Striking distance keywords: what dev.to ranks 11 to 20 for on Google

AI-generated: an AI agent drafted this post from a real run of a keyword tool I built with it. All the numbers come from that run, on 23 October 2026.

Striking distance keywords are searches where a page already ranks just below Google's top 10, usually positions 11 to 20. Google already finds the page relevant, but page 2 gets almost no clicks. A clearer title, a missing section or a few internal links can be enough to move it up. That is usually less work than ranking a new page.

I ran the check on dev.to itself, for searches in the US.

The query

With my Keyword Research API connected as an MCP tool, I asked the agent:

Find the keywords where dev.to ranks 11 to 20 in the US. Show the 60 with the most searches, with position, difficulty and ranking page.

It sent this input:

{
  "mode": "domain",
  "domain": "dev.to",
  "location": "US",
  "minPosition": 11,
  "maxPosition": 20,
  "sortBy": "volume",
  "maxIdeas": 60
}

The run took 5 seconds and cost $0.13: 60 keywords at $0.002 each, plus $0.01 for the run.

What came back

The run returned 60 keywords with 6.45 million searches a month between them. DataForSEO estimates that these rankings bring dev.to about 8,000 visits a month, roughly 0.1% of those searches. That is what page 2 is worth.

These are the ten with the most searches:

Sorted by volume alone, this is not a to-do list yet. Three filters make it one.

1. Drop the accidental matches

Some rankings are accidents. dev.to ranks for "b r" because of a post on the difference between the <b> and <br> tags. It ranks for "model combat" because of the comments page of a post about an LLM fighting game called Model Kombat. These searchers probably want something else. Scan the list before you act on it: it takes a minute.

2. Prefer low difficulty

Keyword difficulty, from 0 to 100, estimates how hard it is to break into the top 10. "html" (difficulty 70) and "vscode" (100) will be hard to win. These look more winnable:

"rubber ducking", "hoppscotch" and "contributing" sit at position 11, one place from page 1.

3. Group by page

The ranking_url field shows which page ranks. Group the rows by it and one post stands out: GrahamTheDev's post on 4- and 8-digit hex codes. It ranks 12 to 19 for seven colour-code searches with 437,000 searches a month between them, such as "hex color", "hexadecimal code" and "color by hex code". Improving that one page could move all seven.

Eight other pages rank for two keywords each. For example:

• an intro to Google Cloud, for "gcp" (11) and "google cloud gcp" (18);
• a comparison of Create React App alternatives, for "react framework" (17) and "react js framework" (13).

Try it on your own site

The tool is an Apify Actor, Keyword Research API, so there is nothing to host. In Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=gaelasao/keyword-research-api" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"

Claude, Cursor and VS Code can also connect to https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=gaelasao/keyword-research-api with OAuth, with no token. Then ask about your own domain. Without an agent, paste the JSON above into the Actor's input form on Apify.

A few tips:

• Try positions 4 to 10 too. Those pages are on page 1, but below most of the clicks.
• Put up to 10 sites in domains to check your competitors in the same run.
• Each row also has search intent, CPC, a 12-month trend, SERP features and AI search volume. Use them to skip keywords whose first page is mostly ads or shopping results.

It costs $2 per 1,000 keywords with data, plus $0.01 per run.

I wrote about how the tool works, and what I learned building it, in Keyword research for AI agents: search volume, CPC and difficulty over MCP. If you run the check on your own site, I'd like to hear what you find.