Achieving a top spot on search engine results pages isn’t as straightforward as it used to be. In the past, you could just put a keyword at the start of your article and watch it climb to the top. 

Now, you need to consider things like how many people are searching for that keyword, how much it costs to advertise using it, and how tough the competition is. All this combined is known as keyword difficulty. 

This guide will break down what keyword difficulty means and how it can help you determine where to focus your efforts to get the best results on your website. Let’s continue reading!

What is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is a metric that estimates how challenging it is to rank a specific keyword in search engine results. Higher scores indicate greater competition and difficulty. These scores are generally based on several factors, though specific algorithms may vary. Such factors include the number of competing websites, the quality and quantity of backlinks to those websites, and the overall strength of the domain authority of the competing websites.

Why is It Important

Understanding keyword difficulty is crucial for effective SEO, enabling better content strategy and business results:

• It helps identify realistically rankable keywords for your website in organic search.
• Focusing on achievable keywords allows for the creation of content that drives more search traffic.
• Improved organic rankings resulting from this focus often lead to more clicks, increased website conversions, and better business outcomes.
• Combining keyword difficulty data with other insights enables the selection of the most effective keywords to support your content strategy.

What’s the Best Keyword Difficulty Score to Focus on?

Selecting an appropriate keyword difficulty score for your SEO efforts depends significantly on your website’s current performance. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to determine the right keywords to target using tools like the Keyword Magic Tool:

1. Start with Your Tools: Access a keyword analysis tool such as the Keyword Magic Tool. Input your seed keyword along with your website’s domain and set your target country if applicable, then initiate a search.

2. Understand the Metrics: Here are two main metrics that you must know

• KD% (Keyword Difficulty%): This measures the general ranking difficulty across all websites.
• PKD% (Personal Keyword Difficulty%): This score assesses the ranking difficulty specifically for your site, considering factors like domain authority and backlink profile.

3. Analyze the Opportunity: Look for keywords where the PKD% is low but the KD% is high. This suggests that, while generally competitive, these keywords may be more achievable for your specific site.

4. Filter for Potential Wins

• Set the “Personal KD%” filter to “Possible.”
• Adjust the “KD” filter to “Difficult.” These settings will help you identify keywords that are challenging on a broad scale but potentially manageable for your site.

5. Adapt Based on Your Site’s Authority

If your site has a lower Authority Score or fewer strong backlinks than competitors, prioritize lower-difficulty keywords initially.

As your site gains strength, enhance your competitiveness by:

• Engaging in link building to earn high-quality backlinks.
• Develop topic clusters to establish authority around your core subjects.
• Increasing organic traffic using these strategically chosen lower-difficulty keywords.

This approach helps tailor your keyword strategy to your website’s specific conditions. It will maximize your SEO efforts for better rankings and visibility.

6 Factors Affecting Keyword Difficulty

Several factors influence keyword difficulty. Each plays a key role in determining the ease of ranking for specific keywords in search results.

1) Backlinks to the Top Ranking Domain

Backlinks are crucial for assessing keyword difficulty, serving as endorsements from one website to another. When high-authority sites link to a page, Google sees these backlinks as strong signals of credibility and relevance. 

If the top-ranking domains for your targeted keywords have numerous high-quality backlinks, the keyword difficulty score will generally be higher. Consider these important backlink metrics:

• Number of Referring Domains: Sites with a large number of quality referring domains are viewed as more authoritative and are more challenging to outrank.
• Ratio of Follow to Nofollow Links: A higher ratio of ‘follow’ links, which pass SEO value, compared to ‘nofollow’ links, which do not, can make a domain tougher to surpass in search rankings.

To analyze these metrics, use a backlink analytics tool to enter a domain or URL and examine the “Backlinks” report. This will show you the number of referring domains and the percentage of nofollow links. It provides insight into the competitive landscape and helps you strategize your SEO efforts more effectively.

2) Authority Score of Ranking Websites

The Authority Score is a vital metric for assessing the strength and ranking potential of websites in SEO. This score, typically ranging from 1 to 100, reflects a website’s ability to rank in search engines based on various factors, including:

• Link Power: The quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to the site play a significant role. Sites with a strong backlink profile tend to have higher Authority Scores.
• Organic Traffic: The estimated number of monthly organic clicks a site receives also influences its score.
• Natural Profile: The absence of spam indicators contributes positively to the Authority Score. Websites with a clean, spam-free backlink profile are considered more trustworthy.

Websites with higher Authority Scores are usually tougher competition in search rankings, thereby increasing the keyword difficulty for those terms. You can check your site’s Authority Score and compare it with competitors through any reliable SEO analytics tool. 

3) Search Volume of the Keyword

Search volume represents the average monthly searches a particular keyword receives. It’s a critical factor in SEO as it indicates the level of interest and demand for certain topics or terms. Generally, keywords with higher search volumes present higher difficulty levels because they attract more competitors aiming to capitalize on the large audience.

