The Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) is a simple formula that helps you to identify low competition keywords for SEO. It's a component of doing good keyword research.
Keyword competition is typically evaluated based on the Google Keyword Planner because it gives a competition metric to each keyword based on the bidding for it on Google Ads. This data is useful if you're working on a Google Ads account and it's usually close enough for SEO purposes too. However, if you're working on SEO for a new website or trying to find the low hanging fruit, nothing beats the Keyword Golden Ratio.
You calculate the Keyword Golden Ration with this formula: (All in Title) / (Search Volume) = Keyword Golden Ratio
Let's break it down.
First, "All in Title" refers to the number of search results returned for the keyword when you use the allintitle search operator. This search operator tells Google to only show search results that include all of the words in your search query. For example, if you were researching "onsite SEO checklist" as your keyword, you would type this into Google to find the All in Title value: allintitle:"onsite seo checklist"
The quotations in the example above are essential because they tell Google to return phrase match results. This means that only results with that exact phrase will show up. This will prevent results with titles like "Best Onsite Website SEO Checklist" in the title from appearing. You only want to know the number of results with your exact keyword in the title because that is an indicator that those pages have been intentionally optimized around that keyword.
Next up is search volume. This refers to the average number of searches made per month for that target keyword. Lower search volume keywords usually have the best Keyword Golden Ratio (hence why this technique is great for building up new websites). You can get this metric from your favorite SEO tool or from the Google Keyword Planner. I use the Google Keyword Planner and, since it provides a range, I'll use the number in the middle of the range. For example, if there are 10 - 100 searches per month, I'll use 50 for the search volume.
Now that we have an All in Title value and a search volume value, you can do the division. The best target keywords will have a Keyword Golden Ratio of 0.25 or less. For higher search volume keywords, you may want to consider 0.10 or less. You can adjust these guidelines based on how strong your domain/website is.
Get as many keywords as you can that are relevant to your niche and calculate all of the Keyword Golden Ratios. Take your winners and make a schedule to create content targeting each of those keywords. Make sure that you use your target keyword in both your h1 tag and your title tag. You'll also want to make sure you interlink this content to other pages on your website.
With this strategy you can start building up easy rankings for keywords in your niche and establish your website's foundation to target more competitive keywords in the future.
Even if these target keywords only generate 10 visits per month, if you do it 100 times that's 1,000 visitors. The authority it gives your website also makes it easier to rank for better keywords in the future and you'll likely end up ranking some of this content for keywords that you weren't targeting. This strategy benefits from compounding interest.
Get Help With Your Keyword Research
If you want help implementing the Keyword Golden Ratio you can hire me as your digital marketing consultant or you can use my keyword research service to have me handle your entire keyword research project.
