The keyword table in the Rank Tracker tab is the primary interface for understanding how your search rankings are moving. This article walks through every column, explains how colour coding and trend arrows work, and covers filtering, sorting, and exporting your data.
Keyword table columns
The keyword table is displayed in the Rank Tracker tab after completing an audit with GSC connected. It contains the following columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Keyword | The search query as returned by Google Search Console. |
| Current position | Average position in Google Search over the last 28 days. Lower is better — position 1 is the top result. |
| Change (+/−) | The difference between the current and previous position. A positive value means the ranking improved; negative means it declined. |
| Previous position | The average position recorded during the most recent earlier audit for this domain. |
| Trend | A direction indicator: ▲ improved, ▼ declined, ● new or no change. |
| Sparkline | A tiny 5-point line chart showing position history across the last 5 audits. |
| Page URL | The landing page Google is serving for this query. |
| Clicks | Total clicks from Google Search over the last 28 days. |
| Impressions | Total times the URL appeared in Google Search results over the last 28 days. |
| CTR | Click-through rate: clicks ÷ impressions, shown as a percentage. |
Colour coding for position changes
The Change column and the row itself are colour-coded to help you identify winners and losers at a glance:
+5.
−8.
Trend arrows explained
The Trend column uses three simple symbols to summarise direction at a glance:
| Symbol | Meaning | When shown |
|---|---|---|
| ▲ | Improved | Current position is lower (better) than the previous audit by at least 1 place. |
| ▼ | Declined | Current position is higher (worse) than the previous audit by at least 1 place. |
| ● | New or stable | No previous data exists for this keyword (new entry), or the position is identical. |
Sparkline charts
Each keyword row contains a small sparkline — a miniature 5-point line chart rendered inline in the table. The sparkline shows how that keyword's average position has moved across the last 5 completed audits for the same domain, giving you a quick visual history without needing to click into a detail view.
Key things to know about sparklines:
- The Y-axis is inverted — a line trending downward visually means the position number is getting larger (declining), and a line trending upward means the position number is getting smaller (improving).
- Sparklines are only populated once there are at least 2 historical audits. If a keyword is new, the sparkline shows a single dot.
- Hover over a sparkline to see individual position values per audit date in a tooltip.
Expanded position history chart
Clicking any keyword row expands an inline position history line chart drawn from the last 5 audits. The expanded chart has a fully reversed Y-axis — position 1 sits at the top, position 100 at the bottom — so an upward-trending line always means better rankings. Each data point on the chart is labelled with the audit date so you can correlate ranking changes with content updates or algorithm announcements.
Filtering the keyword table
Above the keyword table, a set of filter controls helps you focus on the keywords that matter most right now:
- All — shows every keyword in the current GSC report (default view).
- Changed only — hides keywords with no change since the last audit.
- Improved — shows only keywords where position improved.
- Declined — shows only keywords where position declined.
- New — shows only keywords appearing for the first time in this audit.
You can also use the search box above the table to filter by keyword text — useful for narrowing down to a specific topic, brand term, or product category.
Sorting the table
Click any column header to sort the table by that column. Click again to reverse the sort direction. The most useful sort combinations for typical analysis workflows:
| Sort by | Best for |
|---|---|
| Change (descending) | Finding your biggest winners since the last audit. |
| Change (ascending) | Finding your biggest losers — keywords that dropped the most. |
| Position (ascending) | Reviewing your best-ranking keywords first. |
| Clicks (descending) | Focusing on keywords that drive the most organic traffic. |
| Impressions (descending) | Identifying high-visibility keywords regardless of click volume. |
Exporting keyword data
The Export button above the keyword table downloads the current filtered view as a CSV file. The CSV includes all columns visible in the table: keyword, current position, previous position, change, clicks, impressions, CTR, and page URL. Filters applied in the UI are reflected in the export — if you have "Declined" selected, only declined keywords will appear in the CSV.
This makes it easy to share ranking reports with clients, paste data into a spreadsheet for further analysis, or track changes manually over time.