Search Depth is the number of ranked results you ask RankGear to pull for a query — anywhere from the Top 10 down to the Top 100, wherever the workflow supports it.
| Term | Search Depth |
|---|---|
| Category | Search and SERP Data |
| Also known as | Depth, Pages, Top X |
| Where it appears | Analysis Run, On-Page Audit, Bulk Runs, and Volatility |
What it means in RankGear
Search Depth is the setting that tells RankGear how far down the results page to reach when it collects a SERP. Pick a depth of Top 10 and RankGear captures the first ten ranked URLs for the query; pick Top 100 and it reaches to the hundredth position where the provider and workflow allow it. The choice carries through every place SERP data is used — an Analysis Run, an On-Page Audit, a Bulk Run across many keywords, or a Volatility check — and it defines the pool of competitors every downstream comparison is drawn from.
How to interpret it
Depth sets the boundary of what a run can see, so read every result against the depth that produced it. A shallow Top 10 run tells you about the pages fighting for the first page of Google and nothing about what sits below; a Top 100 run gives you a fuller competitive field but includes results that rarely earn a click. Before comparing two runs, confirm that depth matches along with the other localization settings — provider, country, language, device, and location — because a Top 20 run and a Top 50 run of the same keyword are not measuring the same thing.
| Depth | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Top 10 | First-page competitors only — tight, fast, click-relevant. |
| Top 20–50 | Near-page-one contenders and rising pages worth tracking. |
| Top 100 | Full visible field — broad context, including low-traffic positions. |
Example
You run a localized On-Page Audit for “roof repair Austin” at a depth of Top 20 for mobile in the United States. RankGear may need several provider calls to assemble those twenty positions, but each call keeps the same country, language, device, and location so the results stitch together into one consistent SERP. If you later re-run the same keyword at Top 50 to see who is climbing from below, treat it as a separate baseline rather than a continuation of the Top 20 run.
Important considerations
- Not every provider and workflow supports the full Top 100 — the depth you request is capped by what the underlying source will return for that query.
- Deeper requests can require several provider calls to assemble; every call must retain identical localization settings or the combined SERP is inconsistent.
- Search results shift over time and by location, device, provider, and personalization context, so a depth captured today is a snapshot, not a fixed truth.
- Depth changes the size of the competitive pool but not the ranking itself — it governs how much of the SERP you see, and comparisons are only valid between runs captured at the same depth.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.