> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hiveku.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Track Keyword Rankings

> Monitor where your pages rank in Google for target keywords over time

Knowing where you rank today matters less than knowing which direction you're moving. Rankings shows your position in Google results for keywords you care about — across devices, locations, and time.

<Info>
  Path: **Marketing > SEO > Tools > Rankings**
</Info>

## Before You Start

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Site deployed and indexed" icon="rocket">
    Google needs to have crawled and indexed your pages
  </Card>

  <Card title="GSC connected" icon="plug" href="/how-tos/connect-gsc">
    Google Search Console improves data accuracy
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Add Keywords to Track

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Rankings">
    Go to **Marketing > SEO > Tools > Rankings**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add your keywords">
    Click **+ Add Keywords**. Paste them one per line, or upload a CSV. Start with the 20-50 keywords that matter most — you can add more later.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set country and language">
    Rankings vary dramatically by locale. Pick the country and language your customers actually search in. For multi-market sites, add the same keyword for each country separately.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set device">
    Desktop and mobile rankings differ. Track both if mobile traffic matters to you (it almost certainly does).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set tracking frequency">
    **Daily** is best for active SEO campaigns. **Weekly** saves quota on large keyword sets where day-to-day noise isn't useful.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    First data point lands within a few hours. Full ranking history starts building from that moment forward.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Reading the Dashboard

Each keyword row shows:

* **Current position** — latest tracked rank. `1` is top, `-` means outside the tracked top 100.
* **Change over time** — a sparkline showing position movement over the last 30-90 days.
* **SERP features** — icons indicating whether the keyword triggers a featured snippet, image pack, local pack, video carousel, or "People Also Ask" box.
* **Ranking URL** — which of your pages is actually ranking. This can change over time as Google picks different best-match pages.

Click any row to drill into that keyword's full history, snapshot of the SERP on any given day, and competitor movement.

## Group Keywords with Segments

Dump all your keywords in one bucket and the dashboard gets unreadable fast. Segments fix that.

* **By topic** — `web-design`, `seo-tools`, `pricing`
* **Brand vs non-brand** — keeps easy-rank branded terms from inflating your average
* **Funnel stage** — top (informational), middle (commercial), bottom (transactional)

Create a segment from the filter bar, then save it. Segments appear as tabs at the top for one-click filtering.

## Get Alerts on Changes

Don't check the dashboard manually — get notified when things move.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Click Alerts">
    Top-right of the Rankings page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set thresholds">
    Common setups:

    * Ping me when any keyword enters **top 3**
    * Ping me when any keyword drops out of **top 10**
    * Ping me on any **>5 position** change, either direction
  </Step>

  <Step title="Route the alert">
    Alerts can go to email, Slack, or kick off a workflow. For full automation, see [Workflow: Alert on SEO Ranking Drops](/how-tos/workflow-seo-rank-alert).
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Set one alert for top-3 entries (celebrate wins) and one for drops of 5+ positions (catch problems early). Don't overdo alerts — alert fatigue is real.
</Tip>

## Historical Data for Reporting

Every ranking report you hand a client or stakeholder should answer two questions: "Are we improving?" and "On what?" The line-chart view on each keyword — and the aggregate view across segments — makes that story easy to tell.

Export any date range to CSV or PDF for presentations. Schedule recurring exports (weekly, monthly) to ship automatically.

<Info>
  Google rankings are personalized and geographically sensitive. Always compare data across the same device and location settings — a keyword ranking 3rd for you in Chicago might be 8th for your client in Austin. Use the tool's clean/non-personalized data as the source of truth.
</Info>

## Verify It Worked

Add 5 keywords. Wait 24 hours. Open an incognito browser, set location to match your Rankings config, and Google one of the keywords. The position you see should match (within 1-2 positions — Google varies results even for logged-out searches).

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="No rankings data after 24 hours">
    Your site may not be indexed. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and wait 1-2 weeks for new domains. For existing sites, double-check the tracked URL pattern matches your actual pages.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Position fluctuates wildly day-to-day">
    Normal for new sites and heavily-contested keywords. Google runs experiments and personalizes results. Look at **weekly averages**, not individual days. Things stabilize once you have meaningful authority for the term.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Wrong URL is ranking for my keyword">
    Google's algorithm picks whichever page it thinks best matches the query. If you want a different page to rank, improve that page's relevance: better title, better content targeting the keyword, and internal links from related pages pointing to it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A keyword shows `-` (not in top 100)">
    You're outside the tracked range. Check the SERP manually — the keyword may just be too competitive right now. Focus effort on keywords where you're ranking 11-30 (gettable to page one) before chasing ones where you're nowhere near.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Rankings don't match what I see in Google">
    Google personalizes based on search history, location, and device. Our tracker uses clean, non-personalized requests. Your own Google shows *your* results; the tracker shows the neutral truth. Always compare apples to apples using the tracker data for reporting.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## What's Next?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Research More Keywords" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/how-tos/keyword-research">
    Find the next batch of keywords to target
  </Card>

  <Card title="Run an SEO Audit" icon="clipboard-check" href="/how-tos/seo-audit">
    Find and fix issues holding your rankings back
  </Card>
</CardGroup>