Keyword rank gap
also called Rank gapGap to best competitor
Definition
How many positions separate you from the best-ranked tracked competitor on a keyword.
How it's calculated
gap = our rank − best competitor rank, rounded to one decimal, and null when we do not rank at all. A positive gap means the best tracked competitor sits above you; zero or negative means you are level or ahead.
Scope, grain and dimensions
- Grain
- One keyword × the date range, inside one tracked segment.
- Dimensions
- query · competitor domain · segment
- Required filters
- segment_id · date range
- Aggregation
- Per keyword. Gaps are not averaged into a segment-level gap, the bucket counts and the share metrics carry that job.
- Metric type
- derived metric · positions (positive means the competitor sits above you)
Data sources
Where you'll see this
Named reports that normally include this metric.
Competitor search reportSearch opportunity report
Skills and analyses that use it
Skills carry the judgment; the analysis verbs do the reading.
Analysis verbs
seo_keyword_gap_analysis
Method rungs and levers
A rung tells you what a movement here can and cannot explain, read the rungs below it first.
Ask Quattr
- "How far behind are we on the keywords we lose?" Simulate this →
- "Which losing keywords have the smallest gap to close?" Simulate this →
- "Where do competitors beat us by the most positions?" Simulate this →
How to read it
The size of each battle, used to sort the losing list from widest gap down. A small gap is a nearer target, not a cheaper one, the effort behind a position is not in this number, and neither is the demand behind the keyword.
Caveats, freshness and failure modes
Both sides are impression-weighted averages over the window, so a gap under a position is inside the noise of the averaging rather than a visible difference on a results page.
A gap is positions, not traffic, a wide gap on negligible demand outranks nothing worth having, which is why the worklist is weighted by demand before it is acted on.
Null wherever we do not rank; those keywords belong to the not-ranked bucket instead and have no gap by definition.
- Freshness
- ~1 day behind, daily observation, available the following day.
Common failure modes
- Prioritising by gap size alone and building a worklist of keywords nobody searches.
- Reading a sub-one-position gap as a real difference.
Not the same as
The confusions that cause the most wrong decisions.
Keyword rank gap Search market share Compare definitions →
A rank gap is a per-keyword position difference; search market share is a CTR-modeled share of tracked demand across the whole segment. Closing gaps on low-demand keywords can leave share unchanged, and share can move with no gap changing at all.
Related metrics and workflows
Verification
A definition is the smallest part of this.
The measurement matters because something acts on it. Here is the rest of the showcase, in the order most people find useful.