‍How to Check and Analyse Your Website Rankings

Your website isn't just there to tell people about your business. It should also help people discover you when they don't know your business exists.

Imagine you sell running shoes. Someone searching for your business by name might find you easily. But what about someone searching for "best running shoes for beginners"? Will they find your website, or will they end up buying from your competitor?

That's where website rankings come in. But checking your ranking is only the first step. The real question is what those rankings tell you, where you're missing opportunities, and what you should do about them.

This guide explains how to check your website rankings, understand the numbers, identify problems, and decide what to improve. We'll also cover how to measure your visibility in AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

What Is Website Ranking?

Website ranking refers to where a page from your website appears in search results for a particular query.

For example, if someone searches for "best running shoes for beginners" on Google, the results might look something like this:

• Position 1: A running-shoe retailer
• Position 2: A product review website
• Position 3: Another retailer
• Position 4: Your website

In this example, your page ranks fourth for that search. A higher position generally gives your page a better opportunity to be seen and clicked. However, ranking first doesn't automatically mean you'll receive the most traffic or generate the most sales.

One important thing to understand: your website doesn't have a single ranking. Individual pages rank for different searches, and their positions can vary.

Your homepage might rank first when someone searches for your business name but appear much lower when someone searches for a product you sell.

Your objective is to help the right people discover the right pages on your website.

What about AI search?

People no longer use only traditional search engines. They also ask questions in tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Instead of browsing a list of links, someone might ask, "What are the best running shoes for beginners?"

These tools generate answers that may mention particular brands or cite websites as sources.

This creates another aspect of search visibility: whether your business is mentioned or your website is cited when people ask relevant questions. Traditional search rankings and AI visibility are different measurements, but both can help you understand how people discover your business.

How to Check Your Website Rankings

You might be tempted to open Google, search for your business or target keywords, and see where your website appears. That's fine for a quick check. However, it doesn't give you a reliable picture of your website's overall performance.

Search results can vary depending on location, device, and other factors. You also won't know how your rankings have changed over time unless you record them regularly.

Checking dozens or hundreds of searches manually quickly becomes impractical. Instead, use tools that collect and organise this information for you.

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is the first tool to set up if you own a website.

It provides information about how your website performs in Google Search, including which searches display your pages, how often people see them, how many clicks they receive, and their average position.

You can access it for free.

How to get started:

1. Open Google Search Console and add your website as a property.
2. Verify ownership. For a Domain property, one common method is adding a DNS TXT record through your domain provider.
3. Open the Performance report.
4. Select a date range and examine your website's clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position.
5. Open the Queries tab to see the searches that displayed your website, or the Pages tab to examine individual URLs.

You can also filter the data by country, device, and date to understand your performance in more detail. Google's Search Console documentation explains these reports.

Let's understand what the numbers mean.

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For example, suppose one of your pages received 10,000 impressions and 100 clicks. Its CTR would be 1%.

This tells you that your page appeared frequently but received relatively few clicks compared with its impressions. Whether that is a problem depends on its average position, the searches involved, and the results shown to users.

Average position also needs context. A page with an average position of 8 isn't guaranteed to appear at position 8 whenever someone searches. The number summarises its recorded performance over your selected period.

What makes GSC particularly useful is that it shows you searches you might not have considered targeting in the first place. You may discover that a product page is appearing for questions your content doesn't explicitly address, allowing you to investigate further.

What if your website or page doesn't appear in GSC?

First, distinguish between a page not appearing in the Performance report and a page not being indexed by Google. If a page doesn't appear in the Performance report, it might simply have received no impressions during the selected period. To check whether Google has indexed it, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.

If the page isn't indexed, investigate the reason. Check for a noindex directive, crawling restrictions, canonicalisation issues, or other technical problems.

Fix any underlying issues and request indexing when appropriate. Submitting a page doesn't guarantee that Google will index it or give it a particular ranking. A newly published page may also need time to be discovered and indexed.

2. Third-Party SEO Tools

Google Search Console is useful, but it doesn't answer every question you might have about your website's search performance.

