Free Striking Distance Keyword Tool

This free striking distance keyword tool turns a Google Search Console export into a ranked shortlist of the queries you are closest to winning. Paste the CSV, set the position band, and it keeps the queries sitting just outside the results that earn clicks — ranked by the impressions each one already earns, so the top of the list is the work with the most demand behind it. It runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored. Most guides to striking distance keywords tell you to do this filtering by hand in a spreadsheet; this does it in one paste.

What counts as a striking distance keyword

A striking distance keyword is a query your page already ranks for, but just outside the positions that earn most of the clicks. The usual working band is average position 4 to 20. That band is a practitioner convention, not a threshold Google publishes: what Google does document is that the query, its impressions, its clicks and its average position are all available to export from the Search Console Performance report. The convention is useful because a page in that band has already been judged relevant, so the remaining gap is normally an answer-quality or click-appeal problem rather than a reason to start again.

Two things follow, and both are visible in the shortlist above. A query at position 4 to 10 is inside the striking-distance window proper: the page is already on the first screen, and the five on-page edits in our guide to optimizing pages ranking 4-10 are the work that most often closes the gap. A query at position 11 to 20 is a different job, closer to what our guide on pages ranking 11-20 describes: more depth, more support, rarely a single edit. The tool tags every row so you are not treating those two cases as one queue.

Vocabulary varies by vendor, and it is worth saying plainly so you are not hunting for four different things. The same output is sold as a striking distance report, listed as a striking distance keywords list, and produced by what another vendor calls a striking distance keyword finder. Whatever a striking distance SEO tool names it, the job is identical: take the queries the page already ranks for, keep the ones sitting just outside the click-earning positions, and order them by the demand behind each.

How to get your Search Console export

Open the Performance report, set the date range you want, and filter to a single page if you are working on one page. Make sure the Average position metric is switched on alongside impressions and clicks, then use the export control at the top right and choose CSV. The download contains a Queries table with one row per search term. Paste that file into the tool above, or drop the CSV on the box, and it will do the position filtering for you.

1. Open the Performance report in Search Console and pick your date range.
2. Switch on Average position so the column is included; impressions and clicks are on by default.
3. Filter to one page if you are working page by page. Search Console filters cover queries, pages, countries and devices — not position ranges, which is exactly the filtering this tool does for you.
4. Export, choose CSV, and open the Queries table from the download.
5. Paste it above, or drop the file on the box.

The tool reads a header row if there is one, and falls back to Search Console’s default column order if there is not. Tab-separated text pasted straight out of a spreadsheet works, as do exports that write thousands separators or a decimal comma.

What to do with the shortlist

Start at the top of the shortlist, which is ranked by impressions rather than by position, because impressions measure demand the page has already proved it can attract. Within that, a query at position 4 to 10 is usually the faster win: the page is on the first screen and the gap is often answer quality or click appeal. A query at 11 to 20 tends to need more than an edit. Treat the shortlist as a work order, and change one thing at a time so you can tell which edit moved the result.

The pass itself is five edits, in order: pull the export, answer the query in the first two sentences, close the sub-question gap against the results above you, point more internal links at the page, and rewrite the title and description for the click. Our SEO quick wins checklist states each one with the evidence that it landed, so you can tell a finished item from an attempted one.

Striking distance keyword tool FAQ

What position range counts as striking distance?

A striking distance keyword is a query your page already ranks for, but just outside the positions that earn most of the clicks. The usual working band is average position 4 to 20. That band is a practitioner convention, not a threshold Google publishes: what Google does document is that the query, its impressions, its clicks and its average position are all available to export from the Search Console Performance report. The convention is useful because a page in that band has already been judged relevant, so the remaining gap is normally an answer-quality or click-appeal problem rather than a reason to start again.

How do I export keywords from Search Console?

Open the Performance report, set the date range you want, and filter to a single page if you are working on one page. Make sure the Average position metric is switched on alongside impressions and clicks, then use the export control at the top right and choose CSV. The download contains a Queries table with one row per search term. Paste that file into the tool above, or drop the CSV on the box, and it will do the position filtering for you.

Is there a free striking distance keyword tool?

Yes — this one. No sign-up, no limit. It runs entirely in your browser as JavaScript, so the export you paste is never sent to a server, never stored and never logged. That also means it works on exports for properties we have no access to, and on data you are not allowed to upload anywhere.

Which striking distance keywords should I work on first?

Start at the top of the shortlist, which is ranked by impressions rather than by position, because impressions measure demand the page has already proved it can attract. Within that, a query at position 4 to 10 is usually the faster win: the page is on the first screen and the gap is often answer quality or click appeal. A query at 11 to 20 tends to need more than an edit. Treat the shortlist as a work order, and change one thing at a time so you can tell which edit moved the result.

Go deeper: this is one screen of Module 2

This tool does by hand, for one export, what the engine does continuously across a whole site. Ranking every page and every term by the gain available — striking-distance pages, money keywords, and a rank-versus-advertise verdict for each term — is Module 2 of the ten-module engine.

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Module 2 — Opportunity Telemetry

Live search-performance data ranks exactly which pages to upgrade next — striking-distance pages, money keywords, and a rank-vs-advertise verdict for every term.

Once a page is chosen, working it is Precision Page Deployment — one page per run, to full depth, with the before-and-after logged. The whole sequence is on the ten modules page.

Built and maintained by Kevin Lawton, EnterpriseSEO.ai · Last updated 19 August 2026