3 Ways To Find Which Keywords Your Site Ranks For (Plus How to Track AI Search Visibility)

In this article, you'll learn how to identify the keywords your website currently ranks for using free and paid tools, how to analyze that data to improve your SEO strategy, and how to extend that same thinking to AI search—where your brand may already be appearing in responses from ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity without you knowing it.

Most guides stop at traditional keyword tracking. This one goes further because search is expanding beyond ten blue links into AI-generated answers. The brands winning today are the ones tracking both channels as complementary organic strategies.

Why Finding Your Ranking Keywords Matters

Before you can improve rankings, you need to know where you stand. Your existing keyword rankings reveal which pages Google considers valuable, what topics your site has authority on, and where you have the best opportunity to grow traffic with minimal additional effort.

The same logic applies to AI search. Every day, people ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity questions like "best CRM for small businesses" or "top project management tools." If your brand shows up in those responses, that's visibility you're earning—or missing.

Understanding both your traditional keyword rankings and your AI search presence gives you a complete picture of how discoverable your brand is across the channels your buyers actually use.

How to Find Keywords Your Site Ranks For

There are three primary methods for discovering which keywords drive traffic to your site: Google Search Console (free), Google Analytics (free), and dedicated SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush (paid). Each has strengths depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

Method 1: Using Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the most accurate source for keyword data because it comes directly from Google. It shows you the actual queries people typed before clicking through to your site—not estimates or projections.

Step 1: Access the Performance Report

Log into Google Search Console and select your property. Click "Performance" in the left sidebar, then select "Search results."

Step 2: View Your Queries

The default view shows total clicks, impressions, average CTR, and average position. Click the "Queries" tab below the graph to see the specific search terms.

Step 3: Filter by Date Range

Use the date filter to compare performance across time periods. Set it to the last 3 months for a reliable dataset, or compare two periods to spot trends.

Step 4: Export for Analysis

Click "Export" in the top right corner and download as a Google Sheet or Excel file. This lets you sort, filter, and analyze the data more effectively than the in-app interface allows.

What to look for in your GSC data:

Keywords ranking on positions 8-20 represent your biggest quick wins. These terms already have some authority—a content refresh or additional internal links can push them onto page one.

Keywords with high impressions but low clicks indicate a CTR problem. Your title tag or meta description isn't compelling enough, or the search intent doesn't match your content.

Keywords with low impressions but high CTR suggest you've nailed the intent for a niche query. Look for related terms to expand your content around that topic.

Limitations of Google Search Console:

GSC only shows data for Google search. It doesn't include Bing, DuckDuckGo, or AI search engines. It also has a 16-month data retention limit, and it doesn't show keywords that got zero clicks—only impressions.

Method 2: Using Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google Analytics shows you what happens after someone clicks through from search. While it doesn't show keyword data directly (that's handled by GSC), connecting the two platforms reveals which keywords drive valuable traffic versus which ones bounce.

Step 1: Link Google Search Console to GA4

In GA4, go to Admin → Property Settings → Product Links → Search Console Links. Follow the prompts to connect your verified GSC property.

Step 2: Access the Search Console Reports

Once linked, go to Reports → Acquisition → Search Console → Queries. This shows your keyword data alongside engagement metrics like engagement rate and conversions.

Step 3: Analyze Traffic Quality by Keyword

Sort by conversions or engagement rate to identify which keywords bring users who actually take action. A keyword driving 500 visits with a 2% conversion rate is more valuable than one driving 2,000 visits with 0.1% conversions.

What GA4 adds that GSC doesn't:

GA4 connects keyword performance to business outcomes. You can see not just which keywords rank, but which ones generate revenue. This helps you prioritize content investments based on actual value rather than just traffic volume.

Method 3: Using SEO Tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz)

Paid SEO tools provide estimated keyword data for any domain—including competitors. They also show historical ranking data, keyword difficulty scores, and opportunities you might be missing.

Using Ahrefs Site Explorer

Enter your domain in Site Explorer and navigate to "Organic keywords." This shows every keyword Ahrefs estimates you rank for, with position, search volume, and traffic estimates.

Filtering for Opportunities

Apply filters to find specific opportunities:

Position 11-20: Keywords close to page one that could move with optimization

Volume > 100: Terms with meaningful search demand

Traffic potential > current traffic: Keywords where ranking improvements would significantly increase visits

Using Semrush Position Tracking

Semrush's Position Tracking tool lets you monitor specific keywords over time. Add your target keywords and Semrush will track daily ranking changes across devices and locations.

