Google Analytics is a free available tool for every website owner by Google. It has to have a whole lot of useful data. But not many website owners know that they also use Google Analytics to track their keyword rankings?

Yes, that’s right. In this article, we will walk you through the entire process of checking keyword ranking in Google Analytics. Though, the set-up process is a bit technical and not easy to understand. But, don’t worry, we are here to explain how you can get a better insight into your keywords to improve your SEO ranking.

Table of Contents

Connect Google Search Console with Google Analytics

First and foremost, you need to connect your Google Search Console with your Google Analytics property, so its data becomes visible in your Search Engine Optimization reports. Both these tools are freely available for everyone who owns or runs a website.

Follow these below steps to connect Google Analytics with Search Console. For that, you must account

Step 1: Log in to your Google Analytics account. From the Home screen, click on the “Admin” icon which looks like a gear symbol from the left-hand side menu, then click on “Property Settings” under the Property section.

Step 2: Under the “Property Settings,” scroll down the page till you see the “Adjust Search Console” button. Once you find it, click on the same button.

Step 3: You will reach to “Search Console Settings” screen, where you have to click the “Add” link to add your website.

Step 4: Once you click on the “Add” link, you will be jumped to Search Console where you have to “Select a property” that you want to link with your Google Analytics account.

Step 5: A pop-up appears to confirm the association, click on “Associate” to confirm the association with Google Analytics.

What to do, if you don’t see any data in Google Analytics?

If you don’t find any data in Google Analytics, make sure that you check the following:

Is your website is newly launched? If so, don’t expect any traffic initially.

Check whether you set up the Google Analytics account completely and appropriately, also is it working on a mobile device and real-time traffic shows up in Google Analytics.

Try to associate both accounts (Search Console and Google Analytics) with the same Google account, as the integration process works best when both of the Google accounts are associated with the same email account.

If the problem persists, follow Google set up instructions, since Google changes the layout design of their pages at a regular interval, so it is recommended to refer to their guide for up-to-date detail.

Analyze Keyword ranking data

Once you get connected the Google Analytics with Search Console, it is time to see the live data in your Google Analytics to view your keyword rankings in Google Analytics. Follow these below steps to analyze the keyword ranking data of your website.

Step 1: Log in to your Google Analytics account and select “Acquisition” from the left-hand side menu, and then select “Search Console” followed by “Queries” from the drop-down menu.

Now, understand the following criteria to analyze your keyword rankings:

Search Query – This is the keyword or phrase that your website is ranking for.

Clicks – It shows that how many times visitors had clicked on your webpage.

Impressions – This shows how many times your website/webpage showed to the visitors.

CTR – Means “Click Through Rate,” the formula to calculate CTR is – 100 divided by the number of impressions.

Average Position – The average position is what every website owner looking for, the ranking position for the keyword. Though, Google Analytics only shows an average ranking position. According to Google, “If a website’s URL appeared at position 2 for one query and position 8 for another query, the average position would be 5 ((2+8)/2).”

The ranking alone doesn’t do much unless you get traffic to your website. The more traffic you get, the more clicks you get to your site. This is the simplest and the fastest way to track your keyword rankings in Google Analytics.

Though, these insights have their own limitations; if you want to track a particular relevant keyword to your website, and how specific URLs are ranking for that specific keyword, you’ll need an extra tool along with Google Analytics.

For that, we strongly recommend the SEMrush Keyword Tool.

Conclusion

There are several methods to track down your keyword rankings, but we recommend you to start with three SEO tools, i.e. Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and SEMrush. Don’t overcomplicate things, just learn and use how to effectively use them.

It is up to you how you spend the rest of your time and energy on other various tasks, including creating backlinks and etc.