For example, you might want to track a specific set of keywords regularly, understand which competitors rank above you, or discover searches for which competing websites receive visibility but your website doesn't. 

This is where third-party SEO tools can help. Tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest provide features for keyword research, rank tracking, and competitor analysis.

Depending on the tool, you can:

• Track selected keywords and monitor their ranking changes.
• Discover keywords for which competing websites rank.
• Identify pages that receive organic search traffic.
• Explore potential content opportunities.
• Investigate backlinks and other competitive factors.

One important distinction: these tools don't have the same data as Google Search Console. Their ranking and traffic metrics are based on their own tracking and estimation methods.

Use GSC to understand your actual reported performance in Google Search. Use third-party tools to investigate additional opportunities and monitor a defined set of keywords.

You don't necessarily need a paid subscription when starting. GSC provides a useful foundation, and you can add other tools as your requirements grow.

3. AI Search Visibility Tools

Google rankings aren't the whole picture anymore. You might rank well on Google but rarely get mentioned when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations in your industry.

This is why AI search visibility is worth measuring separately. As of October 2026, Google Search Console also provides a Generative AI performance report for supported features in Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. It shows impression data for links to your website displayed in those experiences.

However, this report doesn't cover your overall visibility across external AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. Nor does it tell you every time your content may have been used to generate an answer. See Google's documentation on its Generative AI performance report.

For external AI platforms, you can use dedicated AI search visibility or answer engine optimisation (AEO) tracking tools. Options include Flozi, our tool, and platforms such as Profound and Peec AI.

Depending on the tool and platforms it supports, you can track:

• How often your brand appears in answers to selected prompts.
• Which competitors are mentioned alongside or instead of you.
• Which of your website pages are cited as sources.
• How your visibility changes across prompts, platforms, and time.

For example, you might monitor questions such as "What are the best project management tools for startups?" and see whether your business is mentioned, which competitors appear, and which websites are cited.

Remember that AI answers can change between runs. A meaningful assessment requires consistent tracking across relevant prompts and supported platforms rather than relying on a single answer.

How to Analyse Your Website Rankings

Now that you know how to check your rankings, let's look at how to interpret the data. The goal isn't to achieve the highest possible position for every search. It's to improve your visibility for searches that matter to your business.

Here are the areas to examine.

1. Check Which Searches Bring People to Your Website

Start with the queries in Google Search Console. A query is what someone searches for on Google before your website appears in the results.

These searches can be broadly divided into two categories.

Branded queries: Searches that include your business or product name.

Examples:

• Nike running shoes
• Flozi SEO tool
• Neue World services

Non-branded queries: Searches that describe a problem, product or need without mentioning your business.

Examples:

• Best running shoes for beginners
• How to improve website SEO
• AI search visibility tools

Both types matter, but they tell you different things.

Branded searches help you understand whether people are finding your business when they already know its name. Non-branded searches help you understand whether people can discover you when they're looking for a solution but haven't chosen a provider yet.

Suppose most of your website's search visibility comes from branded queries, with very few non-branded queries. This suggests an opportunity to investigate whether your website is reaching potential customers beyond people who already know your business.

It doesn't automatically mean your website has low trust. You may have limited content targeting non-branded searches, poor rankings for relevant queries, or a website that hasn't yet built up much search visibility.

What to do next: Look at the non-branded searches you want to rank for. Check whether you have relevant pages targeting them, whether those pages are indexed, and whether they're receiving impressions.

Don't start publishing blogs simply because your website needs more content. First, understand which searches matter and whether your existing pages already address them.

2. Find Pages That Have an Opportunity to Rank Higher

Not every page needs improvement, and not every low-ranking page deserves your attention. Look for pages that already receive impressions for relevant searches but aren't generating as much traffic as you would expect. For example, suppose a page about choosing running shoes receives 5,000 impressions and has an average position of 12.

The page is already appearing in search results, but its position leaves room for improvement. This doesn't guarantee that the page will rank higher if you update it. It does, however, give you a useful starting point for investigation.

Check the queries generating those impressions. Are they relevant to the page? Does the page answer the searcher's question? What kinds of pages are ranking above it?

