Striking distance keywords are the ones ranking just below where the traffic is, usually positions four to fifteen. They are the cheapest improvements available to most websites, because the hard part is already done.
Why they are cheap
Ranking at eleven means Google already considers your page a credible answer. You have the page, the topic and enough authority to be in contention. What remains is a gap, and it is usually a smaller gap than it feels.
Compare that against a keyword you do not rank for at all, which needs a new page, time to establish, and probably links. The striking-distance keyword might need a better title, a section that answers the question the page currently dodges, and some internal links.
The steepest part of the curve
Click-through rates fall away sharply across the first page and then flatten. Moving from 11 to 8 is a modest gain. Moving from 8 to 4 is a large one, and moving into the top three is transformative.
This is what makes the band worth targeting: you are working on the part of the curve where movement is most valuable, and starting from a position where movement is realistic.
Not all of them are worth it
Position is only half the picture. A keyword at eleven with meaningful search volume is worth a week of work; one at eleven that nobody searches for is worth nothing, however satisfying the improvement would feel.
Check intent too. If the results are dominated by a different kind of page than yours, comparison articles where you have a product page, the gap is not effort, it is a mismatch, and grinding at it will not help.
Where this shows up in the tracker
Every term in this glossary is something the product actually measures or acts on. Plans start at £29 a month, with rank tracking, AI visibility, the daily AI readiness scan, security and domain health, Search Console, backlinks and audits on every one of them.
Related terms
Rank tracking
Rank tracking records where your website appears in search results for chosen keywords, checked on a schedule so you can see movement over time. It answers where you are, and it is no longer sufficient on its own to explain what that is worth.
Cannibalisation
Cannibalisation is when two or more of your own pages compete for the same search, so Google keeps swapping which one it shows. Both pages are weaker than one good page would be.
Share of voice
Share of voice is your visibility across a whole keyword set, weighted by how much each keyword is searched. It shows how much of the available attention in your market you hold, and who holds the rest.
AI Overview
An AI Overview is the AI-generated answer Google places above the ordinary search results for many queries. It answers the question on the results page, citing a handful of sources, which means a share of searchers never click through to any website at all.