What are striking distance keywords?
Striking distance keywords are queries you are ranking for, but are outside of the premium positions readers actually click on. Here's how to improve that positioning in SERPS
Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, with nothing even moderately pithy to report – but I am full of zest for today’s edition. To all the editors helping with coverage of the men’s World Cup, I hope the coffee is plentiful and the stress manageable.
This week: Striking distance keywords. These are keywords you are ranking for, but are outside of the premium positions readers actually click on. Improving these near-wins is an opportunity that involves relatively low effort and can increase your publication’s traffic.
Next week: We have a fantastic Ask a News SEO edition all about service journalism with Megan Griffith-Greene. We did several fist pumps during the interview, such was our enthusiasm. Set your alarms: It’s a must-read edition.
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We’re collecting end-of-the-year predictions for news SEO in 2023! We want you to contribute! Have a theory about technical SEO? Do you expect AMP to finally go away? Share your predictions here.
Let’s get it.
In this issue:
What are striking distance keywords?
How to find striking distance keywords
Strategy for improving ranking
THE 101
What are striking distance keywords?
“Striking distance” refers to keywords your publication ranks for, but in positions 11-30 (pages two and three of search engine results pages).
According to Backlinko, the first position has a click-through rate of 27.6 per cent – after which, the average CTR falls dramatically.
The second and third positions see around 16 per cent and 11 per cent click-through rates, respectively. By position 10, the CTR falls to less than three per cent.
Why striking distance keywords matter: Striking distance keywords have potential for generating more traffic if you can improve your publication’s ranking by just a few positions. By moving from the second page of SERPS to page one, your click-through rates and overall traffic are likely to rise.
Striking distance keywords are terms you’re already ranking for. This means it’s an easier lift to improve the position of your content on those keywords than trying to rank a new piece.
When it comes to uncovering traffic opportunities, stories already showing up on the second page of SERPs are a great place to start.
THE HOW TO
How to find striking distance keywords
Many SEO tools will make identifying striking distance keywords possible with reports or filtering. You’re looking for keywords you rank for, but are outside of the top 10 positions.
Botify provides a guide to finding striking distance keywords. Follow their documentation to generate a report in the app that filters for keywords in striking distance (the linked guide from Botify uses positions 6 and 9 – low on page one), then layer on and filter using the additional data in Botify.
SEMRush has a guide on how to use their tool to identify striking distance keywords. Start with position tracking, then filter down to keywords on pages two and three, that have relatively high search volume, medium keyword difficulty and informational intent.
SEJ has a guide to using Python and the Streamlit app to identify striking distance keyword opportunities.
Google Search Console provides you with the average position for keywords you rank for. Export the performance report to Google Spreadsheets or Excel, then use a filter on the Position column to show only keywords where the value is more than 10 but less than 30. Also filter out branded keywords for more meaningful content opportunities.
If none of the above tools are available to you, Google your target keywords and manually review each page of results for your content. This is not an ideal situation – and is slow! – but it does work.
NEXT STEPS
Strategy for striking distance keywords
There are a few basic steps for improving ranking on striking distance: identify keywords, audit existing content, improve internal links and potentially look for new story opportunities.
Identify striking distance keywords: Use one of the tools outlined above to identify a list of keywords with lots of potential. Add those queries to a position tracking report and establish your baseline metrics.
Audit existing content: Use keyword research to identify content gaps – the information your competitor’s have or readers want, but that your coverage is missing.
Look at the SERPs: What SERP features (like the People Also Ask box, Image or Video packs) are available for each keyword? Also consider image search results and related searches for content format signals. Do readers look for infographics, interactive calculators, templates or other approaches? Can you expand your coverage to include that approach?
Read your competitors’s top-performing stories for striking distance keywords: What questions are being answered – and are missing in your coverage? Use Glimpse, Keywords Everywhere, SEMRush or another SEO tool to uncover themes and questions you can explore.
Review on-page text that might influence CTR: Headlines, meta descriptions and featured images are key. Check that your main-focus keyword is captured in an engaging headline, that secondary keywords show up in the sub-title and the featured image is captivating. Consult our on-page SEO checklist for other considerations.
Consider the 10x approach to content: The goal is to create a piece that is 10 times better than the highest ranking result for a keyword. The goal is creating content that is both unique and uniquely valuable.
Improve internal links: Establish how many internal links already point to pages that rank for striking distance keywords, then – where possible – add additional links to and from the page. Search engines use links to understand which pages are semantically related, and – based on the number of links pointing to a page – which are the most important.
Find internal link opportunities quickly: In Google, search for
site:yourdomain.com "the keyword you’re considering."
This will return pages on your site already indexed with the target keyword.
Write fresh stories: If you uncover a new keyword or topic area that demands a new story while auditing existing coverage: do it! Assign a new piece with a clear and unique focus that has the opportunity to rank, too.
Track your efforts: Return to your position tracking from step one. Create an effective internal report and measure your progress – whether your content is moving up or down in positioning – weekly or monthly.
Bonus tip: Consider content pillars and how that approach could improve the visibility of all of the stories on a given topic.
The bottom line: Striking distance keywords are opportunities. Identify and improve content for those ranking to increase your traffic.
THE JOBS LIST
These are audience jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.
The Athletic is hiring a Technical SEO Analyst (remote).
Newsifier is hiring a Head of SEO (remote).
RECOMMENDED READING
Google: Introducing our new guide to Google Search ranking systems.
Marie Haynes has a look at Google’s new terminology for algorithm updates.
Chris Green on Twitter: A framework to understand how SEO metrics connect with your intended audience.
Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.
Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley