How can you find the search queries your website ranks highly for?

You do not need to list every possible keyword to find the queries your website ranks highly for. Start with queries people have actually used that have brought your website into search results, then identify those with higher average positions. An earlier discussion recommended sorting Search Queries in Google Webmaster Tools by Avg Position. This shows which of the observed queries your website ranks higher for. The resulting list does not cover every possible query, and the old interface path should not be treated as instructions for the current interface.

Start with actual queries, not every possible keyword

The Webmasters Stack Exchange answer reframes the question from “Which keywords can put the website at the very top?” to “What are people searching for when the website appears near the top?” The former may include terms nobody searches for, while the latter takes search demand into account.

Another source explains that the Queries dimension records what people searched for when the website’s URLs appeared in Google’s organic search results. The aim is therefore not to find predefined target keywords or every conceivable combination of words, but actual queries that have generated impressions for the website.

• First, identify which queries have generated organic search impressions.
• Then compare the website’s rankings for those queries rather than manually guessing terms one by one.
• A term’s absence from the observed data does not mean the website has no ranking for it or that nobody searches for it.

Define what counts as “ranking highly”

The earlier answer gives a specific method: go to Your Site on the Web → Search Queries in Webmaster Tools, then sort by the Avg Position column. The comparison uses average position, not the position you see when you run a single search yourself.

Before organizing the results, clarify how you will select queries. Are you choosing relatively high-ranking queries from the same dataset, or setting a separate ranking threshold? Record the observation period and any filters alongside the results so readers can understand the conditions under which they were obtained. These guidelines are intended to make comparisons easier to understand; they are not official operating procedures provided by the cited sources.

For example, if you describe a query as “best-performing,” make clear that you mean “a higher average ranking within the data being examined,” not “ranking first whenever anyone searches.” Because the cited sources do not describe the fields or settings in the current interface, this article explains only how to interpret the results.

High rankings matter, but so does search volume

A Warrior Forum reply advises checking the monthly search volume of terms the website already ranks for. If few people search for them, the potential number of clicks will also be limited. Average position helps you compare where the website appears in search results, but it cannot, on its own, answer “How much traffic can this term bring?”

After identifying high-ranking queries, you can list search volume information separately, noting its time period and source. The cited sources provide neither tools for checking search volume nor actual figures, so they cannot be used to estimate traffic for any term. Nor should high rankings be treated as a guarantee of more clicks.