Striking Distance Keywords: Your Fastest SEO Wins in Search Console

Striking distance keywords are searches your website already ranks for just below the top results, usually near the bottom of page one or on page two. Because Google already considers your page relevant, a focused improvement can move it into the positions that get most of the clicks, which makes them the fastest SEO wins most sites have. You can find them for free in Google Search Console.

Below: the manual method in Search Console, how to choose between improving a page and writing a new one, how to estimate the upside, what to change, and how to measure it.

What counts as a striking distance keyword?#

There is no official definition. It is an SEO convention, and people draw the line in different places:

We use positions 8 to 20. Results in positions 8, 9 and 10 are technically on page one, but they sit below the fold on most screens and often get few clicks. Moving from 9 to 4 can matter as much as moving from 14 to 9.

Two cautions about the "position" number in Search Console:

• It is an average. Google's documentation describes it as the average of the topmost position your site held each time it appeared. A query at 12.3 might be 6 on some searches and 18 on others, depending on location, device and the day.
• It is per query, per page. The same query can rank with two different pages, and the average hides that.

Treat the range as a filter for finding candidates, not a precise measurement.

Why these keywords are the fastest wins#

A new post starts from zero: Google has to discover it, index it and decide it deserves to rank. A page in striking distance has passed those steps already. That gives you three advantages: real demand data (impressions prove people search for the phrase), a smaller gap (you improve one page instead of building one) and measurable results (you know the starting position, so you can see whether your change worked).

How to find striking distance keywords in Search Console#

You need a verified Search Console property for your site, with at least a few weeks of data.

Step 1: Open the Performance report#

In Search Console, go to Performance > Search results. This is the report covered in Google's Performance report documentation.

Step 2: Set the date range#

Click the date filter and pick Last 3 months. Three months smooths out daily swings while still reflecting your current rankings. If your site gets very little traffic, try six months to collect enough impressions. Search Console keeps up to 16 months of data.

Step 3: Turn on all four metrics#

At the top of the chart, click the boxes for Total clicks, Total impressions, Average CTR and Average position. Selected metrics appear as columns in the table below.

Step 4: Export the Queries table#

Make sure the Queries tab is selected, then click Export at the top right and choose Google Sheets, Excel or CSV. The interface and export show up to 1,000 rows, which is plenty for most small and medium sites. Larger sites can use the Search Console API or bulk data export to get more.

Step 5: Filter and sort in the spreadsheet#

In the Queries sheet:

1. Filter Position to between 8 and 20.
2. Filter Impressions to a minimum that makes sense for your site. For a small business site, 30 to 50 impressions over three months is a reasonable floor; for a busy site, use a few hundred.
3. Remove branded queries (your company name) and anything irrelevant to your business.
4. Sort by Impressions, highest first.

The top 10 to 20 rows are where to start.

Step 6: Map each query to the page that ranks#

The Queries export does not tell you which page ranks. To find it, go back to the Performance report, click a query in the table (this adds a filter for that query), then switch to the Pages tab. You will see the page or pages that appeared for it.

Add the URL to your spreadsheet next to the query. While you are there, note if more than one page appears. That usually means two pages compete for the same search, and neither ranks as well as one strong page would.

Doing this by hand takes a minute or two per query, which is why it is worth limiting yourself to the top candidates. (This matching is the step MyKavo's Already ranking view automates, covered at the end.)

Improve the existing page or write a new post?#

Not every striking distance query should be fixed on the page that currently ranks. Use this table:

To check intent, search the query and look at the top five results. If they are all guides and your ranking page is a service page, write a guide that links to the service page.

How to estimate the upside#

To decide which candidates to tackle first, estimate how many extra clicks each could bring. The formula is simple:

Extra clicks per month ≈ monthly impressions × (target CTR minus current CTR)

The hard part is the target CTR. Published click-through-rate studies disagree, and real CTR at a given position varies widely depending on ads, AI Overviews, maps, videos and other features on the results page. So treat any number as a rough estimate, and if you can, calibrate it with your own data: filter your Search Console queries to positions 3 to 5 and look at their average CTR. That is a realistic target for your site.

Here is a worked example. Say you run a dog grooming salon and find this row:

If your own queries at positions 3 to 5 average around 6% CTR, reaching position 4 would mean roughly 1,200 × (6% minus 0.5%) ≈ 66 extra clicks a month from this one query.

Two things make this an estimate, not a forecast:

• Search Console counts an impression when your result appears on a results page someone loads. Fewer people look at page two, so your current impressions may understate demand, and moving up can increase impressions as well as CTR.
• Moving up is not guaranteed, and the gain may come in steps (say, from 11 to 8, then later to 5).

