The One Standard Deviation Strategy is a deficit target that sets the goal for a factor at the competitor mean plus one sample standard deviation, rather than at the average alone.
| Term | One Standard Deviation Strategy |
|---|---|
| Category | Analysis and Optimization |
| Also known as | 1 STDEV, Average Plus One Standard Deviation |
| Where it appears | Deficit strategy selector |
What it means in RankGear
When RankGear compares your page against the top-ranking set, it needs a target for each factor before it can measure a deficit. The One Standard Deviation Strategy is one of the options in the deficit strategy selector: instead of aiming for the plain average of the competitors, it aims for the average plus one sample standard deviation. In practice that pushes the target above the middle of the pack and toward the higher-scoring end of the comparison set, so the gap RankGear reports is the distance to a stronger-than-typical value rather than to the mean.
How to interpret it
Read the strategy as a dial on how aggressive your targets are. The average strategy asks you to match the typical competitor; adding one standard deviation asks you to clear most of them, because a value at mean-plus-one-sigma sits above roughly the top third of a normally distributed set. It is most useful when the competitor scores are tightly clustered, where one standard deviation is a modest, realistic step. When the scores are widely spread, that same step can become a large jump, so read the resulting deficit next to the target page, the comparison set, and the supporting correlation before committing to it. No single factor target should be chased in isolation.
| Strategy | Target it sets |
|---|---|
| Average | The competitor mean — match the typical page |
| One Standard Deviation | Mean plus one sample standard deviation — clear most competitors |
| 1.5 Standard Deviations | Mean plus 1.5 standard deviations — a more aggressive target |
Example
Suppose the ten pages you are competing with average 1,200 words of body content, with a sample standard deviation of 300 words. The average strategy would set your target at 1,200 words. Switching to the One Standard Deviation Strategy moves the target to 1,500 words — the mean plus one sigma — and if your page currently sits at 900 words, RankGear reports a 600-word deficit and can surface it as a prioritized action.
Important considerations
- The strategy only makes sense for a factor whose values are roughly normally distributed; on a skewed or bimodal factor, mean-plus-one-sigma can point at a value no strong competitor actually holds.
- One standard deviation is relative to the spread of this particular comparison set, so the same strategy yields a gentle target for tightly clustered competitors and a steep one when they vary widely.
- The number is comparative evidence drawn from the measured SERP, not a Google score or a universal rule — a correlation between a factor and ranking does not prove that changing it will cause a page to rank.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.