Tracking Your Website Google Ranking & Keywords

You want the highest possible visibility – ranking – when end-users search your service or product. Keywords, content, graphics; everything on your website is carefully positioned to raise your ranking, because… That’s how Google works.

Your Google ranking is higher than your competitors’.

Then it isn’t.

Then it is. The search engine optimization (SEO) keyword strategy seems to be fundamentally sound, so why does your Google ranking fluctuate so much? In many cases, keyword rankings fluctuate due to what your Realtor says is critical when searching for properties: location, location, location.

What Is Rank Tracking?

“Used cars near me.” Where your used-car business appears in the list of Google-generated used-car businesses is its rank. Rank tracking is part of your SEO strategy. Compare it to a test drive; rank tracking metrics tell you if your engine (keyword placement) is working properly and how well your website (vehicle) performs compared to your competitors’.

If you’re consistently among the top three results on search engine results pages (SERPs), you’re in a good position; the top three share 68.7% of clickthrough rates (CTRs). The number-one SERP gets 39.8% of all clickt-hroughs.

Google recently released CTRs by ranking for 2025. If your business appears in this SERP position, you can estimate clickthrough percentage using these numbers:

1. 39.8%

2. 18.7%

3. 10.2%

4. 7.2%

5. 5.1%

6. 4.4%

7. 3.0%

8. 2.1%

9. 1.9%

(Tenth place receives 1.6% of the click-throughs if it’s visible on searchers’ devices.)

You can use Google Search Console to track ranking metrics. But in-depth data that provides actionable information includes:

• Competitors’ rankings

• Pixel tracking

• Rank fluctuation

• SERP fluctuation

• SERP fluctuation

You can prioritize your local ranking and keep tabs on how your business ranks in nearby and larger regional locales. You can also track how your competitors rank in important geographic areas.

Local SEO Rankings

Google ranks local search results based on relevance, distance, and “prominence.” Prominence can be tricky. It’s not only how well-known your brand or product is; it’s also how well you’ve kept up with your Google Business Profile (GBP). You can improve local rank results by editing your business profile:

• Add in-store products and services.

• Include complete information to increase your relevance.

• Incorporate photos.

• Manage all online reviews and respond to them quickly.

• Update hours to reflect changes.

• Verify locations.

One SEO pro says you need to understand the “proximity bias factor.” This is another Google search-engine result that automatically ranks “near me” searches higher than the top 3 ranking businesses, which is fine if you’re the nearest business. But it can be bad news if you serve more than one community or town. “Used cars near me” can lead to ranking a quarter-mile-away backyard business higher than your licensed dealership 1 mile away.

Multiple City Rankings

One solution to improving local SEO and capturing other area search rankings is to add a city website page. This is not simply an “areas we serve” tab with a list of towns. It’s a landing page that targets one city you serve; you create a page for each desired community. If you think you can create a city webpage then copy/paste and change the names for other towns’ pages, think again. Google will ding you for duplicate content and your search ranking will sink.

For example, if your business is in Spring, but your target customer base includes The Woodlands, you would want a city webpage specific to The Woodlands with unique content or photo examples of your work or community involvement.

Your city webpage should also include:

• Compelling but uncomplicated meta description

• External & internal links

• Logical URL that includes keyword and city name

• Title tag with business name, keyword, & location

Search for Modern Marketing & Media

It takes a lot of time to create and maintain webpages. It takes much more time to boost your organization’s Google rankings. I you’re smart enough to manage a business you can manage a website, too. But is that really the best way to increase company profits?

Modern Marketing & Media helps businesses like yours upgrade websites to remain compliant with ever-changing Google requirements. We have a team of professionals who want to share ways to increase your Google rankings so you can be free to do what you do best.