The invention relates to a method for positioning wireless sensor network nodes on the basis of the ranging technology, comprising at least three positioned anchor nodes, a node to be detected and background positioning center. The invention is characterized in that: 1) the positioned anchor nodes periodically sends beacon signals for positioning at a fixed frequency; 2) the node to be detected sends the receiving signal intensity for receiving the beacon signals to a gateway anchor node; 3) the gateway anchor node transmits the receiving signal intensity of the node to be detected and the transmitting signal intensity of the anchor nodes to the background positioning center; 4) the background positioning center calculates the distances between the node to be detected and the anchor nodes; 5) the background positioning center calculates the coordinate of the node to be detected. The invention calculates the distances between the node to be detected and the anchor nodes according to the difference between the transmitting signal intensity of the anchor nodes and the receiving signal intensity of the node to be detected and positions the coordinate of the node to be detected according to the differences between the distances from the node to be detected to the anchor nodes, thereby reducing the positioning error and improving the accuracy of the positioning.