What Is Keyword Difficulty and How to Measure It. Keyword difficulty is a metric that gauges the level of challenge associated with achieving a top 10 ranking in Google’s organic search results for a particular keyword.
This metric is represented as a percentage ranging from 0 to 100, where a higher score indicates a greater degree of difficulty in ranking for that specific keyword.
In this article, we will delve into the following topics:
- The significance of grasping keyword difficulty.
- The factors that influence the difficulty level of a keyword.
- How to determine the keyword difficulty score for any given keyword.
- And more insights.
Pro Tip: Feel free to create a Semrush account for free (no credit card required) to follow along.
Why Does Understanding Keyword Difficulty Matter?
Comprehending keyword difficulty holds crucial importance in your search engine optimization (SEO) endeavors. These SEO processes and strategies are instrumental in enhancing your visibility in search results.
If you exclusively target keywords that prove excessively challenging to rank for, you risk expending valuable time and resources without yielding the desired outcomes.
However, if you exclusively focus on keywords that are overly simplistic to rank for, you might overlook the opportunity to capture more valuable traffic and conversions.
Yet, keyword difficulty (KD%) serves as a valuable tool in pinpointing the ideal balance between highly competitive keywords (often unattainable) and low-competition keywords (which might lack search volume).
For instance:
In simpler terms, KD% assists you in selecting the most suitable keywords for your website—ones that generate a healthy amount of organic traffic without requiring excessive effort.
For more in-depth information, consider these resources:
- How to Perform Keyword Research for SEO
Factors That Determine Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty (KD%) is calculated by Semrush and similar platforms using a range of factors. Our analysis begins with an examination of the top 10 ranking pages on the search engine results page (SERP).
We evaluate these URLs based on:
- SERP-specific attributes related to the targeted keyword.
- The median count of referring domains to those URLs.
- The median ratio of “dofollow” to “nofollow” links pointing to those URLs.
- The median Authority Score of those URLs. (Authority Score is a proprietary composite metric assessing a website’s overall quality and SEO performance.)
Additional Factors Impacting Your Ranking Potential
Determining keyword difficulty extends beyond KD% and includes considerations such as:
Your Competitors:
Identifying your competition for a specific keyword is crucial. It allows you to assess their Authority Scores and content, enabling you to gauge your competitiveness. This necessitates conducting SEO competitive analysis.
To identify your keyword competitors, access Keyword Overview, input your keyword, and click “Search.”
Navigate to the “SERP Analysis” section below, and you will find a list of websites currently occupying the top 10 positions in the search results for that specific keyword.
Take note that you can also access additional metrics for each page, including their Authority Score (AS), referring domains, backlinks, and more.
If you’re interested in identifying your SEO competitors, you can utilize the Market Explorer tool. Simply launch the tool, choose “Find Competitors,” input your domain, and select “Research a market.”
Next, proceed to the “Domain vs Market Dynamics” section and opt for “Organic Search” by scrolling down.
Within this section, you’ll gain insights into your primary competitors within the organic search traffic landscape, providing you with a clearer understanding of whom to keep an eye on. Additionally, you can compare your website’s performance against broader market trends.
For a more comprehensive analysis of a specific competitor, run their domain through Domain Overview.
Within this section, you can explore their organic search traffic, backlinks, and Authority Score to gauge their performance and assess your potential competitiveness.
For more in-depth insights, consider delving into:
- How to Conduct an SEO Competitor Analysis
Content Quality Matters
Quality content is characterized by its relevance, reliability, and value to your target audience.
Google’s algorithm is designed to prioritize and showcase such content at the forefront of search engine results pages (SERPs). In essence, even if you’ve identified keywords with favorable KD%, your rankings will only improve when you pair them with high-quality content.
It’s as straightforward as that. To embark on this journey, consider leveraging the SEO Writing Assistant. This tool will analyze your text in real-time, offering recommendations on readability, keyword utilization, tone of voice, and originality.
You have the option to work directly within the platform or utilize the plugins for Google Docs, WordPress, or Microsoft Word.
Just commence your writing, insert your desired keywords, and click on the “Get recommendations” button.
Give special focus to the SEO suggestions provided. Incorporating these modifications increases your likelihood of achieving a higher ranking for your intended keyword.
For more insights on this topic, explore “What Is Quality Content & How to Create It.”
Understanding the Search Intent Behind Keywords
Search intent, also known as keyword intent, is the underlying motivation behind a user’s query in a search engine.
Satisfying this intent ranks among the most crucial factors for achieving higher rankings on Google. Search intent can be categorized into four distinct types:
- Informational: Users seek to acquire knowledge about a particular topic.
- Commercial: Users are in the research phase, exploring options before making a purchase decision.
- Transactional: Users intend to take a specific action, often involving a purchase.
- Navigational: Users are looking for a specific webpage or destination.
To discern a keyword’s search intent, you can easily turn to the Keyword Overview tool. Just input the keyword, click “Search,” and the tool will provide you with the intent classification in the dashboard.
Furthermore, when conducting keyword research using the Keyword Magic Tool, you will also find the intent associated with each keyword.
Therefore, as you develop content for your website, ensure that it aligns with the underlying intent of the keywords you are focusing on.
By doing so, you’ll enhance your ranking potential, irrespective of the keyword’s level of difficulty.
For more insights, delve into “Semrush’s Complete Guide to Search Intent.”
Your Backlink Profile
Google’s algorithm places emphasis on webpages that possess a substantial number of top-notch backlinks.