Then investigate whether you can improve the page's relevance, usefulness, content structure, or internal linking.

Also look for pages that rank reasonably well but receive relatively few clicks. Their CTR may be lower than you'd expect, which makes it worth examining the search results and the queries involved. Possible explanations include an unclear title, an unhelpful description, a mismatch between the page and the searcher's expectations, or other search features competing for attention.

Don't automatically rewrite every page with a low CTR. Compare similar queries and positions before deciding what to change.

3. Check What Your Competitors Are Doing

Your competitors aren't always the businesses you compete with directly. In search results, they are the websites appearing ahead of you for the searches that matter to your business.

For example, you might sell running shoes and consider another retailer your primary competitor. But when you search for "best running shoes for beginners," the top results might include product review websites, specialist publications, and retailers.

These websites compete for visibility for that particular query, regardless of whether you consider them business competitors.

Use an SEO tool to identify the websites and pages that rank for your target searches. Then examine the pages themselves.

Ask these questions:

• What type of page is ranking: a product page, category page, comparison, or blog post?
• What question or need does the page address?
• What information does it provide that your page doesn't?
• Is the content more relevant to the searcher's needs?
• Are there useful topics or questions that your page fails to address?

For example, if the top results for "best running shoes for beginners" are comparison articles but your website only has a product catalogue, you may have a mismatch between your content and what searchers expect.

You might need a useful comparison guide rather than another product page. You can also use third-party tools to identify relevant keywords for which competitors rank, but your website doesn't.

These are potential opportunities, not a list of keywords you should copy blindly. Every topic should make sense for your audience and business.

4. Investigate Pages That Lose Rankings or Traffic

Rankings change. Competitors publish new content, existing pages are updated, search demand shifts, and Google's results evolve.

A decline doesn't always mean something is broken. The important thing is to understand what changed before making edits. Suppose a page received 2,000 clicks last month but only 1,000 this month. Start by comparing the two periods in Google Search Console. Then check the following.

Did impressions decline?

If impressions fell alongside clicks, your page might be appearing less often. Investigate changes in rankings, search demand, indexing, and competing results.

Did impressions remain similar while clicks declined?

Examine CTR and the queries involved. The page may still be appearing, but fewer people are clicking through.

Did average position decline?

Check whether the decline affects one query, one page, or a wider group of pages. A single query dropping doesn't necessarily indicate a site-wide problem.

Did the problem start after a website change?

Review recent changes to titles, content, URLs, redirects, internal links, and technical settings. Check whether anything might be preventing Google from crawling or indexing important pages.

Is the decline seasonal?

Some searches naturally attract more interest at certain times of the year. Compare equivalent periods where appropriate instead of assuming every decline is caused by an SEO issue.

Avoid changing everything at once. Identify the likely cause, make a targeted improvement, and monitor the outcome.

5. Check Whether Your Pages Are Indexed

A page needs to be accessible to Google and eligible for indexing before it can appear in ordinary Google Search results. If an important page receives no impressions, check its indexing status in Google Search Console.

Use URL Inspection to identify any reported problems. Look at whether the page is blocked from crawling, has a noindex directive, points to a different canonical URL, or has another technical issue. Also make sure important pages can be discovered through relevant internal links.

A sitemap can help Google discover URLs, but submitting a sitemap or requesting indexing doesn't guarantee that every page will be indexed. Keep in mind that an indexed page may still receive no impressions if it doesn't appear for relevant searches during the selected period.

This is why checking indexing status and analysing search performance are two different tasks.

6. Check Your Website's Performance

Your website also needs to provide a good experience when someone visits it. If pages load slowly, shift around while loading, or are difficult to use on mobile, visitors may struggle to find what they need.

You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to examine individual pages and identify potential performance improvements. Google Search Console's Core Web Vitals report can help you identify groups of pages with user-experience issues.

However, don't treat performance scores as a direct prediction of your rankings.

Google uses Core Web Vitals in its ranking systems, but good scores alone don't guarantee high rankings. Relevance, content, and other factors also matter. Google explains the relationship between page experience and Search in its documentation.

Check performance after significant website changes, such as a redesign or changes to page templates, and monitor important issues over time.