Comparing Your Keywords to Competitors

In Semrush, use the "Keyword Gap" tool to compare your domain against competitors. This reveals keywords they rank for that you don't—opportunities you may have overlooked.

Manual Google Search (Limited Use)

You can manually search keywords in an incognito browser window to see where you rank. However, this method has significant limitations:

• Results are still personalized by location even in incognito mode

• It's time-consuming for more than a few keywords

• You can't track changes over time without manual documentation

• It doesn't show search volume or competitive data

Manual checks are useful for spot-checking specific queries but shouldn't be your primary method for keyword tracking.

How to Find Which AI Prompts Your Brand Appears In

Traditional keyword research shows where you rank on Google. But what about when someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best CRM for startups" or asks Perplexity "top email marketing platforms with automation"?

If your brand appears in those AI-generated responses, that's visibility you're earning in a growing channel. If it doesn't, you're missing opportunities your competitors might be capturing.

AI search tracking is fundamentally different from traditional keyword tracking. Instead of ranking for keywords, you're appearing (or not) in response to prompts. And each AI engine—ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini—draws from different sources and has different citation behaviors.

Here's how to track your AI search presence:

Step 1: Identify the Prompts That Matter to Your Business

Start with the questions your buyers actually ask. These typically fall into categories like:

• Best [category] tools for [use case]

• [Brand A] vs [Brand B]

• Alternatives to [competitor]

• How to [solve problem your product addresses]

• Top [category] for [industry or company size]

For a CRM company, relevant prompts might include "best CRM for B2B sales," "HubSpot alternatives for small businesses," or "top CRM platforms with marketing automation."

Step 2: Track Your Brand's Visibility Across AI Engines

With Analyze AI, you can add prompts to your tracking dashboard. The platform runs those prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI engines daily, recording whether your brand appears, what position it's mentioned in, and what sentiment the response conveys.

This is the AI search equivalent of checking your Google rankings—except instead of position 1-10, you're tracking whether you're mentioned at all, and in what context.

Step 3: Analyze Visibility by Engine

Different AI engines behave differently. Data from Analyze AI's research across 83,670 citations shows:

• ChatGPT cites Wikipedia for 12.1% of mentions; Claude cites it only 0.1% of the time

• Claude favors blog content (43.8% of citations) while ChatGPT and Perplexity prefer product pages

• Only ChatGPT cites LinkedIn as a source; Claude and Perplexity don't use it at all

This means your optimization strategy should differ by engine. If your audience uses Claude heavily, blog content may be more valuable. If they use ChatGPT, official product pages and Wikipedia presence matter more.

Step 4: See Which Competitors Win Prompts You Don't

Analyze AI's Opportunities feature shows prompts where competitors are mentioned but your brand isn't. This is the AI search equivalent of Semrush's Keyword Gap tool.

These gaps represent content or positioning opportunities. If Salesforce appears in "best CRM for healthcare" prompts and your healthcare-focused CRM doesn't, that's a signal to create or improve content targeting that use case.

Step 5: Track the Sources AI Engines Cite

AI engines don't just mention brands—they cite sources. Understanding which URLs get cited helps you know what content to create or improve.

If AI engines consistently cite competitor blog posts when answering prompts in your space, that tells you what content format and depth you need to match or exceed.

Analyzing Keyword Data for Better SEO Strategy

Finding keywords is only the first step. The real value comes from analyzing that data to make strategic decisions about content investment.

Understanding Search Intent

Every keyword has intent behind it. Someone searching "what is CRM" wants education. Someone searching "HubSpot pricing" is evaluating a purchase. Your content needs to match the intent to rank well and convert visitors.

The four main intent categories are:

Informational: The searcher wants to learn something. Keywords often include "what is," "how to," "guide," or "examples."

Navigational: The searcher wants to find a specific page or brand. Keywords include brand names or specific product names.

Commercial investigation: The searcher is researching before a purchase. Keywords include "best," "vs," "alternatives," "reviews," or "comparison."

Transactional: The searcher is ready to buy or take action. Keywords include "buy," "pricing," "free trial," or "demo."

Look at the search results for any keyword before creating content. If the top results are all product pages, don't write a blog post. If they're all guides, don't create a product page. Match the format Google already rewards.

