Keyword site checker: how to find every keyword a website ranks for

For your own site, the complete and free answer is the Google Search Console queries report, because it lists every search you received an impression for, with clicks and average position, straight from Google. For any other site, use Ahrefs Site Explorer, Semrush Organic Research, SE Ranking or Ubersuggest, which estimate a domain's ranking keywords from their own indexes. Export the list, group it, and the useful work starts there rather than at the total.

The word checker makes this sound like a one click job, and the lookup itself is. The value is in what you do with four thousand rows, because an unsorted keyword export is one of the least useful documents in marketing.

Your own site: the free and complete method

1. Open Search Console, Performance, Search results. Set the date range to the last three months so you have enough volume to see patterns.
2. Turn on average position next to clicks and impressions, since it is off by default.
3. Export the queries table. The interface shows a limited set of rows, and the export gives you far more. For the full set, use the Search Console API or connect it to a spreadsheet through a Looker Studio connector.
4. Cross reference with the Pages tab. Filter to a query and switch to Pages to see which page Google chose for it. This is where you find the queries being answered by the wrong page.
5. Repeat per country. If you trade in more than one market, an unfiltered list averages them into mush.

Search Console is the only source that reports what Google actually served you, which makes it the reference the third party tools are checked against. Google explains the metrics in its note on impressions, position and clicks.

Any site, including competitors

Tool	Report	Notable for	Free access
Ahrefs	Site Explorer, Organic keywords	Position history per keyword, and the page that ranks	Limited, plus full data for your own verified site in Webmaster Tools
Semrush	Organic Research, Positions	Intent labels, result features present, paid keywords alongside	A few lookups a day
SE Ranking	Competitive Research	Lower cost coverage of the same job	Trial
Ubersuggest	Keywords by traffic	Quick checks on a small budget	Limited daily searches
SpyFu	Domain overview	Long history of paid keywords and ad copy	Partial data visible
Google Search Console	Performance, Queries	Measured by Google, every query, no estimate	Free, your own verified sites

Expect the totals to differ between tools, because each one indexes a different set of keywords and models volume its own way. Pick one as your reference, note it and the date on the export, and compare sites on that single scale.

Turning the export into decisions

Do these five passes in order and a large export becomes a short list.

• Strip the brand rows. Filter out your own company name and product names into a separate tab. Brand demand is a different subject and it distorts every average while it sits in the sheet.
• Group by page. Sort by the ranking URL. Two useful findings fall out immediately: pages ranking for a cluster of related terms, which deserve more investment, and single keywords spread across many weak pages, which usually need consolidating into one.
• Find the striking distance band. Filter to positions four to twenty. These are queries where Google already considers you a reasonable answer, and where a better title, a stronger opening paragraph and three internal links move the number. This is the highest return filter in the entire sheet.
• Label the intent. Four buckets: informational, commercial, transactional, navigational. Then look at what you are actually winning. A site ranking only for informational terms has a traffic problem disguised as a success.
• Run the gap. Put your list next to two competitors and look for keywords where both of them rank and you do not. Those are the ones with proven demand and proven feasibility in your category.

Checking whether a specific page targets a keyword

Sometimes the question is narrower: is this site optimising for that term at all. Three quick checks answer it without a subscription. Search site:example.com "keyword" in Google to see which of their pages mention it. Open the likely page and read the title tag, the first paragraph and the headings, which is where real targeting shows up. Then check the internal links pointing at that page, since a page the site genuinely cares about is linked from its navigation or its hub pages.

This page covers finding the keywords a site already ranks for. For building a target list from scratch, see keyword research in five steps, and for moving a position once you have found it, see how to diagnose a position and then move it.

Where people get stuck on keyword site checker

How do I see what keywords my website ranks for free?

Verify the site in Google Search Console and open the Performance report, which lists every query you received impressions for with clicks and average position. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools adds a free keyword view for a verified site. Both are free permanently, and between them they cover the job for a site you own.

Why do Ahrefs and Semrush give different keyword counts for the same site?

Each one tracks its own keyword database and estimates positions from its own crawls, so the overlap is partial by design. Treat the counts as index sizes rather than facts about the site. For comparison work, keep every site in the study on the same tool and the same date.

Can I find the keywords behind a competitor's paid ads?

Yes. Semrush and SpyFu both report estimated paid keywords and show historical ad copy, and Google's Ads Transparency Center shows ads an advertiser is currently running. Paid keyword lists are useful precisely because an advertiser has paid real money to validate the intent.

How many keywords should a single page target?

One subject, and the family of phrasings that belong to it. A page about position checking should naturally pick up the plural, the question forms and the close variants, because they are the same question in different words. Separate pages are for separate questions, not for separate spellings.

How often should I pull this list?

Monthly for a site you are actively working on, quarterly otherwise. Keep the exports, dated, in one folder. A year of monthly exports is the most useful SEO asset most teams never build, because it lets you see which pages gained keyword coverage rather than just position.

One list these checkers do not hold

A site checker exports every keyword a domain ranks for. That is a list of searches where a page appeared. It cannot list the questions where an assistant named the domain in its answer, because those are not searches on Google.

Build the second list by hand. Take the top twenty keywords from the export, turn each into a natural question, and note whether the domain, yours or a competitor's, is named. The gaps between the two lists often show which pages deserve work first. AI Knows Us produces the second list at scale.