If you want to ensure that your website is ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs), then you need to know how to check your search rankings. Fortunately, there are a few simple steps you can take to keep track of your progress.
By checking your site’s indexing status, monitoring your keywords, and optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions, you can make sure that your website is as visible as possible to potential customers. Additionally, publishing high-quality content and analyzing your competitors will help you further improve your search engine rankings.
By following these tips, you can rest assured that your website is performing well in the SERPs.
Check Your Site’s Indexing Status.
Use Google Search Console.
The first step to checking your site’s indexing status is to use Google Search Console. This is a free tool that allows you to see how your site is performing in Google search results.
To use it, simply enter your website’s URL into the search bar and click “search.” If your site is indexed, you’ll see a message saying so. If it’s not, you’ll see a message saying “No Results.”
Once you know whether or not your site is indexed, you can take steps to fix the problem if necessary. The most common reason for a site not to be indexed is because it contains errors that prevent Google from crawling it.
Check for Manual Actions.
Another reason why your site might not be appearing in search results is because of a manual action taken by Google. Manual actions are usually only imposed if your site has been found to be violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
If you think this might be the case, you can check for manual actions in Google Search Console. To do this, simply click on the “Manual Actions” tab and then look for any messages that say your site has been affected.
If you do find a manual action, you’ll need to take steps to fix the issue before your site will be re-indexed.
Check for Mobile-Friendliness.
, Google updated its algorithm to give mobile-friendly sites a boost in the search rankings. This means that if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, it could be at a disadvantage compared to other sites that are.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to check if your site is mobile-friendly or not. Simply enter your URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and click “analyze.” If your site passes the test, you’ll see a message saying so; if it doesn’t, you’ll see a list of things you need to fix in order to make it more mobile-friendly.
Monitor Your Keywords.
Use Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results. You can use it to see how often your site appears in search results, which keywords are being used to find your site, and what kind of traffic you’re getting from Google Search.
To use Google Search Console, first you need to add and verify your site with Google. Once you’ve done that, you can use the Keywords section of the Performance tab to see which keywords are driving traffic to your site. To get the most accurate data, be sure to set the date range to at least the past year.
Use Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is another free service offered by Google that lets you track website traffic and analyze visitor behavior. While it doesn’t provide data on specific keywords, it can give you insights into how people are finding your site and what they’re doing once they’re there.
To use Google Analytics, sign up for a free account and then add the tracking code to your website. Once that’s done, you can view your website’s traffic data under the Acquisition tab. Look for the Source/Medium report to see where your traffic is coming from, including organic search.
Use a Rank Tracking Tool.
A rank tracking tool is a software application that allows you to track your website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords over time. This data can be helpful in identifying trends and determining whether or not your SEO efforts are paying off. There are many different rank tracking tools available; some are free while others require a monthly subscription fee.
Some popular rank tracking tools include:
– Google Search Console
– Google Analytics
– Moz Pro
– SEMrush
– Ahrefs
Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions.
Use Keywords Strategically.
When optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions, it’s important to use keywords strategically. That means using relevant keywords that are likely to be searched for by your target audience. But you don’t want to stuff your keywords in there just for the sake of it. Use them judiciously and make sure they fit naturally into the text.
Keep It Short and Sweet.
Your title tags and meta descriptions should be clear and concise. They should give readers a good idea of what your page is about without being too long or wordy. aim for around 50-60 characters for your title tags, and around 155-160 characters for your meta descriptions.
Add Schema Markup.
Schema markup is a code that you can add to your website to help search engines understand your content better. Adding schema markup to your title tags and meta descriptions can give you a boost in the search rankings.
Publish High-Quality Content.
Write for Your Target Audience.
When you’re writing content, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind. Write content that is relevant to their interests and needs. For example, if you’re targeting parents of young children, write about topics like child-rearing, education, and family activities.
Make Sure Your Content Is Unique.
It’s important to make sure your content is unique and not plagiarized. Not only is this bad for SEO, but it can also get you in trouble with the law. To avoid plagiarism, make sure to cite your sources and use quotation marks when appropriate.
Promote Your Content.
Once you’ve published your content, it’s important to promote it so people will see it. There are a number of ways to do this, such as social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Analyze Your Competitors.
See What’s Working for Them.
If you want to improve your own search engine rankings, it pays to study what’s working well for your competitors. A good place to start is by doing a simple Google search for your main keywords.
Take a look at the results on the first page, and note the commonalities between the top-ranking pages. Do they all have keyword-rich titles? Meta descriptions? H1 tags? Images with alt text?
Once you’ve identified some potential ranking factors, take a closer look at each page to see how well they’ve optimized their website for those factors. If you find that they’re doing something better than you are, make a note of it and see if you can implement a similar strategy on your own site.
Identify Their Link-Building Tactics.
One of the most important ranking factors for any website is inbound links, or backlinks from other websites. The more high-quality links you have pointing to your site, the higher your site will rank in the search results.
To see what kind of link-building tactics your competitors are using, do a quick Google search for “site:yourcompetitor.com”. This will show you all of the pages on their website that are being indexed by Google. From there, you can use a tool like Majestic or Moz Open Site Explorer to check how many links each page has pointing to it.
If you notice that one of your competitor’s pages has a lot of links pointing to it, that’s a good sign that they’re doing something right. Try to figure out what they’re doing and see if you can replicate their success on your own site.
Monitor Their Social Media Activity.
Social media signals are another important factor in search engine rankings. The more social media activity (shares, likes, etc.) a page has, the higher it will rank in the search results.
To see how active your competitors are on social media, try using a tool like BuzzSumo or MentionMapp (Full disclosure: I am co-founder and CEO of MentionMapp). Just enter their URL into either tool and it will show you all of the latest social media activity for their website.
From there, take a look at which types of content are getting the most engagement and see if you can produce something similar on your own site or blog. If you can get people talking about your content on social media, that will go a long way towards helping you improve your search engine rankings.
As you can see, there are a number of things you can do to improve your website’s search ranking. But it’s important to keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. So be sure to monitor your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.
And don’t forget to keep producing high-quality content that appeals to your target audience. After all, that’s what will ultimately attract visitors and help you achieve long-term success.