Do this for your top 10 candidates and sort by estimated extra clicks, then favour queries closest to what you sell.

What to change on the page#

Before you edit, check what else the page ranks for: in the Performance report, filter by the page URL and look at its Queries tab. If the page already ranks well for other searches, keep the content that serves them. You are adding and sharpening, not rewriting.

Then work through these changes, roughly in order of impact:

1. Title. Include the query, or its main words, naturally. If the title is about something broader, make it more specific. Google often uses your title element for the headline in results, as described in Influencing title links.
2. Opening answer. Answer the query directly in the first two or three sentences. For the example: "Most cockapoos need a full groom every 6 to 8 weeks, with brushing at home two or three times a week."
3. A section for the query. Add a heading that matches the question and a section that answers it thoroughly. Use the "People also ask" box for that search to find the follow-up questions to cover.
4. First-hand detail. Add what only you know: examples from real jobs, prices, mistakes you see. Google's guide to helpful, people-first content explicitly values first-hand experience.
5. Freshness where it matters. Update outdated facts, prices, screenshots and years. Do not just change the date.
6. Internal links. Link to the page from two or three related pages on your site, using descriptive anchor text close to the query. Internal links help Google find the page and understand what it is about.
7. Meta description. Rewrite it to match the query. It may not always be shown, but when it is, it affects whether people click.

What not to change: the URL. A new URL needs a redirect and time for Google to process the move, with no benefit. Keep the URL and improve the content.

How long to wait and how to measure#

After editing, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to request indexing. Google says crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and rankings can take longer to settle after that.

A sensible routine:

1. Log the change. Write the date, page and what you changed in your spreadsheet.
2. Wait four weeks before judging. Six to eight weeks is better for low-traffic pages.
3. Compare equal periods. In the Performance report, use the date filter's Compare option to set the 28 days after the change against the 28 days before. Filter by the page, then look at the query.
4. Check four numbers: position, impressions, CTR and clicks for the target query, plus total clicks for the page.
5. Watch for seasonality. If your business is seasonal, compare with the same period last year as well.

If nothing has moved after eight weeks, look again at intent, at what the page one results cover that you do not, and at internal links. Where you can, change one page at a time so you know which edits worked.

How to do this in MyKavo#

The manual method works, but the export, matching and upside maths take time for every batch. The Already ranking view in MyKavo's AI Keywords & Blog Writer does them for you.

1. Connect Google Search Console. It is optional for the rest of MyKavo, but this view needs it.
2. Open Already ranking. MyKavo lists the searches your site ranks for in positions 8 to 20, from real Search Console figures for the last 28 days.
3. Each query is matched to the page that ranks, so you skip the clicking back and forth.
4. Each row shows position, impressions and CTR, plus an estimated upside: the extra clicks a month you could get at position 4, using typical click-through rates. It is an estimate, not a promise, for the reasons above.
5. Each row suggests a next step: improve that page, or write a post. If you choose to write, you can add your own notes first, and MyKavo drafts the full post (title, slug, meta description, headings, FAQ, structured data and internal links to real pages) for you to edit and copy into your site. It never publishes for you.

The same dashboard can monitor the pages you improve and alert you if a title, canonical, noindex tag or layout changes later. Monitoring protects the traffic you have. AI Keywords helps you win more.

If you are still deciding whether an AI writing tool fits your workflow, our guide to choosing an AI blog writer covers what to look for.

The Free plan includes one keyword report and one blog post a month, with no credit card. Create a free MyKavo account and connect Search Console to see your own striking distance keywords.

FAQ#

What are striking distance keywords?#

They are searches your site already ranks for just outside the top results, usually positions 11 to 20 (page two). Some people widen the range; MyKavo uses positions 8 to 20 to include the bottom of page one.

How do I find keywords ranking on page 2?#

In Google Search Console, open Performance > Search results, turn on Average position, export the Queries table and filter positions to between 11 and 20 (or 8 to 20). Then click each query to see which page ranks for it.

Should I update the old page or write a new post?#

Update the existing page if it is about the query's topic. Write a new post if the ranking page only mentions the topic in passing, or if page one shows a different type of page from yours.

How long does it take to see results?#

Google says recrawling can take from a few days to a few weeks after you request indexing. Wait at least four weeks before comparing performance, and longer for low-traffic pages.

How accurate is the estimated upside?#

It is a rough estimate. Click-through rates vary by query and by what else appears on the results page, so use it to prioritise, not to forecast traffic.