The objective is to make the website work better for visitors, not simply to achieve a perfect score in a testing tool.

7. Check Whether Your Website Traffic Leads to Business Results

Rankings and traffic are useful, but they aren't the final objective for most businesses. You probably want people to purchase a product, book a call, sign up for a service or complete another meaningful action. This is where Google Analytics or another website analytics tool becomes useful.

Google Search Console helps you understand how your website performs in Google Search. Analytics helps you examine what visitors do after arriving. For example, you might discover that a blog post receives thousands of visits but generates very few sign-ups. That doesn't automatically mean the page is performing poorly. The content might serve an awareness or educational purpose.

However, if the page is intended to generate leads, the results suggest that you should investigate further. Check whether the visitors match your target audience, whether the page offers a relevant next step, and whether the sign-up process works properly.

You may find that the problem is the page's content, the audience it attracts, the offer itself, or the conversion process. Improving conversions is not the same as improving rankings, but both matter when you're evaluating the contribution of organic search to your business.

8. Analyse Your Visibility in AI Search

Traditional SEO tools won't give you a complete picture of how often your business appears in AI-generated answers. If AI search is relevant to your audience, you should monitor it separately.

Start by identifying the questions potential customers might ask when looking for products or services like yours.

For example, if you provide SEO services, you might track questions such as:

• Which agencies help SaaS companies improve their organic search traffic?
• What are the best tools for tracking AI search visibility?
• How can a startup improve its visibility in ChatGPT?

Track these questions across the AI platforms that matter to your audience. For each prompt, look at whether your business appears in the answer, whether your website is cited, which competitors appear, and how those results change over time.

A brand mention and a website citation are not the same thing. An AI platform may recommend your business without linking to your website, or it may cite your website without explicitly recommending your brand. Also avoid drawing conclusions from one response. AI answers can vary, so track a consistent set of prompts and compare results across multiple observations.

The goal is to understand where your business appears, where competitors appear instead, and which questions offer meaningful opportunities to improve your visibility.

Common Website Ranking Problems and What to Do About Them

Here is a quick reference for interpreting some common patterns in your data.

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These patterns help you decide what to examine next. They don't automatically explain why something is happening.

Always investigate the underlying data before making changes.

How Often Should You Analyse Your Website Rankings?

You don't need to check every keyword every day. Search rankings fluctuate, and a small daily change doesn't necessarily require action. A useful starting point is to review your website weekly for important changes and conduct a more detailed analysis monthly.

At Neue World, we use weekly and monthly reporting to understand what's moving up or down, identify issues that need attention, and decide which actions to prioritise. You can follow a similar approach.

Weekly review

Look for significant changes in clicks, impressions, average position, and important queries. Investigate sudden declines or notable gains, but don't react to every fluctuation.

Monthly review

Compare performance against the previous month and, where useful, the same period last year. Identify pages that need improvement, emerging queries, competitor changes, and opportunities that fit your business goals.

After major website changes

Check important pages after redesigns, URL changes, content updates, or technical releases. Confirm that the pages remain accessible and that the expected changes haven't introduced problems. Use the same reporting process consistently so you can distinguish meaningful trends from short-term variation.

Final Checklist for Analysing Your Website Rankings

Whenever you review your website's search performance, start with these questions:

• Visibility: Are people seeing my website for relevant searches?
• Rankings: Which pages and queries are gaining or losing visibility?
• Opportunities: Which relevant queries could my existing pages serve better?
• Competition: What kinds of pages are ranking above mine, and why might they be more relevant?
• Technical health: Are important pages accessible and indexed?
• Traffic quality: Are people clicking through from relevant searches?
• Business results: Are visitors taking the actions that matter to my business?
• AI visibility: Is my business mentioned or cited in relevant AI-generated answers?
• Next steps: What is the most important issue to investigate or improve?

Website ranking analysis isn't about achieving position one for every keyword or collecting as much traffic as possible.

It's about understanding how people discover your business, where you're missing opportunities, and what you can do to improve your visibility. Start with Google Search Console, add other tools when you need more information, and review your results consistently.