Search Console guide
How to find striking distance keywords (the ones stuck on page 2) in Search Console
Direct answer
To find striking distance keywords in Search Console, open Performance → Search results, switch on Average position, and list queries sitting between positions 8 and 20 that still collect impressions. Sort by impressions and keep the biggest. Those queries are a spot or two from a much better click rate. Search Console can't filter by position, so you export and filter, or Rankgaroo lets an AI pull the rows and do it.
Updated
On this page
Do it by handAsk your AI insteadWorked exampleLimits to knowQuestionsRelated guidesYou know some queries rank just below the top results, close enough that a better title or a stronger page could pull them up. Search Console shows every query, but it won't hand you the ones sitting at position 9 or 14.
The report has a Position column and no position filter. Finding those queries means sorting, exporting and filtering by hand.
Do it by hand in Search Console
- Open Search Console, pick your property, and go to Performance → Search results.
- Set a date range with enough data, such as the last 3 months, then tick the Impressions and Average position boxes above the table.
- On the Queries tab, click Export (top right) and download to Google Sheets or CSV.
- In the sheet, keep rows where position is between 8 and 20, then sort by impressions, highest first.
- Drop queries with very few impressions. A floor of 50 or 100 for the period keeps the list short.
- Back in Performance, click a query to filter by it, then open the Pages tab to see which URL ranks.
The Search Console export stops at 1,000 rows and has no position filter, so on a site with thousands of queries you repeat the export-and-filter routine every time you want fresh numbers.
Ask your AI instead
With Rankgaroo connected to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, paste a question like this:
Using my Search Console data for example.com from 2026-09-25 to 2026-10-22, find queries with an average position between 8 and 20 and at least 100 impressions. Sort by impressions, show clicks and CTR, and tell me which ones sit at the bottom of page one and which are truly on page two.
What the AI calls
gsc_search_analytics(siteUrl: "sc-domain:example.com", startDate: "2026-09-25", endDate: "2026-10-22", dimensions: ["query"], rowLimit: 1000)returns up to 1,000 queries. The AI keeps rows with position 8 to 20 and at least 100 impressions, then sorts them by impressions.
gsc_search_analytics(..., dimensions: ["query", "page"], filters: [{dimension: "query", operator: "equals", expression: "freelance invoice template"}])for the top few queries, so the AI can name the page that ranks.
Worked example
| Query | Clicks | Impressions | CTR | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| freelance invoice template | 18 | 2,140 | 0.8% | 9.4 |
| time tracking spreadsheet | 9 | 1,460 | 0.6% | 12.8 |
| best time tracker for freelancers | 3 | 1,310 | 0.2% | 16.5 |
| how to bill hourly as a freelancer | 6 | 980 | 0.6% | 11.2 |
| invoice payment terms net 30 | 4 | 720 | 0.6% | 9.8 |
| timesheet template excel | 8 | 520 | 1.5% | 8.9 |
| stundenzettel vorlage (timesheet template, German) | 7 | 410 | 1.7% | 8.6 |
| plantilla de factura gratis (free invoice template, Spanish) | 4 | 340 | 1.2% | 10.7 |
| quote template for freelancers | 2 | 190 | 1.1% | 13.9 |
What the answer says
Of the top 1,000 queries by clicks, 312 sit at positions 8 to 20, with 14,300 impressions and 340 clicks between them. Only 14 of those have 100 or more impressions. Most are at the bottom of page one (191 sit between 8.0 and 10.0); 121 are on page two proper, and the largest of those is "best time tracker for freelancers" with 1,310 impressions. The best target here is "freelance invoice template": 2,140 impressions, 0.8% CTR, position 9.4.
Limits to know
- gsc_search_analytics returns at most 1,000 rows per call, in the order Search Console gives them (highest clicks first). Queries with impressions but no clicks can fall outside the 1,000, and those are often the best striking distance candidates.
- Search Console hides rare, anonymized queries. In the example data that is about 45% of clicks in this period, so the queries you can see are only part of the picture.
- There is no position filter in the tool. The AI pulls the rows and filters them itself.
- Average position is an average across every country, device and result type, so a 9.1 can mean 4 for some searchers and 15 for others.
Questions
What are striking distance keywords?
Striking distance keywords are queries your site already ranks for, usually between positions 8 and 20, where a modest improvement could move you onto the first page or into its top half. They matter because you already have impressions, so ranking higher turns into clicks without a new page.
Is page 2 the same as positions 11 to 20?
Roughly, yes, but Search Console reports an average position, so a query shown at 9.1 may rank 6 for some searches and 13 for others. Many people start at position 8 for that reason. In the example above, 191 of 312 queries in the 8 to 20 range sit at 10.0 or better, which shows how much sits at the bottom of page one.
How many impressions make a striking distance query worth working on?
There is no fixed number. Choose a floor that fits your site, such as 50 or 100 impressions in the period, so you skip noise. In the example above, 14 of 312 queries in the 8 to 20 range cleared 100 impressions over 28 days.
Can Rankgaroo filter queries by position?
No. The tool has no position filter. The AI pulls up to 1,000 rows and filters them in the chat, so on very large sites it may miss queries beyond the row limit.