Most site owners look at the searches they already win. The bigger opportunity is often one step lower: queries where your page shows up at positions 8 to 20, at the bottom of the first results page or on the second. Google already considers the page relevant. It just is not the best answer yet.
This guide shows how to find those queries in Google Search Console and how to improve the matching page without shortcuts.
Why these queries are worth your time
- Relevance is already there. Google shows your page for the query, so you do not start from zero as you would with a new article.
- Few people scroll that far. Most clicks go to the top results. Moving from position 12 to position 6 can turn a page that is seen but ignored into one that is visited.
- The work is focused. You improve one existing page for one clear need, instead of writing and promoting something new.
There is no guarantee in SEO, and anyone who promises a fixed position is not being honest. But among all the things you could work on, these pages usually give the best return for the effort.
Find them in Search Console
- Open Google Search Console and choose your property.
- Go to Performance → Search results.
- Turn on Average position, along with clicks and impressions.
- Choose a recent period, for example the last 3 months.
- In the Queries table, sort by impressions and look for rows with an average position between about 8 and 20.
- Click a query, then open the Pages tab to see which page ranks for it.
Keep in mind that average position is an average across all the searches where your page appeared, so treat it as a direction, not an exact rank. Ignore queries with only a handful of impressions: there is not enough data to act on.
Improve the matching page
Google's guidance is consistent: create helpful, reliable content made for people, not for search engines. For each query, ask what the person searching wanted, and whether your page gives it to them better than the pages above it.
1. Check the intent
Search the query yourself and look at the first results. Are they guides, product pages, comparisons, tools? If every top result is a step-by-step guide and your page is a short product description, the gap is the format, not a missing keyword.
2. Answer the question completely
Add what is missing: a clear definition, the steps, an example, a table, current prices or dates, the answer to the follow-up question people usually have. Update outdated information. Remove padding that does not help the reader.
3. Make the title and headings say what the page offers
The title is often the first thing people see in the results. Describe the page clearly and use the words people search for where they fit naturally. Google may rewrite titles and snippets that do not describe the page well, so accuracy matters more than cleverness. Write a meta description that summarises the page; Google sometimes shows it as the snippet.
4. Link to it from related pages
Internal links help visitors and search engines find important pages. Add links from your related articles with descriptive anchor text, the words that say what the reader will find, rather than "click here".
5. Avoid shortcuts
Repeating the query over and over, hiding text, or creating near-copies of the page for each variation go against Google's spam policies and can hurt the whole site. One good page beats ten thin ones.
Measure the result
After you publish the update, give Google time to recrawl the page. Then, in the Performance report, compare the period after the change with the same length of time before it, filtered to that page. Look at impressions, clicks and average position together: a better title can raise clicks even before the position changes.
How Rutba helps
When you connect Google Search Console to a site in Rutba, the Google Search tab lists these queries under Almost on page one: queries between positions 8 and 20 with real impressions, with the page that ranks for each.
Next to each one, Improve this page opens the matching WordPress post in the Content Studio with the query set as its focus keyword (a focus keyword the post already has is kept). There you can see the content score, add what is missing, compare with the version on your site, and send the update back to WordPress when you approve it. If the post is already open in the Content Studio, the button takes you to it.
Summary
- Queries at positions 8 to 20 with real impressions are usually the fastest pages to improve.
- Find them in Search Console under Performance, with average position turned on.
- Improve the page for the searcher's intent: complete answer, clear title and headings, internal links.
- Skip keyword stuffing and near-duplicate pages.
- Compare the same period before and after the change to judge the result.