On-Page Optimization Based on Keyword Data

Once you've identified target keywords, optimize your pages to rank better for them.

Title tags: Include the primary keyword near the beginning. Keep titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results.

Meta descriptions: Write compelling descriptions that include your keyword and encourage clicks. These don't directly impact rankings but do impact CTR, which can indirectly influence rankings over time.

Header structure: Use your primary keyword in the H1 and semantically related terms in H2s and H3s. This helps Google understand your content's structure and topical coverage.

Content depth: Check the word count and topical coverage of ranking competitors. If the top results average 2,500 words and cover 15 subtopics, your 800-word post probably won't compete.

Content Creation and Updates Based on Keyword Performance

Your keyword data should drive ongoing content decisions:

Create new content for high-opportunity keywords where you don't currently rank. Prioritize based on search volume, business relevance, and ranking difficulty.

Update existing content for keywords where you rank on page two or low page one. Add depth, update statistics, improve internal linking, and refresh the publication date.

Consolidate thin content when multiple pages compete for the same keyword. Combine them into one comprehensive resource to avoid keyword cannibalization.

Prune low-value content that doesn't rank for any meaningful keywords and doesn't serve a business purpose. This can improve overall site quality signals.

Monitoring and Responding to Keyword Ranking Changes

Keyword rankings fluctuate constantly. New competitors enter the market, Google updates its algorithm, and user behavior shifts. Consistent monitoring helps you catch problems early and capitalize on opportunities quickly.

Setting Up Regular Tracking

Weekly tracking works for most businesses. Check your primary keywords weekly and review the full keyword set monthly.

Daily tracking makes sense for highly competitive keywords where small position changes significantly impact traffic, or during major algorithm updates.

Use a tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, or a dedicated rank tracker to automate this process. Manual checking is unsustainable for more than a handful of keywords.

Responding to Ranking Drops

When rankings drop, diagnose the cause before taking action:

Check for technical issues: Use Google Search Console to identify crawl errors, indexing problems, or manual actions. A robots.txt change or noindex tag can tank rankings overnight.

Review recent content changes: Did you recently update the page? Sometimes "improvements" accidentally remove content Google valued. Use the Wayback Machine to compare versions if needed.

Analyze competitor changes: Did a competitor publish better content or acquire new backlinks? Use Ahrefs or Semrush to see what changed on their end.

Consider algorithm updates: Check SEO news sources for recent Google updates. Some ranking changes are industry-wide, not specific to your site.

Evaluate intent shifts: Sometimes Google reinterprets search intent. If your product page dropped and informational content now dominates, the intent may have shifted from transactional to informational.

Responding to Ranking Changes in AI Search

AI search visibility can also change over time. New content gets indexed, AI models get updated, and citation sources shift.

With Analyze AI, you can track your brand's sentiment and position over time for specific prompts.

If visibility drops for important prompts, investigate which sources the AI engines are now citing. Often, a competitor published new content that AI engines picked up, or your content fell out of the indexes those models draw from.

Competitor Keyword Analysis

Understanding your competitors' keyword strategies reveals opportunities you may have missed and validates where you're already strong.

Identifying Competitor Keywords

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to analyze competitor domains:

Step 1: Enter a competitor's domain in Site Explorer (Ahrefs) or Domain Overview (Semrush).

Step 2: Navigate to "Organic keywords" to see every keyword they rank for.

Step 3: Sort by traffic value to identify their most valuable rankings.

Step 4: Filter for keywords where they rank in positions 1-10 that you don't rank for at all. These are direct competitive opportunities.

Comparing Keyword Overlaps

The Keyword Gap tool (Semrush) or Content Gap tool (Ahrefs) compares multiple domains to find:

Shared keywords: Terms both you and competitors rank for. Useful for benchmarking relative performance.

Competitor-only keywords: Terms competitors rank for that you don't. These are potential content opportunities.

Your unique keywords: Terms you rank for that competitors don't. Protect these advantages.

Analyzing Competitor Visibility in AI Search

Traditional keyword gap analysis only covers Google. To see where competitors win in AI search, use Analyze AI's Competitor Overview (to improve).

This shows which competitors appear most frequently across your tracked prompts and identifies the specific prompts where they win and you don't.

The actionable insight: look at what content competitors have that gets cited by AI engines. That content structure, depth, and format is what the AI models consider authoritative for that topic.

