Skip to content

The SERP sidebar

Chapter 3 of 11

The sidebar sums up the whole first page so you can decide in seconds if a keyword is worth going after.

The header and verdict

The sidebar sits to the right of the Google results. At the top it repeats your search and shows a verdict: Very easy win, Easy win, Moderate, Hard or Very hard.

The verdict is based on how many weak sites are in the top 10. Next to it you see the lowest DR on the page, how many results count as weak and the average DR.

Use the arrow button to collapse the sidebar into a small strip, and the round button to switch colour theme.

The top of the sidebar: verdict, quick stats and the five tabs.

The Overview tab

The gauge shows the average DR of the top results. A needle in the green zone means the page is held by smaller sites. Red means big, strong sites own it.

Next to the gauge you get three quick facts: the lowest DR on the page, the youngest website and how many results are weak.

Then comes the keyword difficulty block. It has its own chapter in this guide.

DR and DA spectrum

The spectrum places every top result on a line from 0 to 100. The shaded "weak zone" on the left covers the sites under your weak limit.

Each dot is one result. Click a dot to jump to that result on the page. It flashes so you can spot it.

If most dots sit far to the right and none are in the weak zone, the keyword is crowded with strong sites.

DR and DA spectrum. Click a dot to jump to that result.

Top 10 table

A small table lists the top results with position, domain, DR, DA, spam score and traffic. Weak sites get a "Weak" tag. Click a row to jump to it on the page.

Filters and weak site limits

Under "On the results" you can turn on Highlight weak (marks weak sites with a star), Only weak (hides everything else), Hide DR 70+ and Hide 10y+ (hides very old domains).

Weak site limits decide what counts as weak. Use the minus and plus buttons to change the DR and DA limits in steps of 10. Your choice is saved and used on every search.

Filters and weak limits are saved in your browser.

Local tab: see Google from another country

The second tab shows your current location, for example "Local". Open it to see Google as a searcher in another country would, with no VPN.

Pick a country from the quick list or the full picker, and add a city if you want. Turn on the lock to keep that country for every search until you change it.

Local: view results as a searcher in another country.

Keywords, Insights and Export

Keywords shows related searches and "People also ask" questions from the page. Click "Load long-tail ideas" to fetch longer search suggestions. Each list has a Copy button.

Insights shows the words the top titles have in common and a short page plan: what your page should include to compete, such as an FAQ section, schema or a video.

Export copies every top result with all its numbers as CSV (for Google Sheets or Excel), JSON or a Markdown table.

The Keywords tab in the sidebar.