How to find your Google ranking for a keyword

The honest answer to “where do I rank for dentist?” is “it depends where the customer is standing”. Your own search gives one answer, shaped by your location and your history. An incognito search removes the history but not the location. A check from fixed spots around your business is the only one you can compare week to week. This lesson walks through all three, so you know what each number means before you try to move it.

By the PinRipple team · Checked and updated · 4 min read

Method 1: how to check ranking for keywords in Google from your own phone

Type the keyword into Google or Google Maps and look for your business. It is free and instant, and it is the least reliable of the three. Google's own help page says it uses your location and your activity to personalise results, and you are the one person who is nearly always next to your business and searches for it most. Your result is real, but it is the result for you, not for a customer.

Local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence.

Use it for one thing only: to see what the listing looks like when it appears (photos, hours, rating). Never use it to decide whether your ranking has improved.

Method 2: check your ranking in an incognito window

Opening a private window signs you out and drops your search history, so the result is closer to what a stranger sees. It still uses your location, so it is still the result for someone standing where you are. It also still shows one spot. Use it to check a listing from a customer's point of view, not to track position.

Method 3: a geo-grid rank check from fixed spots around you

A rank checker makes the same search from several fixed points around your business, with no history, and records your position at each. Nine spots in a square around you is the smallest useful check; a 7 × 7 grid over the area your customers come from is the usual one. The result is a map, not a single number: green where you are in the top 3, grey where you are not in the top 20.

Why one spot is not enough: the same search from two places 2 km apart puts the business second in one list and fourteenth in the other.
A 7 × 7 check for “emergency dentist”: each dot is one spot, coloured by position. The three numbers on the right are the ones to write down.

This is the only method whose answer you can repeat next week with the same spots and the same keyword, so it is the only one that can tell you whether a change worked.

Your Google ranking for a keyword in three numbers

  • Average position across the spots. Lower is better; anything not in the top 20 counts as 21.
  • Spots in the top 3: at how many spots you are in the Map Pack. This is the number that turns into calls.
  • Position at your door: where you come in at your own address. If you are not top 3 there, the problem is your listing itself, not your reach.

Write them down with the date and the keyword. One keyword is enough to start: the one your customers type most, such as “dentist” or “plumber”, with no town name, because Google adds the location itself.

Which local keywords to check your position for

Check what customers type, not what you call yourself. “Emergency dentist” and “dentist near me” are keywords; “Bright Smile Dental” is your name, and you will rank first for it everywhere. Three to five keywords cover most small businesses: your main service, your most urgent one, and the one or two you most want more of. The Free plan tracks one keyword per scan, which is the right place to start.

Check your keyword position today, free

Questions about checking your Google ranking

Is there a free way to check my Google ranking?

Yes. The check on our rank checker page is free with no sign-up: one keyword, 9 spots around your business, once a day. The Free plan adds a 5 × 5 grid and keeps your scans.

Why is my ranking different on my phone and on my computer?

Google knows your phone's location more precisely than your computer's, and the two may have different search histories. Both are one spot each; a grid check removes both differences.

How often should I check?

Once a week, same keyword, same grid. Rankings move a little every day; weekly checks show the trend without the noise. Daily checks only make sense when you are watching a specific change.

Does checking my own listing a lot hurt or help my ranking?

Neither, as far as Google says. It does make your own search results less typical, which is one more reason to check from fixed spots instead.

Can I check a keyword with a town name in it?

Yes, and sometimes you should, because some customers type “dentist leeds”. But Google treats a keyword with a town differently from one without, so check both and keep them as separate numbers.

Next lesson How do I know my SEO is working? A 10-minute local self-check

Sources

Read next

ToolFree keyword rank checker for Google MapsCheck your ranking from 9 spots around your business, free and without signing up.LessonWhat is the map pack Google shows above the results?The box of three businesses with a map at the top of a Google search: what it is and who gets in.GuideHow to rank higher on Google My Business and Google MapsThe changes that move a business up, in order, and the shortcuts that break Google's rules.

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