough volume to matter

Volume is an estimate, and long-tail keywords with small numbers often convert better than broad ones. Don't drop a keyword just because the number is low if the intent is right.

Difficulty you can beat

A new site with few backlinks should start with Easy and Medium keywords and build topical authority before chasing Hard ones.

A fit with your topic

Keywords that sit inside a topic cluster you're building, with a pillar page and supporting articles, are easier to rank than one-off keywords on unrelated subjects.

Proof a site like yours can rank

If a competitor of a similar size ranks for it, so can you. That's what running a competitor through this checker shows you.

Watch for keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization is when two or more of your own pages compete for the same keyword. Google tends to rank one of them, sometimes the weaker one, and switch between them, so neither holds a strong position.

To spot it, open Search Console's Queries tab, click a keyword, then open the Pages tab. If several of your pages show up for one keyword, merge them into the strongest page and redirect the rest, or rewrite one so each page targets a distinct keyword.

Turning rankings into a plan

The gold is the gap: keywords a competitor ranks for that you don't. Cross-reference their winning terms against your own, prioritise the ones with intent that matches what you offer, and build the page that finally competes.

1. 1Pull a competitor's ranked keywords and scan by position
2. 2Flag terms with real volume and difficulty you can beat
3. 3Drop branded and off-intent keywords
4. 4Find what they rank for and you don't, the content gaps
5. 5Prioritise page-two keywords of your own for quick wins

Rankings and AI search

Google rankings still matter when people search with AI. Tools that search the web before answering, like ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, tend to draw their sources from pages that rank well, so a page-one ranking raises the odds a page gets cited.

It isn't one to one, though. AI answers can cite pages outside the top results, and no AI company publishes exactly how it picks sources. To see whether AI tools already mention your brand, try the free AI visibility checker.