What keywords is my local business ranking for?

Hey Local SEO champions, this is Matteo, founder of GMB Crush, your complete Local SEO software suite, and in today's guide I'll answer this in plain terms.

Short answer: Open Google Search Console, go to the Performance report, then click the Queries tab. It lists every search term Google has shown your site for, with impressions, clicks, click through rate, and average position for each one. Filter by page, country, device, or date range to narrow it to one service or one city. Search Console is the only free source that shows you the literal words a person typed before landing on your site, which neither Business Profile Insights nor Analytics can show you.

How do I pull my keyword list in Search Console?

1. Sign into Google Search Console with the account tied to your property, verified as a domain or a URL prefix property.
2. Open Performance, then Search results, the main report for organic queries.
3. Click the Queries tab. Only the top 1,000 rows show by default, so filter by page or date range to reach the long tail.
4. Turn on all four metrics, total clicks, total impressions, average CTR, and average position, so every column shows.
5. Export to Sheets or CSV to sort or compare against last month by hand.

A query only shows up once it has earned at least one impression. Google counts an impression the moment your link appears on a results page, whether or not it was scrolled into view, and a click only counts once someone actually leaves Google and lands on your page, per Search Console's own documentation.

Which local keywords have impressions but barely any clicks?

This is the fastest quick win in the whole report. Sort Queries by impressions, then scan for terms sitting around position 5 through 15 with a low click through rate. SEO practitioners call these striking distance keywords, meaning Google already trusts you enough to rank you on page one, but your title tag, meta description, or on page content is not convincing enough people to click.

Common causes worth checking for each striking distance term:

• The title tag does not contain the exact phrase people searched, add the city or service word if missing.
• A competitor above you shows review stars in the snippet and you do not.
• The meta description reads like filler instead of answering what the searcher wants.
• The page ranking for that query is a blog post instead of the dedicated service page, which usually converts better.

Fixing five or six striking distance terms a month is usually a faster path to more traffic than chasing brand new keywords from zero.

Which pages are losing organic visibility?

Switch the Performance report from Queries to Pages, then compare this month against last month with the Compare feature at the top. A page with falling impressions, not just falling clicks, is losing visibility in Google's eyes, worth catching before rankings collapse. Falling clicks with stable impressions usually means a snippet or title problem, while falling impressions on a page that used to perform means Google is showing it for fewer searches altogether, often tied to a content gap, a technical issue, or a stronger competitor page.

For an agency or a multi location business, doing this by hand across ten or twenty properties, one login at a time, is where most people quietly stop checking. GMB Crush's Search Console Integration connects every client property into one dashboard, so you see queries, striking distance opportunities, and page level visibility trends across every site without switching accounts, included in all monthly and annual plans.

Quick checklist before your next report

• Compare at least 28 days against the prior 28 days, not a random custom range.
• Sort Queries by impressions first, then look for low CTR terms in positions 5 through 15.
• Cross check any page with falling impressions against a recent Google update or site change.
• Separate branded queries from generic ones, since branded searches inflate CTR and hide real problems in the generic terms.

FAQ

Has my average ranking actually improved this month? Compare average position for your core generic queries only, since a wave of new branded searches can raise your blended average position without any real ranking movement.

Which pages should I optimize first? Start with pages that already earn impressions but sit outside the top three, and with striking distance keywords in positions 5 through 15, since those move fastest with a title or content change.

Does Search Console show whether I appear in AI Overviews now? Yes, Google added a generative AI performance report in June 2026 showing impressions for AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, location, and device. It currently reports impressions only, no queries, clicks, or position, so treat it as an early signal, not a replacement for the Queries report.

Do I still need Search Console if I already check GBP Insights? Yes. GBP Insights covers your Google Business Profile only. Search Console covers your website, a separate system with separate keyword data, and it is free for any verified property.

Last updated, August 2026.

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