What does "reachable" mean, and how is it decided?

An opening is only useful if you can take it. For every inspected group the research checks whether your site can, and states the obstacle in plain words instead of a score.

What it looks at

• Your domain's strength against the domains currently in the top ten, from the backlink index.
• The weakest domain in the top ten. If a site of comparable strength to yours already ranks, the group is within reach.
• Keyword difficulty for the group's keywords.
• Whether you already have a page for this need, and how it ranks. Improving a page that already ranks on page two is far easier than starting from nothing.
• The gap analysis. A clear opening lowers the bar; competing against pages that already serve the need well raises it.

What it returns

• Reachable or Out of reach, with the obstacle named: lack of an offering, an existing page that nearly satisfies the need, competitors with original data you cannot match, domain strength, or none.
• Coverage: whether you have no page, a partial page, or a strong page for the need already.
• The observations relied on, each with its value and source, under See the Evidence on the Can you win it card.

Planned sites

A site that does not exist yet has no backlinks and no rankings. Reachable then means a new domain could reach the top ten within roughly a year by building the page well and earning a modest number of links, judged from the weakest domain in the top ten and the gap.