📍 What Do Search Position Numbers Mean?
A search position (also called a ranking position) tells you where your page appears on a search engine results page (SERP) for a specific keyword. Position numbers work like this:
- Position 1–3: Top of the first page — highest visibility and click-through rates.
- Position 4–10: Still on page one — good visibility, but with room to improve.
- Position 11–20: Page two — most users never scroll this far, so traffic is significantly lower.
- Position 21+: Deep pages — minimal organic traffic until rankings improve.
The lower the number, the higher your page ranks. Improving from position 15 to position 5, for example, can dramatically increase the organic traffic your page receives.
🔍 How to Find Your Current Keyword Positions
Search Atlas gives you two powerful tools to monitor where your keywords currently rank.
Rank Tracker — Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker. Here you can track specific keywords over time, monitor position changes, and identify which pages are gaining or losing ground. Use this view to spot trends and prioritise your optimisation efforts.
Keyword Magic — Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic. Use this tool to discover new keyword opportunities, check search volume, and assess keyword difficulty before targeting new terms.
Keyword Gap — Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap. This tool compares your keyword rankings against competitors, revealing gaps where rivals rank but you do not — a goldmine for new optimisation targets.
⚙️ Why Keywords Rank Low and What Causes It
Several factors commonly keep pages stuck at lower positions:
- Weak on-page SEO: Missing or poorly written title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags.
- Thin content: Pages with little depth, few words, or content that does not fully answer a user's search intent.
- Low domain authority: Fewer quality backlinks compared to competing pages.
- Slow page speed: Pages that load slowly are penalised by search engines.
- Keyword mismatch: Targeting terms that are too competitive for your current domain strength, or terms that do not align with what your page actually covers.
- Technical issues: Crawl errors, duplicate content, or pages blocked from indexing.
🚀 Tactics to Improve Low-Ranking Keyword Positions
Follow these steps to systematically lift your rankings:
- Identify quick-win opportunities. In Rank Tracker, filter for keywords ranking between positions 8–20. These are your best short-term targets — a modest improvement pushes them to page one.
- Analyse the competition. Use Keyword Gap to see which keywords competitors rank for that you do not. Prioritise gaps with high search volume and lower difficulty scores.
- Optimise your existing content. Update the page targeting the keyword: rewrite title tags to include the primary keyword naturally, add or improve header tags (H1, H2, H3), and expand thin content to address related questions users might have.
- Target the right keywords. In Keyword Magic, use the difficulty filter to find keywords your domain can realistically rank for. New or lower-authority sites should focus on lower-difficulty, long-tail keywords first.
- Build internal links. Link from high-authority pages on your site to the pages you want to rank higher. This passes authority and helps search engines understand which pages matter most.
- Earn quality backlinks. Reach out to relevant websites for guest posts, citations, or editorial links pointing to your target pages. Backlinks from authoritative domains are one of the strongest ranking signals.
- Improve page experience. Ensure pages load quickly, are mobile-friendly, and provide a clean reading experience. Search engines factor these signals into rankings.
📈 How to Track Your Progress
SEO improvements take time — most ranking changes become visible over 4 to 12 weeks. Use Rank Tracker regularly to monitor whether your optimised pages are moving up. Set a consistent schedule (weekly or bi-weekly) to review position changes so you can identify what is working and adjust tactics for pages that are not moving.
For local businesses, navigate to Left sidebar → Local → Overview to monitor local search performance separately. Managing your local citations via Left sidebar → Local → Local Citations also strengthens visibility in location-based searches.
💡 Key Takeaways
- Position numbers indicate where your page appears in search results — lower numbers mean higher visibility.
- Use Rank Tracker to monitor positions, Keyword Magic to find opportunities, and Keyword Gap to identify competitor advantages.
- Focus first on keywords already ranking between positions 8–20 for the fastest wins.
- Combine on-page optimisation, quality content, internal linking, and backlink building for sustained improvements.
- Allow 4–12 weeks to see measurable ranking changes after making updates.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.