Q&A

Checking Google PageRank for keywords? Read this first

You cannot check Google PageRank anymore. Google retired the public Toolbar PageRank score in 2016, and no tool since has had access to the real number. Any site promising a PageRank check is showing an invented substitute. What you probably want, your keyword rankings, lives in Google Search Console for free.

PageRank died in public in 2016

PageRank was Google's original idea: score a page by the links pointing at it, weighted by the importance of the pages doing the linking. For years you could see a public version of it, a 0 to 10 score in the Google Toolbar, and an entire industry of buying and selling links grew up around chasing that number. Then Google let the public scores go stale for years, and in 2016 removed Toolbar PageRank entirely. Since that day, nobody outside Google has been able to see any page's PageRank. Not approximately, not with a paid tool, not at all. So if you searched for a Google page rank checker and landed here, the honest answer is that the thing you are trying to check has been invisible for a decade.

What "PageRank checkers" show you today

The tools still offering a PageRank check did not get special access. They show a proxy: a score the vendor computes from its own crawl of the web's links, usually rescaled to 0 to 100. These authority-style scores can be useful for rough comparisons between sites, and the serious vendors are open about what they are. But they are not PageRank, they disagree with each other because each is built from a different link index, and Google has said it does not use any of them. A tool that presents its invented number as your "Google PageRank" is telling you something false before you have even paid for it.

PageRank still exists, you just cannot see it

Inside Google, links still count. Google employees have confirmed that a version of PageRank remains in use as one of many ranking signals. That is worth knowing, because it means links to your site still matter. It is also beside the point, because you cannot see the number, track it, or verify any claim a tool makes about it. Optimizing for a score nobody can observe is chasing a ghost. If you want to work on your link reality, work on things you can observe, like earning citations from real sites.

What you actually meant: where do I rank for my keywords

Almost everyone typing "check Google PageRank for keywords" wants a simpler thing: which keywords does my site rank for, and where. That data exists, it is exact, and it is free. Google Search Console's Performance report lists the real queries your site appeared for, your average position for each, how many people saw you, and how many clicked. It comes from Google itself, so there is no estimation involved. Verify your site at search.google.com/search-console and the data starts flowing. For the full picture of why Search Console beats every third-party option, read our website rank finder guide.

What you can measure and fix

Here is the useful reframe. PageRank was always just Google's estimate of whether your site deserves to be found. The things that decide that today are things you can actually inspect: whether your pages are indexed, whether your titles and schema tell machines what you do, whether the site loads fast and works on a phone, and whether the AI engines that answer your customers' questions, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, can read and cite you. None of that requires a dead metric. AuditLamp's free scan at auditlamp.com/app runs 116 documented checks in about a minute and hands you the list, ranked by impact, in plain language. No invented scores, no ghost numbers. The deeper tiers are on the pricing page when you want them.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still check my Google PageRank?

No. Google removed the public Toolbar PageRank score in 2016 and has never exposed the internal number since. Any tool offering a PageRank check today is showing you its own invented metric, not data from Google.

Is Domain Authority the same as PageRank?

No. Domain-authority-style scores are estimates built by SEO tool vendors from their own link crawls. They can be useful for rough comparison, but they are not PageRank, and Google has said it does not use any third-party authority score.

How do I check what keywords my site ranks for?

Google Search Console, free. The Performance report lists the real queries your site appeared for, with average position, impressions, and clicks for each. It is the only source of exact ranking data, because it comes from Google itself.

Does PageRank still matter for SEO?

Links still matter, and Google employees have confirmed a version of PageRank remains one of many internal signals. But you cannot see it, track it, or verify any number a tool claims for it. Spend the effort on what you can measure and fix.

Measure what's real

PageRank is a ghost. Your titles, schema, indexation, and AI visibility are not. Paste your link and the free scan checks all of it in about a minute.