These quality backlinks, which originate from authoritative sources, signal to search engines that your content demonstrates expertise and reliability, ultimately elevating your website’s authority.
How Does This Relate to Keyword Difficulty?
The connection to keyword difficulty lies in the backlink landscape of your competitors.
If the leading contenders for a specific keyword possess robust backlink profiles, it can significantly heighten the challenge of achieving a high ranking for that keyword.
However, backlinks can also be advantageous. By devising a strategic approach to link building, you can acquire a greater number of top-tier backlinks that enhance your website’s authority, thereby bolstering the rankings of your pages.
Prominent link-building tactics encompass:
- Email outreach
- Broken link building
- Unlinked brand mentions
To objectively assess the authority of any website, you can rely on Backlink Analytics. Simply input your domain, click “Analyze,” and the “Authority Score” widget will be readily available on the dashboard.
You can also include up to four competitors to gauge how your authority stacks up against theirs.
For additional information, consider exploring the following resources:
- “Link Building for SEO: The Beginner’s Guide”
- “Semrush’s Authority Score Explained”
Checking Keyword Difficulty
Determining the keyword difficulty (KD%) for any given keyword is a straightforward process. You can achieve this using a keyword difficulty tool such as Keyword Overview. Simply input your keyword into the tool, and the KD% score will be prominently displayed within the dashboard.
When conducting keyword research, you’ll find that the Keyword Magic Tool also conveniently showcases the difficulty score for each keyword in the “KD %” column.
Now, let’s break down these scores:
Here’s the breakdown of the scores and their corresponding meanings:
- 0-14: Very easy
- These keywords are relatively effortless to target if you aim to rank with minimal exertion. However, it’s essential to verify the search volume, as it can be quite low.
- 15-29: Easy
- These keywords are still relatively manageable targets, even for new domains. To rank for them, you’ll need to produce high-quality, pertinent content.
- 30-49: Possible
- Achieving a ranking for these keywords requires content that is of high quality, informative, valuable, well-structured, and properly optimized.
- 50-69: Difficult
- In addition to creating excellent, well-structured, and optimized content, you’ll also need a substantial number of high-quality backlinks.
- 70-84: Hard
- Winning these keywords demands a significant amount of effort. You’ll need both more and better-quality backlinks to support your content.
- 85-100: Very hard
- These are the most challenging keywords to compete for. In addition to emphasizing high-quality content and link building, you’ll have to invest a considerable amount of time and effort into on-page SEO strategies and content promotion.
Here’s a glimpse of what it appears like within the tool:
What Constitutes a Favorable Keyword Difficulty Score?
Keyword difficulty, as a metric, is relative in nature.
To make informed keyword choices, you must be well-acquainted with your site’s Authority Score and comprehend how you measure up against competitors concerning organic traffic, backlinks, and referring domains.
For instance, if your site boasts a robust Authority Score, you may find it relatively easier to conquer more challenging keywords.
In such scenarios, pursuing keywords with high difficulty scores might be a viable strategy.
However, if you’re managing a fledgling website, striving to rank for highly difficult keywords can prove to be a formidable task.
In such cases, it may be prudent to initially eschew the most formidable keywords and, instead, set your sights on less demanding ones to gradually bolster your authority over time.
Nonetheless, some demanding keywords hold fundamental importance for your business. You might decide that the extra effort required to target them is worthwhile, even if achieving a high ranking takes a considerable amount of time.
So, how should you go about selecting keywords based on their difficulty?
- Acknowledge that SEO is a long-term endeavor. Just because a keyword appears to be currently out of reach doesn’t mean you should dismiss it entirely. Rather, accept that it will take time to ascend the rankings.
- Strike a balance between keywords that are easy to rank for and those that pose greater challenges. An effective strategy involves harmonizing lower-difficulty keywords with those that demand a longer journey to ascend. Constructing topic clusters, which consist of content grouped around a central theme, offers a valuable approach. Allocate broader terms with higher difficulty scores to your pillar pages, reserving terms with lower scores for your cluster content.
How Do Long-Tail Keywords Influence Keyword Difficulty?
Long-tail keywords represent highly specific search queries characterized by lower search volumes, reduced competition levels, and often lengthier phrasing.
Additionally, they tend to carry lower keyword difficulty scores.
Targeting these keywords can prove advantageous because they offer the following benefits:
- They are more attainable in terms of ranking.
- They attract highly specific and relevant traffic.
- They often yield superior conversion rates.
In essence, long-tail keywords with low KD% scores present themselves as excellent candidates for your keyword targeting efforts.
For more in-depth insights, explore:
Long-Tail Keywords: Their Definition and Strategic Use in SEO
Taking It a Step Further
Now that you’ve grasped the concept of keyword difficulty, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice within your keyword research and content planning endeavors.
During the process of identifying which keywords to pursue, make use of the “KD %” filter available in the Keyword Magic Tool. This tool allows you to select the desired range, enabling you to pinpoint keywords that align with your strategy effectively.
For instance, if you’re launching a new website, your focus may primarily be on keywords categorized as “Very Easy” and “Easy” in terms of KD% scores.
Another method to discover valuable keywords with relatively low KD% scores is by selecting the “Questions” option.
This is particularly beneficial if you are performing keyword research for your blog and are seeking keywords with low difficulty scores and informational intent, which are easy to rank for.
Give it a try!
What Is Keyword Difficulty and How to Measure It. Sign up for a free Semrush account and conduct up to 10 keyword searches daily using either Keyword Overview or the Keyword Magic Tool.
Read More: What Are SEO Best Practices?
Trackbacks/Pingbacks