Average Strategy is a deficit strategy that sets each factor’s target to the arithmetic mean of the competing pages’ values, so your page aims for the middle of the SERP rather than its ceiling.
| Term | Average Strategy |
|---|---|
| Category | Analysis and Optimization |
| Also known as | Mean Strategy, Average Deficit Strategy |
| Where it appears | Deficit strategy selector |
What it means in RankGear
When RankGear compares your page against the ranking set for a keyword, it calculates a deficit for every factor — the distance between your value and a target drawn from the competitors. Average Strategy is the setting in the deficit strategy selector that makes that target the mean of the competing pages. Choose it and each recommendation is framed around closing the gap to the typical competitor on the SERP, factor by factor, instead of chasing the highest or lowest observed value.
How to interpret it
Read Average Strategy as the balanced, middle-of-the-pack baseline among the deficit strategies. Because it uses the mean, a few outlier pages with very high or very low values pull the target toward them, so on factors with a wide spread the average can sit well above where most competitors actually cluster. Treat the resulting deficits as a comparative starting point, and always read them next to the target page, the comparison set, and the correlation for each factor — a large gap on a factor with weak correlation deserves less attention than a smaller gap on a factor the SERP rewards.
| Deficit target | What it aims your page at |
|---|---|
| Average (this term) | The arithmetic mean of competitor values — the typical page |
| Maximum | The strongest competitor value — an aggressive ceiling |
| One standard deviation | One SD above the mean — ahead of the pack without chasing the max |
Example
You are optimizing a page that ranks eighth for “cold brew ratio.” Under Average Strategy, RankGear finds the top competitors average roughly 1,450 words and eleven H2s, while your page has 900 words and six H2s. It reports those two deficits as priorities and quantifies how far you sit below the typical competitor, giving you a concrete gap to close rather than an open-ended “add more content.”
Important considerations
- The mean is sensitive to outliers; one unusually heavy competitor can inflate a target beyond where the field actually sits, so cross-check against the distribution before acting.
- Average Strategy tends to be less aggressive than Maximum and less demanding than the one-standard-deviation target — useful when you want to match the competition rather than overtake it.
- Deficits are comparative indicators measured from the current SERP, not Google ranking scores, and closing a gap does not guarantee movement — correlation is not causation.
- Competitor values are provider measurements on their own scale; weigh each deficit by that factor’s correlation rather than treating every gap as equally important.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.