How to check where your business ranks on Google

Why your own search misleads you

Google tailors results to the person searching: where they are, what they have searched before, what they have clicked. A business owner who searches for their own company every day, from their own premises, will often see it higher than a customer two miles away sees it. Signing out or using a private window reduces this but does not remove the effect of location, which for local searches is the biggest factor of all.

So a quick search is fine for a rough feel. It is not evidence, and it is a poor way to judge whether anything is working.

Use Search Console: the real numbers, free

Google Search Console is a free service that shows how your site performs in Google’s results. Its performance report lists the searches your pages appeared for, with four numbers for each:

• Impressions, how many times your page was shown for that search.
• Clicks, how many of those times someone chose it.
• Average position, where it appeared, averaged over all those impressions.
• Click-through rate, clicks divided by impressions.

Two things to understand about average position. First, it is an average: a position of 8 might mean you were eighth every time, or third for some people and fifteenth for others. Second, position counts the whole page, the map results, the “people also ask” boxes and so on each take up positions, so position 4 is not always the fourth blue link.

If you do not have Search Console set up, that is the first job. It takes a few minutes and the data starts from the day you verify the site.

Checking local rankings

For searches with a local element, “dentist York”, “plumber near me”, the results depend on where the searcher is. Google says as much in its guidance on local ranking: distance is one of the three main factors. So the honest question is not “where do we rank?” but “where do we rank for someone in Acomb, in Haxby, in the city centre?”

1. In Search Console, filter the performance report by the query and look at the impressions and average position. That is the overall picture.
2. For a particular place, use a tool that lets you set the search location, or look at the results on a phone when you are actually there. Many rank-tracking services offer location-based checks; the free ones are enough for a small business.
3. Check the map results separately from the ordinary results. They are chosen differently, and a business can lead one and be absent from the other.

Rank-tracking tools are useful for watching a short list of searches from set locations over time. Treat their numbers as a sample, not the truth: they query Google from a chosen point and see what that point sees.

What to track, and what to ignore

A small business does not need to track two hundred keywords. It needs:

• The five to fifteen searches that describe what you sell and where, the ones that bring customers.
• Impressions and average position for each, monthly, from Search Console.
• Clicks to the site, and what those visitors did: calls, forms, bookings.
• Map visibility for your main search from two or three places your customers are.
• Reviews: how many, how recent, your average.

Ignore vanity rankings for searches that would not bring you a customer, “SEO scores” from tools, and day-to-day movements. Rankings wobble; what matters is the direction over months and whether enquiries follow.

A monthly routine

1. Open Search Console, set the date range to the last three months and compare with the three beforeLook for searches gaining impressions and pages gaining clicks. Those are what is working.
2. Check your short listAverage position and impressions for each of your core searches. Note the direction, not the decimal.
3. Check the mapYour main search, from two or three locations. Are you in the three shown, and who is?
4. Count the enquiriesCalls, forms and bookings from search, from your tracking. This is the number that pays the bills.
5. Write down one thing to changeA page that gets impressions but few clicks needs a better title. A search you want but do not appear for needs a page. Pick one.