SEO Guide: Keyword difficulty: What you need to Know //

The keyword difficulty trend is not the hottest topic or newest SEO trend. It is a powerful tool when you know its potential.

This can allow you to make informed decisions about the likelihood of your ranking for certain terms. It also allows you to make strategic choices that support your SEO strategy.

How to use the keyword difficulty score for better SEO results.

What is keyword difficulty and how can it be measured?

It is a measure of how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword. The value ranges from 1 (low) to 100, which is extremely high.

What is the score telling you?

The keyword difficulty is a measure of how difficult it will be to rank for certain keywords in relation to competition. There is no standard way to calculate the level of difficulty or competition for ranking for a specific keyword.

The scores may vary depending on the tool you choose.

Backlinko has done a study on the difficulty of keywords across various SEO tools.

Many tools use additional metrics in addition to the strength and the number of domains that point at the top results on search engines.

Where can you find it

You can use a number of SEO tools to check the difficulty of a particular keyword.

This is often found in the tool’s keyword research feature and displayed along with the search volume metrics, labeled challenge competition, or KD.

Check keyword difficulty with these tools

You will need to use a keyword research tool if you want to check competition at scale. Here are the most popular:

Ahrefs

Start your search by navigating to Keywords Explorer. The color-coded difficulty level is labeled with a clear score. It also includes a description.

How is it calculated

Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo explains in detail:

“Ahrefs uses a simple formula to calculate KD. We look at the top 10 pages ranking for your keyword, and how many websites are linked to each one. The higher the KD score, the more links your top-ranking keyword pages have. “Very simple and very actionable.”

Semrush

You can find the difficulty metrics in Semrush’s Keyword Summary. In keyword reports, you’ll also find a kD section.

How is it calculated

Semrush utilizes SERP analysis, keywords analysis and weighting of scores based on location. Here are the complete details .

Moz

Moz’s keyword explorer gives you a score instantly that is easy to understand.

How is it calculated

Moz’s Help section explains:

Keyword Difficulty takes into consideration the Page Authority (PA), Domain Authority (DA), and projected Click-Through Rate (CTR) for a page. Keyword Difficulty gives more weight to pages that are higher ranking and more visible, while giving less weight to pages that are lower ranking and less visible. The formula accounts for pages that are newer on domains with high DA scores, but not yet assigned PA values. The scores are a weighted-average of the PA for the top 10 pages, and other inputs such as DA, homepages, search term usage, etc. Modify that weighted-average.”

Sistrix

To access the keyword explorer, click Keywords on the top navigation.

Enter a term seed or a list. If you enter a seed word, the score for that term will be displayed on an overview page.

To find out the keyword competition, drill down to Contains All Keywords.

How is it calculated

Sistrix says that they use “a variety of values” in order to calculate the difficulty score. They continue to say:

This key figure summarises 15 to 20 values per keyword. The number of searches is one of the more intuitive metrics, but there are also some more complex ones such as how many start pages (not the sub-pages of the first 10 results) appear in the top 10.

The value is logarithmic. This means, in practice, that an increase of 10 points in the key competition figure represents roughly two times as much competition on the SERPs.

Each tool does not reveal the exact formulas that are used to calculate its score. Each tool has a different approach, which is why the scores are so varied.

Quick Tip: Choose a tool and stick with it for every project. Do not mix data from multiple tools as this will make it difficult to compare keyword difficulty.

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Terms.

What is the best way to describe keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is not a good or bad thing. Information is just that.

It’s not good if your brand-new site is being launched with a limited budget, and the keywords relevant to you are all highly competitive. This is also a poor business plan.

Understanding keyword competitiveness can be a great asset. Understanding how to make it work for you will give you an edge over the competition.

What is the difference between high and low keyword difficulty?

It is more difficult to rank high in organic search results for a keyword that has a lot competition.

There are likely to be some brands you’re familiar with ranking for difficult terms.

Sistrix rates the keyword “iphone14” as 67% competitive in the U.S.

The SERPs are arranged as follows:

We can see how ranking in the Top 10 is a difficult task for smaller brands. They are up against Apple, CNN, and Wikipedia.

Low difficulty generally means that competition isn’t fierce. You may find less relevant search results or niche websites that don’t have a large audience.

Let’s change that example into a phrase with a much lower level of difficulty, “how to turn on iphone 14”.

Competition is only 33%. Although you’re up against some of the biggest names in the industry, you may also recognize some others.

It is clear that you can rank well if you have some useful and relevant content.

