Google Search Console is the most direct way to find out which keywords your site ranks for, and it’s completely free. It shows every search query that triggered your site in Google’s results, along with how often you appeared, how often people clicked, and where you ranked. If you haven’t set it up yet, you’ll need to verify ownership of your site first, which takes just a few minutes.
Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console pulls its data straight from Google’s own search index, making it the most accurate source for your Google rankings. Once your site is verified, open the Performance report from the left sidebar. You’ll see a graph showing clicks and impressions over time, with four metric cards at the top: Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR (click-through rate), and Average Position. Click on each card to toggle that data on or off in the graph and the table below it.
The table below the graph is where your keyword data lives. Select the “Queries” tab above the table, and you’ll see a list of every search term that caused your site to appear in Google’s results. Each row shows the clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position for that specific query. You can sort by any column. Sorting by impressions reveals the queries where Google shows your site most often, while sorting by position helps you find keywords where you’re ranking well or barely making the first page.
A few things worth understanding about this data. Average position represents the highest position your site held for a given query, averaged over the time period you’re looking at. If your site appeared at positions 2, 4, and 6 for one search, Google counts that as position 2 (the topmost). If another search returned your site at position 3, your average across both searches would be 2.5. This means a position of 10.0 doesn’t necessarily mean you were always at the bottom of page one. You may have fluctuated above and below that spot.
You can filter the data by date range, country, device type, and search appearance. The date filter is especially useful for spotting trends. If a keyword that used to send you 50 clicks a week has dropped to 10, that’s a signal worth investigating. You can also click on any individual query to see which specific pages on your site ranked for it, which helps when multiple pages compete for the same keyword.
Checking Your Bing Rankings
Google handles the majority of search traffic, but Bing still drives meaningful visits for many sites. Bing Webmaster Tools offers its own Search Performance report that works similarly to Google’s version. It shows the keyword phrases your pages appeared for, along with impressions, clicks, and average position.
One difference: Bing’s report lets you start from a page and drill down into the keywords associated with it. Click any page in the list to see which keyword phrases triggered that page, then click a specific keyword to see how the page performed at different ranking positions. This page-first approach can be more intuitive if you’re trying to understand how one particular piece of content is performing.
Bing stores up to six months of performance data, and it only starts collecting from the day you add your site. There’s no backdated information, so if you haven’t signed up yet, you’ll want to do that now even if you plan to focus on Google. It can take a few days after adding your site before data begins appearing.
Bing also breaks out traffic by source type, including web, images, video, news, and chat. This means your total impression and click numbers may look higher than expected if your content appears across multiple Bing surfaces.
Using Third-Party Tools
Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools only show data for sites you own and have verified. Third-party SEO tools fill a different gap: they let you see estimated keyword rankings for any domain, including your competitors’. They work by crawling search results across millions of keywords and recording which sites appear where.
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz maintain large keyword databases. Ahrefs, for example, can show every keyword a website or individual page ranks for in the top 100 results across 155 countries. You enter a domain or URL, and the tool returns a list of keywords with estimated search volume, ranking position, and the specific page that ranks. Most of these tools offer limited free lookups, with full access requiring a paid subscription that typically starts around $99 to $129 per month.
The trade-off with third-party tools is accuracy. They sample search results rather than measuring every query, so they’ll miss long-tail keywords (very specific, low-volume searches) that Search Console would capture. They also update positions on a rolling basis rather than in real time, so rankings may be a day or two behind. Where they shine is in competitive research and in giving you search volume estimates, which Search Console doesn’t provide.
Making Sense of What You Find
Once you have your keyword list, the raw data becomes useful when you organize it around decisions you can actually make. Start by looking for keywords where your average position falls between 5 and 20. These are terms where you’re close to the first page or already on it but not near the top. Small improvements to the content on those pages, like adding more depth, updating outdated information, or improving the page title, can push you higher and noticeably increase clicks.
Pay attention to keywords with high impressions but low CTR. If Google is showing your page thousands of times for a query but almost nobody clicks, your title tag or meta description probably isn’t compelling enough for that search. Rewriting it to better match what the searcher is looking for can improve traffic without changing your ranking at all.
Also look for keywords you didn’t expect. Most sites rank for dozens or hundreds of queries they never intentionally targeted. Some of these are valuable topics you could create dedicated content around. If a blog post about home office furniture is picking up impressions for “best desk for small apartment,” that’s a signal that a focused article on that topic could perform well.
Finally, check your data regularly. Rankings shift constantly as competitors publish new content and search engines update their algorithms. Reviewing your keyword performance monthly gives you enough data to spot meaningful trends without overreacting to normal daily fluctuations.