How to check a site’s rankings in Yandex and Google: methods and services

Why check rankings at all

The higher a site ranks for a target query, the greater the chance a user will notice the link in the results and click it. That’s why rankings are checked for a reason, not out of curiosity: a low or unstable ranking is a signal to think about the page’s content, which queries it’s written for, or the site’s structure — not a diagnosis in itself.

How often it’s worth checking depends on what’s happening on the site: if it regularly publishes material, changes page structure, or is under active promotion work, rankings are worth checking more often; for most sites, looking at the data a few times a month is enough. Checking the same query too often usually shows more random fluctuation than real change — more on this in the section on mismatched data below.

Why a ranking doesn’t have one “correct” value

The most obvious method is to type the query into the search bar and see where the site lands. It’s also the least accurate method: the result is affected by the user’s region, device type, and personalization of the results. Mobile and desktop results for the same query often differ in composition and order, so a manual search from a phone and from a computer can show different rankings for the same site.

The search engine factors in search history and location, so the ranking you see in your own browser can differ from the averaged value in reports. Even in incognito mode or signed out of an account, the device and location are still taken into account by the search engine — so the result stays inaccurate.

Because of this, manual search works for a quick estimate but not for tracking changes over time. Far more reliable is the search engine’s own data about your site: Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console. What exactly “site visibility” shows and why the numbers from different services can’t be compared directly is covered in a separate piece — what site visibility is and why one service isn’t equal to another.

Yandex Webmaster: the queries and rankings report

Yandex Webmaster shows which queries the site has appeared for in Yandex search, and gives key figures for each query: impressions, clicks, CTR, average ranking, and average click ranking. In Webmaster, a site’s ranking is counted as the position in Yandex’s search results that corresponds to the link to your site.

The report has a limit: impressions and clicks are only counted if the link to the site made it into a fairly high part of the results — the cutoff is the fiftieth results row; anything lower doesn’t make it into the statistics.

A separate tool is query monitoring: you can add specific phrases you’re interested in and track just those, rather than searching for them among all of the site’s queries. It lets you turn on filters by region and device type — useful if the site is promoted in several cities or if it matters to see mobile and desktop results separately.

Technically this works through query groups. By default, Webmaster already has an “All queries” group — the general list of what the site has shown up for in results — and an “Uploaded” group for queries added manually; there’s also a “Favorites” group for individual queries that need separate tracking. The group’s summary stats — impressions, clicks, ranking, and CTR — are averaged over the last week.

To see these reports, the site needs to be added to Webmaster and ownership of it confirmed. We covered how to do that, and what other reports are available there, separately — how to connect a site to Yandex Webmaster.

Google Search Console: average position in the performance report

Search Console handles a similar task with its performance report. The “average position” metric is the position of your site’s topmost result, averaged across all impressions and queries.

Google explicitly explains the difference from doing your own search: the value in the report is an average across all queries, while a specific search can show a different result because of search history, location, and other factors.

The data in the report can be grouped by several parameters: queries, pages, countries, devices, search appearance, and dates — handy for looking not at the site as a whole, but at a specific group of pages or a specific region. For example, if you’re only interested in one updated page or one specific query, the report can be filtered down to exactly that instead of showing averaged figures for the whole site.

The report lets you compare a period against the previous one or against the same period earlier — making it easier to tell a real change from a random fluctuation. When comparing, the report shows a separate column with the difference between values, and date ranges can be chosen freely rather than only as “previous period”; Google also recommends comparing periods broken down by week or by month rather than by day, since that produces less random noise.

Third-party rank-tracking services: how to choose

Besides the search engines’ built-in reports, there are third-party services that pull search results themselves for a list of queries and calculate rankings on a schedule — for many queries at once, in the region and on the device you need.

Before trusting such a service, it’s worth finding out:

• which list of queries it calculates rankings for — your own list or the service’s own database;
• in which region and on which device the results are pulled — desktop and mobile results differ;
• how often the data is updated;
• whether the service accounts for results blocks beyond regular links — maps, video, ads;
• whether you can export the ranking for each individual query, not just a summary figure;
• whether the service shows the site’s ranking at all or only whether it made it into the top part of the results — if the site isn’t in that range, some services simply won’t show its real position.

If a service’s description doesn’t answer these questions, it’s hard to know what its number actually shows. The list of queries is also worth checking separately: your own list more accurately reflects what matters to your site, while queries from a service’s general database may not match the topics your pages were written for.

What to do with the data when rankings “lie”

If numbers from different sources don’t match, that’s usually not an error but a different methodology: manual search, Webmaster, Search Console, and a third-party service each measure things their own way. Compare trends within one source rather than comparing numbers across different systems. If the mismatch shows up only for one page or one query, it’s simpler to narrow the report with that same page or query filter and look at the trend for just that one, rather than for the whole site. If you check the same query too often, it’s easy to mistake ordinary fluctuation in the results for a real change — see the frequency guidance in the “Why check rankings at all” section above.

If the ranking has shifted noticeably across all queries at once, first check for external causes: whether the set of queries, region, or device changed in the tracking settings, and whether the change affected the whole market rather than just your site.

If the ranking is good but visits and inquiries haven’t increased, the issue isn’t the checking method — the question is about the next links in the results chain. We covered this separately: why ranking is an intermediate metric, and what to check next.

If there’s no ranking at all for any query, first make sure the page is actually taking part in search — how a search engine indexes a site’s pages.

Frequently asked questions

Can I check a site’s rankings for free?

Yes. Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console are free for a site with confirmed ownership. For third-party services, free access depends on the specific service — see the selection criteria in the section above.

Why does the ranking in incognito mode still differ from the report?

Because the location of the check and the device stay the same, and those, along with search history, affect personalization of the results. Incognito mode removes only the part of personalization tied to an account.

Do I need to confirm site ownership to see rankings?

Yes, for Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console reports — without confirming ownership, this data about your own site isn’t available. Manual search and third-party services don’t require confirming site ownership.

Why do Webmaster and Search Console show different rankings for the same query?

They’re different search engines with different results and different averaging methodology. Comparing them directly doesn’t make sense — each system has its own ranking.

How often should I check rankings so I don’t get confused by fluctuations?

Go by how often the site itself changes: if material, page structure, or the list of promoted queries is updated regularly, it’s worth looking at the data more often; for most sites, a few checks a month are enough. Daily checks of the same query usually show more random noise than real change.

Can I compare rankings separately for the mobile and desktop versions?

Yes. In Google Search Console there’s a separate “devices” parameter in the same performance report; in Yandex Webmaster, a similar filter by device type is available in query monitoring.