Everything is relative when you look at keyword competition.

It’s for this reason that I use color scales when reviewing a keyword list. It’s a great way to see the highs and the lows of the dataset.

You can then look at how difficult each keyword is.

What is the best keyword difficulty?

Here’s where it gets tricky. The “good” difficulty of a keyword is the sweet spot in relation to other factors.

It is best to collect all relevant information including scores of competitions and then use all this to make strategic choices.

The more often you perform this task, the better you will become at it.

Considerations when choosing a keyword

When evaluating a keyword, there are many factors to consider. The balance is between:

These factors will help you make a decision.

How do I select keyword difficulty?

It’s not necessary to choose a specific number or difficulty level when you review difficulty scores. This is a simple metric that helps you to understand the game.

The difficulty scores are an important but small part of selecting keywords for SEO. The following is my process:

This is an example of using color scales to visualize opportunities:

This “wall stickers” opportunity is interesting, with a relatively large search volume and low difficulty (for my dataset).

Without keyword research, it would have been easy to assume that “wall stickers” is the best term. But, in fact, this term is more popular and has a lower search volume.

If I assume that my product range is for children, then this keyword could be a good one to use.

Are keywords important for SEO?

Today, there’s more focus on AI, machine learning, Natural Language Processing, and voice search. Even Google Analytics has hid a lot its keyword data.

You may be wondering why you should bother to consider a keyword’s difficulty score.

Keywords are important, but not the only thing. This research will give you a better understanding of what your target audience is searching for and the way they search.

It can be fascinating, surprising and amusing! We don’t use a filter because we are anonymous and can ask direct, honest questions.

You can also learn what your competitors think is important, and you may be able outwit them or see an opportunity that they missed.

Keyword research can be used to uncover new possibilities for content, products or product ranges.

You could miss new trends with lower difficulty at first because your competition hasn’t caught on yet.

Understanding your market in the SERPs will help you to create helpful, authoritative and good content.

The focus of your keyword list will help you to keep an eye on opportunities and form the basis of your overall strategy.

How to find keywords with low difficulty

To find keywords with low competition, you can sort or filter any dataset by keyword difficulty.

Here are some other methods that you can try if you are looking to start your search with keywords that are more likely to rank.

Search qualifiers can be added to the search.

Add qualifiers to your search. Add words such as “for,” “to,” and “vs.” to narrow the search. You will get more specific phrases and the difficulty level is usually lower.

Look for the Long Tail

Long-tail queries are by nature more specific, detailed and have lower competition.

Long-tail keywords are often low-hanging fruits because their search volume is lower.

Look for new interest areas in your niche using tools such as Google Trends. Pinterest Trends. TikTok Trends.

You will have a lower competition if you can identify them early. It’s a risky business.

It is impossible to predict which trends will last or how fast the competition will adopt them, possibly displacing you in the SERPs.

Why is keyword difficulty so important?

There are many reasons why keyword difficulty is a key metric for SEO:

It’s a strategic move

The difficulty of the keyword is important, because it helps us think strategically. We are SEOs who have limited time and want to maximize the impact of our work.

Understanding competition quickly and efficiently in SERPs is a great help.

We can make many decisions using it

Based on the level and type of competition, we can decide whether or not to invest a great deal in new content.

We can choose to not use resources to try to rank highly for certain keyword and instead gain recognition for product ranges that are highly competitive by using other methods like PPC or email.

You can decide whether you want to concentrate your efforts on the page or not.

We can be more resourceful with the limited resources we have.

Keyword difficulty can help us work smarter and not harder when used in our strategy.

This metric helps us to quickly narrow down large data sets and identify our opportunities.

You can manage your expectations by using this tool

Share this metric with your stakeholders to improve communication.

You can secure the funding you need by having a quantifiable indicator that shows you will have to work more or allocate additional resources.

By explaining this to managers and business owners, they can better understand why certain keywords are more difficult to rank for.

Manage keyword competition for your SEO campaigns

It’s important to not get too focused on keyword difficulty metrics.

Each tool measures this concept in a unique way. Keyword competition is a concept rather than an exact science.

This data is a guide, not a directive.

They are there to guide us in making informed decisions. It’s possible to read the signs but still take a different route.

If something seems too complicated, but is a crucial part of your service or product, then go ahead.

You might have to wait a bit longer to reach the destination you want, but you will know what to expect.

The first to publish the post Keyword difficulty guide: All you need to Know was Search Engine land.

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