Advanced Tips for Improving Keyword Rankings

Once you have the fundamentals in place, these advanced strategies can push rankings further.

Targeting Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords—specific phrases of three or more words—often convert better than head terms because they indicate clearer intent.

"CRM software" is competitive and vague. "CRM software for real estate agents with email marketing" is specific, lower competition, and indicates a buyer who knows exactly what they need.

Find long-tail opportunities by:

• Analyzing "People also ask" boxes for your primary keywords

• Using Ahrefs' "Questions" filter in Keywords Explorer

• Reviewing Search Console queries with high impressions but low positions

• Looking at customer support tickets and sales call transcripts for actual language buyers use

Enhancing Internal Linking

Internal links distribute page authority throughout your site and help Google understand topical relationships.

Audit your current internal links: Use Ahrefs or Screaming Frog to see which pages have the most and fewest internal links. Pages with few internal links often underperform regardless of content quality.

Link from high-authority pages: Your homepage and top-performing content pass the most authority. Add internal links from these pages to priority targets.

Use descriptive anchor text: "Click here" tells Google nothing. "Best CRM for small businesses" tells Google exactly what the target page is about.

Create content hubs: Build interconnected content around core topics. A pillar page linking to supporting articles—and vice versa—signals comprehensive coverage to Google.

Building Quality Backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking factors. Focus on earning links from relevant, authoritative sites rather than accumulating volume from low-quality sources.

Create linkable assets: Original research, data visualizations, free tools, and comprehensive guides earn links because they provide unique value others want to reference.

Guest posting: Write for relevant industry publications with genuine editorial standards. Avoid sites that exist solely to sell links.

Digital PR: Newsworthy announcements, research findings, or expert commentary can earn links from media outlets.

Broken link building: Find broken links on relevant sites and offer your content as a replacement.

Competitor link analysis: See where competitors earn links and pursue similar opportunities through Ahrefs or Semrush.

Improving Content for AI Search Citations

AI engines cite sources to support their responses. Getting cited requires content that AI models consider authoritative and well-structured.

Based on analysis of 83,670 AI citations across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity:

83% of citations come from third-party sources. AI engines prefer earned media—industry publications, review sites, analyst reports—over brand-owned content. If you only focus on your own blog, you miss where most citations happen.

Content type preferences vary by engine. Claude cites blog content 43.8% of the time; ChatGPT prefers product pages (60.1%). Optimize content type based on which engines your audience uses.

First-party citation rates differ too. Claude is most likely to cite brand websites directly (22.2%); ChatGPT is least likely (13.5%).

To improve your AI search presence:

• Create comprehensive, well-structured content that directly answers common prompts

• Earn coverage from third-party sources AI engines trust

• Use clear headings, definitions, and structured data that AI models can easily parse

• Keep information current—AI engines often prioritize recent content

Connecting Keyword Rankings to AI Search Traffic

Traditional SEO and AI search aren't separate channels—they're interconnected. The same content that ranks on Google often gets cited by AI engines. The same topics that drive organic traffic drive AI referral traffic.

Analyze AI's AI Referral Traffic feature shows exactly how much traffic AI engines send to your site, broken down by engine and landing page.

This connects your AI visibility efforts to measurable outcomes—sessions, engagement, conversions—rather than just tracking mentions.

You can also see which specific pages receive AI traffic:

If certain pages consistently receive AI referral traffic, that's a signal to double down on that content type and topic area. If pages that perform well in Google rankings receive zero AI traffic, that's a gap to investigate.

Summary

Finding which keywords your site ranks for is foundational to any SEO strategy. Google Search Console provides the most accurate data for free, while paid tools like Ahrefs and Semrush add depth, competitor insights, and historical tracking.

But keyword tracking alone misses an increasingly important channel: AI search. When buyers ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for recommendations, they're discovering (or missing) your brand outside of traditional search results.

The brands winning today track both. They know their Google rankings and their AI search presence. They optimize content for search engines and for the sources AI models cite. They connect visibility to traffic and traffic to revenue across all organic channels.

Start with Google Search Console for your baseline keyword data. Add a paid tool for competitive intelligence. Then extend your visibility tracking to AI search so you understand the full picture of how buyers discover your brand.

Track your AI search visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity with Analyze AI. See where you appear, where competitors win, and what content drives citations.