Keyword Golden Ratio – Does It Work? Will It Work For You?

Last Updated on December 20, 2023 by andrewtk

Is Doug Cunnington's Keyword Golden Ratio Formula really one of the best ways to get organic search traffic to a new site?

Or is it just a load of old hogwash?

WelI, I have three sites, all in completely different niches, and I seem to spend half my life carrying out keyword research.

So I thought I'd give the KGR method a go.

I picked one site, and I put together twenty new articles all researched using the Keyword Golden Ratio.

This post is going to show you what KGR is, how and why it works, as well as if it worked for me, and whether it could work for you.

Here goes…

What Is Keyword Golden Ratio?

The Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) is a way of finding long-tail, low competition keywords that can rank in the top fifty Google search results…

…potentially within 24 hours!

Sounds pretty good doesn't it?

Find enough KGR keywords, and you could be looking at seriously fast-tracking the traffic generation, and revenue generation, of totally new websites.

And before you start to worry that in order to apply this method to your own keyword research, you're going to have to get your head around some outrageous mathematical formula…

…relax.

The KGR formula is a simple one.

Simply the number of Google search results with the targeted long-tail keyword in the title…

…divided by that same keyword’s monthly search volume (as long as the search volume is no greater than 250).

The result that you're left with will tell you whether or not the keyword in question is a strong, medium, or weak KGR keyword.

How The Keyword Golden Ratio Formula Works

This is the mathematical formula:

Pretty simple, easy to remember.

When KGR is less than 0.25: Your page should rank in the top 100 as soon as it's indexed by Google
When KGR is between .25 and 1: Your page should rank in the top 250 as soon as it's indexed by Google
When KGR is greater than 1: Your page probably won't rank any quicker than usual

As a quick guide, if you have keyword term with a search volume of 250, the number of “allintitle” results would need to come in at 63 or less to give a KGR of 0.25.

How To Do An “allintitle” Search

In case you're not sure, “allintitle” is an advanced Google search operator.

When you use this specific operator, Google will only display results that have your keyword term in the title of the page.

An “allintitle” search query is typed into the search bar like this:

You don't put a space after the colon.

You don't enclose your keywords in inverted commas.

You can use whichever keyword research tool you choose, so long as it's decent of course.

I tend to use a combination of Keyword Finder by Mangools and the Keywords Everywhere Google Chrome extension.

Why Keyword Golden Ratio Works

Because first of all you're finding potential keywords with monthly search volumes of 250 or less.

Low search volume means lower competition and therefore easier to rank for.

And then you're further filtering your keywords by the number of results, the lower the better as this indicates a keyword that has relatively too few results.

So you're finding keywords that a reasonable number of people are searching for, but not so many as to attract massive amounts of competition…

…and is also under accounted for in the search results.

It's got to be a winner, surely!

When you uncover a genuine KGR keyword, you should be able to get ranked in the top fifty search results within 24 hours…

…apparently…so the theory goes.

Let's see if it works…

Did KGR Keyword Research Work For Me?

On the whole, yes it did.

I chose one of my sites to test out the KGR theory.

My target was to create 20 pieces of new content using only the KGR formula.

My primary keywords all had to come in at <0.25 when put through the formula.

It took me a ton of time to research the KGR keywords, because it's an extra process, and a lot of the time you are drawing blanks.

My KGR Formula Test Results:

10 pages ranked in the top 50 within 3 days of indexing
2 pages ranked between 50 and 75 within 3 days of indexing
2 pages ranked between 75 and 100 within 3 days of indexing
2 pages ranked between 100 and 200 within 5 days of indexing
4 pages hadn't shown up in the rankings after 15 days of indexing

Do I consider this to have been successful?

Yes, I absolutely do.

I know how long it takes to get new content ranking, even on authoritative sites, so anything that gives those early days a solid boost is worth it in my book.

10 pages of fresh new content ranking in the top 50 of Google, for my primary keyword term, in under 3 days = massive result!

I will be using this formula again.

Will KGR Keyword Research Work For You?

Yeah it will, why wouldn't it.

What I would say is that there seems to be some types of keywords that are more productive than others in showing up KGR results under 0.25.

In my, so far, limited experience, I have found it difficult to find KGR keyword terms around products.

I have found it much easier to find ‘info' type keywords to come in within the KGR sweet-spot.

Having said that, product 'round-up' keywords using the “best ABC for XYZ” approach have given me a few KGR winners.

Keyword Golden Ratio Formula – Wrapping It Up!

Well, using Doug Cunnington's KGR has worked for me and I will be rolling it out on all three of my sites from now on.

I probably won't be using it for pillar content, because I think I'd end up making my target keywords fit with the KGR…the tail wagging the dog if you know what I mean.

And I probably won't use it for my ‘money' pages, for the same reason.

But for informational, authority building, supporting pages, yeah I think that's where I'll be deploying the keyword golden ratio formula.

If you decide to give it a try, and love you to post your experience in the comments.

Good luck.