Those of you who even know a little bit about blogging and keyword research will agree that it usually takes a couple of months before you can start seeing some traffic on your site and rank the keywords in the top 10-20 results.
By a couple of months, I mean something around 6 months. Now that is definitely a lot of time and long enough to demotivate an individual.
Luckily, the KGR technique comes to the rescue here.
KGR stands for Keyword Golden Ratio and is a keyword research technique that can rank your content in less than a month. In fact, there have been some case studies of websites ranking in a couple of days as well.
Yes, you read that right. It is entirely possible.
So what exactly is KGR, and what makes it so effective? In this article, we will explain to you the nitty-gritty of the entire process.
So hold your horses. You are about to learn something that will blow your mind.
What is Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR)?
KGR is a method of finding low competition and underserved keywords that very few digital marketers are targeting. As a result, your chances of ranking on these keywords skyrockets.
Here low competition means those results that have search volume less than 250.
One point to be noted is that the KGR method is different from using Ahref to find low competition keywords that we discussed in our other article.
The KGR was developed by Dough Cunnington, an authority in the field of Digital Marketing and owner of the Nichesiteproject.
You might be wondering that a low competition keyword can also be found by other keyword research tools. So what is a big deal about KGR?
The reason why KGR is so effective is that it is a manual process of finding keywords, so it will always be superior than using any keyword research tool available in the market.
KGR is calculated using the below formula. Don’t worry if you don’t understand anything from the formula. In the next section. I will explain each and every step in detail.
KGR = number of allintitle results / search volume
The keyword with KGR of less than 0.25 is considered the best. You might rank with such a keyword in less than a week.
Anything in between 0.25 and 1 is also not bad, and you can expect them to rank in no time. A keyword of KGR of 1 and above is not recommended to use.
Note that the search volume of the keyword should be less than 250.
How to use KGR?
The KGR technique involves multiple simple steps that are easy to understand, even for a newbie.
Step 1: Select a long tail keyword
You need to create a longtail variation of your keyword. A longtail keyword is one that contains three to five phrases.
Let’s say you sell water bottles of different kinds: for kids, for offices and for hiking etc. Your seed keyword will “water bottles.”
Now you need to create a longtail variation of the keyword. There are two ways of doing so.
First is to type the keyword in Google, and it will suggest you longtail keywords. For example, I type in “best water bottles” on Google.
Google will show you the following results.
You should work on all of these suggestions by Google to see which fulfills the KGR criteria, I.e., the search volume of less than 250 and a KGR of less than 0.25 (which is calculated using the formula discussed above).
Initially, you should only focus on the search volume and prepare an excel sheet of all the keywords which fulfill the criteria.
Secondly, you can use Ahref or any other keyword research tool to find longtail keywords related to the water bottle.
We already created a comprehensive guide on how to use Ahref to find longtail keywords. You can check it out here.
Remember, the search volume should be less than 250.
Step 2: Find the search results with the exact match titles
So by now, you have filtered out the results from Google autosuggestions. The next step is to use them to find out the exact match search results.
For example, from step 1, you found that “best water bottles for hiking” fulfills the 250 search volume criteria.
Type allintitle: (the long tail keyword). From our example, it would look like this
Allintitle:best water bottles for hiking
Remember not to include any space in between the Allintitle: and the long tail keyword. Also, don’t add any quotes, or the results would be different.
You might be wondering what is allintitle. Well, it is not as difficult as the word might seem.
Allintitle is a Google search operator that is used to find exact match websites/search results that have those words in the meta title of the post.
So when you type in allintitle: best water bottles for hiking, only those search results will be shown which have the exact keywords in them. Consequently, you will get rid of generic search results.
Let’s find out the allintitle and search volume of “Best water bottles for hiking”
Here is what I found
This keyword has 234 search results. So we have found the numerator of the KGR formula. Next is to find the search volume.
For reference, KGR has the following formula
KGR= number of allintitle results/ search volume
Using Ahref, I found the search volume to be 40. This will go in the denominator of the KGR formula. Remember, for KGR, you need to have a search volume below 250. As you can see, our keyword fulfills that criteria.
If you can’t afford to pay for Ahref, you may go for various free keyword research tools. Remember not to depend on only one free tool but cross-check with multiple ones.
I am saying this because a free tool isn’t as accurate as a paid one, so you need to play safe.
Step 3: Put in the values in the formula
Now that we have all the figures, the only thing remaining is to plug them into the formula. Let’s recap the KGR formula as well as the figures we found for it.
KGR= number of allintitle results/ search volume
Number of allintitle results: 234
Search volume of the keyword: 40
KGR= 234/40, which is equal to 5.85.
This is way beyond 1, the threshold of KGR and much further than 0.25 which is the recommended KGR to be selected for a keyword.
Use the above-mentioned steps to find KGR for different long-tail keywords and only select the ones which have are below 0.25. Then use those keywords in your article and see the magic.
Do I always have to restrict myself to a KGR of 0.25?
The answer is no. The number 0.25 is only when you are just starting out. Once your site has enough traffic, backlinks and has built its traffic, you can opt for higher KGR as well.
Starting with 0.25 will allow you to cut through the competition and rank faster.
Use Keyword Golden Ratio in conjunction with search intent
Search intent refers to the reason why a user types in certain things in the search engine. For example, when I type in “best water bottle for hiking,” I want to find the best water bottle that I can take with me for my next trip.
The user search intent tells Google what a particular person wants to search. Google accordingly displays the results.
You might be wondering how user intent is related to KGR?
Well, the thing is that even if a keyword is a KGR complaint, it might not rank if the search intent of that particular keyword is different from what you are thinking.
Therefore, you should always type the keyword in Google and see what results are showing before moving forward with calculating KGR.
For example, if you enter the water bottle keyword that has been discussing throughout the article in Google, you will either find Amazon in the top 10 or sites which review different water bottles for hiking along with an Amazon (or other e-commerce sites) link from where people can purchase the bottle after reading the details.
This means that the “best water bottle for hiking” has commercial intent, and people aim to purchase it.
Now let’s suppose the keyword was KGR complaint, and you write an article talking about the benefits of water and hydration and why you should have a water bottle along with hiking. All this without actually reviewing a water bottle and providing a link to purchase it.
Do you think your site will rank?
Chances are pretty odd.
Therefore, make sure that the keyword you are working on has the same user intent for which you want to rank.
If a Google search shows lots of pictures in the top 10, it will be very difficult to rank a blog post.
Keyword Golden Ratio is best for beginners!
As a beginner, you might not have a lot of grip on SEO, and as such, it would not be a wise idea to compete against authority sites.
Therefore, KGR should be your way forward.
It will help you avoid competition and rank in no time. Consequently, you will get the confidence to work further on the site.
Later on, when you have got the experience, you may work on keywords with a search volume greater than 250 or a KGR of more than 0.25.
Remember to start small but think big!
Do try out this technique and let us know in the comments what results in you have witnessed. I can’t wait to hear your success stories. For more information about SEO and keyword research, you can Contact Us to help you out.
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