How to quickly find what pages on your website rank for specific keywords (without a paid tool)
It’s official…
There are WAY too many keyword rank tracking tools on the internet.. that do… the exact same thing..
Oh and they generally start at $49.99 per month depending on how many keywords you want to track.
Understanding what keywords your website ranks for isn’t hard to find out nowadays with the hundreds of different tools out there. A quick Google search for ‘rank tracking software’ yields over 1 million results..
Some keyword tools are great and provide lots of insights and action items to improve — then some should go back to 1998 with that trash interface.
A key question to ask yourself before diving into rankings is:
What will I do once I know what I’m ranking for?
Something I’ve learned from years spent in the SEO industry is that…
Keyword rankings mean absolutely nothing if they don’t drive the right traffic.
A better question than “what keywords do I rank for” is:
“What pages on my website rank for which keywords?“
Why is understanding the pages that rank for specific keywords a far better question to ask?
- You will understand what pages Google likes
- You will understand what Google thinks your pages are about
- It helps you understand which pages on your website need work
- It helps you identify quick wins for traffic
- It allows you to understand what pages are competing against each other
- It provides you with content gaps and opportunities
By understanding which keywords lead to which pages — you start to gain real insights that can provide actual action items to improve organic visibility on Google.
Here is a quick and simple way to understand the keywords your website ranks for AND the pages Google finds most relevant to those keywords. For free and no paid software.
Here are the only things you need to do this:
- Access to Google search console
- A Google sheet
- The ‘Search Analytics for sheets’ add on
Step #1 Create a new Google sheet
- Or just open sheets.new
- Make sure you are logged into the account that has access to Google Search Console
Step #2 Go to Add-ons and search ‘Search Analytics For Sheets’
- In the sheets menu, click add-ons
- Search for ‘Search Analytics For Sheets’
- Click install
- Once installed, go back to Add-ons in the menu, then select ‘open sidebar’
Step #3 Import search console data into your Google Sheet
- Select your domain and pick a date range (I generally do at least 6 months)
- Add page and query in the ‘group by’ field
- Search type = web
- Aggregation type = Default
Step #4 Organize your sheet
- Add a filter to your header row > uncheck 0 under the clicks column
- In the menu: Data > sort range > select data has a header row > sort by page (A — >Z) > then by clicks (Z — >A)
You can now use your Google sheet to filter down to specific pages, keywords and more.
And there you have it, a quick and simple way to understanding the pages on your website and what keywords they specifically rank for!