In this article, we have covered useful information that will enable you to check keyword rankings in the right and most efficient manner.
Table of Contents
It is essential to check if or not the rankings of WordPress posts are for the right keywords. By typing the keywords in Google, beginners mostly check the rankings of their articles. Such a technique does not help you in identifying the right spot of your articles for the targeted keyword.
Importance of Checking Keyword Rankings
Inexperienced or beginners find out the rankings by checking the search results through a search engine. They do not go check for the results for more than two search result pages. Sometimes your article may be ranked much lower or in worst case scenario not ranked at all for a particular keyword.
The useful information for improving your SEO ranking and site traffic is never analyzed accurately when you search for the rankings manually. Hence, it is essential to check keyword rankings with the right technique.
Google Search Console
Webmasters can improve their website for search engines through a set of tools offered by Google which is popularly known as Google Search Console.
Click-through rate, search results, impressions, position, and other details related to a website’s performance can be discovered. Google can crawl through your website more efficiently with this tool because it enables you to submit an XML sitemap.
Clicking on the average position score from the performance report menu will enable you to see the keyword positions. The average position column will be a part of the report generated by the search console. A complete list of keywords used for the site can also be viewed by scrolling down further on the page. Position of the search result, the number of clicks, and impressions can be seen next to the keywords. It is also possible to easily sort the results by impressions, clicks, or position columns.
This data can be conveniently exported and stored in a spreadsheet.
SEMRush
To check keyword rankings SEMRush is amongst the best keyword research tool in the industry. It includes all the useful tools and hence is a comprehensive SEO suit. You can easily search for keyword ranking of any domain name with its powerful organic research tool. It eliminates the need for typing the individual article’s URL. For a specific domain name, it will fetch all the available results.
You can get in-depth and comprehensive information just by searching the domain name in SEMrush. Sorting of results is also possible. The ranking results can be exported to a spreadsheet or a CSV file whenever required. If you intend to track particular keywords you can do that by adding those to your dashboard and monitor their performance constantly. This is a generic tool hence you can also search for the rankings of your competitors.
Ahrefs
For professional marketers, Ahrefs is one of the widely used tools to check keyword rankings. It features information in an understandable format even for new users as it comes with an easy to use interface. A neatly organized report consisting of charts and graphs is generated when you enter the website domain name in the search box.
The organic keywords reports will enable you to see all your keywords rankings. For all the keywords you will be able to see keyword ranking position, search volume, keyword density, and many other things.
How do keyword rankings contribute to boosting traffic in WordPress?
The above methods will help you to check keyword rankings easily. Now when you will know about your rankings it is equally essential to know how to improve them.
Interpreting and deciding keywords that require improvements
It should be clear that all keywords are not equal in creation. If a high traffic keyword is ranked 4th it is better than a low ranking keyword ranked 1st. You must consider certain aspects of this data.
Appearing on the topmost rank does not mean you always get most of the traffic. In fact, you might end up noticing that some of your keywords are ranked decently but they are not gaining the desired impressions. In the research phase, you might also discover keywords which are performing exceptionally well and you didn’t even know that they exist.
If such keywords have a significant ranking and if it is affecting the overall impressions of the page positively you must consider improving rankings of those keywords by making strategic changes to the content. For keywords that are underperforming a revised strategy should be used to boost their rankings.
Manage and improve rankings for particular keywords
First, decide the keywords that you intend to work upon. It can help you in optimizing the articles in a better manner which depends upon those specific keywords. The following includes three useful tips which can help you in the improvisation process.
1. Internal Linking: When you link articles of other pages of your site then it is termed as Internal Linking. It gives an SEO bump to the content when you choose to internal link the articles. The anchor text must be mandatorily the targeted keywords during this process.
2. Keyword density: Check the number of times the keyword appeared in your content. SEO plugins can help you in accomplishing this task easily. The analysis regarding the keyword density can be easily found through the plugins by entering the focus keyword.
3. Outdated Information: It is quite possible that your article includes outdated content, information, or has been posted long ago. Improvising on the content and updating it with resourceful information can help in giving it a boost.
Learn the activities of your visitors on your site
Keyword ranking tools can enable you to know about the keyword positions but they fail to enlighten you about the number of visitors, their background, or their activities on the webpage. Such information is crucial when you plan your content strategy.
Google Analytics comes at your rescue during such situations. Visitor information, page reviews for every article, top content, and other such information can be obtained from it. By using the right plugins you can access all this information right from your WordPress dashboard.