Not-ranked keywords
also called Not-ranked bucketAbsent keywords
Definition
Tracked keywords where at least one competitor ranks and you have no observed rank at all.
How it's calculated
A keyword falls into the not-ranked bucket when a tracked competitor ranks on it and your own rank is null. Up to 25 rows are returned; the bucket total is reported separately and is not capped.
Scope, grain and dimensions
- Grain
- One tracked segment × the date range.
- Dimensions
- query · competitor domain · segment
- Required filters
- segment_id · date range
- Aggregation
- A count of keywords, partitioning with the winning and losing buckets. Keywords on which no tracked competitor ranks never enter the comparison at all.
- Metric type
- raw measure · keywords
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
- "Which keywords do competitors rank for that we do not?" Simulate this →
- "Where are we completely absent in this segment?" Simulate this →
- "What should we target next versus our rivals?" Simulate this →
How to read it
Absence, which reads very differently from a poor position: there is nothing to nudge, so the lever is coverage rather than refinement. It feeds the net-new content conversation, which is the most expensive lever and the one that gets reviewed hardest before it is pulled.
Caveats, freshness and failure modes
Not-ranked means no observed rank in this segment and window, it is not proof a page cannot rank, and it is not proof the page does not exist.
Not-ranked is not a build order: intent alignment is reviewed before recommending new content, because coverage for its own sake is the named anti-pattern here.
Because the client and competitor ranks are read separately, a bug in that split would inflate this bucket, the separate read exists precisely because a single combined read did.
Segment-scoped: absence outside the tracked segment is not measured at all.
- Freshness
- ~1 day behind, daily observation, available the following day.
Common failure modes
- Turning the bucket straight into a content brief without an intent review.
- Reading an inflated not-ranked count as a coverage collapse when it is a data-fetch artifact.
Watch this metric read in a real run
All runs →
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.