Here’s how you can navigate through the relationship between search volume and keyword difficulty:

• Assess Search Volumes: Use a keyword research tool to determine the search volume of keywords. This data helps gauge the popularity and competition level of each term.
• Examine Difficulty Scores: Alongside search volume, look at the keyword difficulty (KD%) scores. These scores provide insight into how challenging it will be to rank for the keywords.
• Compare and Contrast: For example, keywords like “iPhone 16” might show a broad match search volume of over one million and typically have a difficulty score of around 77%. In contrast, less popular terms with volumes between 11-100 might only have a difficulty of around 40%.

Choose keywords with high search volume. Also, consider their difficulty. Make sure the difficulty is achievable for your site. This depends on your site’s authority and your overall content strategy. These goals should align with your website’s capabilities.

4) Presence of SERP Features on the Keyword

SERP features significantly influence the visibility of organic search results and, by extension, the keyword difficulty. These additional elements on search engine results pages can include:

• Featured Snippets: Concise answers to search queries, typically extracted from a webpage.
• Instant Answers: Quick, direct responses provided by the search engine without needing a click-through.
• Local Packs: Listings relevant to local businesses and services near the searcher.
• Knowledge Panels: Informational boxes with key facts about a person, place, or thing.
• Top Stories: Carousel of recent news articles related to the search query.
• People Also Ask (PAA): A section with related questions asked by users.
• Sitelinks: Additional links from the same domain to provide quick navigation to important pages.

For instance, the query “What is a smartphone?” might display a featured snippet, a People Also Ask section and knowledge panels. This makes it tougher for standard organic listings to attract attention as these snippets stay on the top of SERP. 

5) Length of the Keyword

The length of a keyword, particularly when dealing with long-tail keywords, plays a significant role in its keyword difficulty score. Long-tail keywords are typically longer, more specific phrases that have lower search volumes and less competition. This makes them easier to rank for than more general, shorter keywords.

Here’s how to approach understanding and utilizing the length of keywords in your SEO strategy:

1) Longer keywords like “iPhone 16 Pro Max” might still have a relatively high difficulty at 60% due to brand popularity and search volume of 823K per month. However, very specific variants such as “iPhone 16 Pro Max 256gb natural titanium” dramatically drop in difficulty to 30%, with only 270 searches per month.

2) Word count is a less heavily weighted factor compared to others, like search volume or backlinks. But, it’s notable that some shorter terms can also be niche-specific and have lower competition.

3) Long-tail keywords are particularly valuable because they often attract users who are further along in the buying process, indicating clearer intent. This specificity generally leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

To find valuable long-tail keywords, use specialized tools. These tools suggest keywords based on relevant groups and subgroups for your business. They help identify specific keywords and often have lower competition.

6) Branded Keywords

Branded keywords include the name of a brand, such as “iPhone,” and they often present a unique challenge in SEO due to their competitive nature. Google tends to prioritize the official brand’s website in search results, making it difficult for non-branded sites to achieve top rankings.

Here’s how branded keywords typically affect SEO efforts:

• Brand Preference: Searches for branded terms typically show top results from the brand’s official site. For example, searching “iPhone” might mainly display Apple’s own pages.
• High Competition: Due to Google’s preference for brand-owned domains, branded keywords are more challenging for non-affiliated sites to rank well.
• Easier for Brand Owners: If you’re optimizing for your own brand’s keywords, ranking should be easier because of the direct relevance to the search query.

This understanding is crucial for strategizing SEO around branded terms. Especially for those looking to compete in a space dominated by well-established brands.

How to Check Keyword Difficulty

Checking the keyword difficulty is an essential step in shaping an effective SEO strategy. Using tools like Semrush can provide detailed insights into how challenging it might be to rank for specific keywords. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to check keyword difficulty using Semrush:

1. Log in to Semrush: Start by logging into your Semrush account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to sign up for access.
2. Access the Keyword Magic Tool: Once logged in, navigate to the Keyword Magic Tool. This tool is specifically designed for keyword research and difficulty analysis.
3. Enter Your Seed Keyword: Type the seed keyword related to your niche or industry into the search bar. This is the main keyword you want to explore for potential difficulty.
4. Select Your Target Market: Choose the appropriate country or market for your keyword research. This ensures the data you get is relevant to the geographic area where you aim to rank.
5. Analyze the Results: After hitting the “Search” button, Semrush will display a list of related keywords along with several metrics. Focus on the “KD%” (Keyword Difficulty percentage) column, which shows how difficult it is to rank each keyword based on a scale from 0 to 100.
6. Consider Related Keywords: The Keyword Magic Tool also suggests related keywords. Review these to find lower-difficulty alternatives that still align with your content goals.
7. Use Filters for Precision: Utilize filters to refine your search based on keyword difficulty, volume, or other parameters. This can help you prioritize which keywords to target based on your specific SEO strategy.

   💬 Personalize Your Keyword Difficulty Analysis

   For a more tailored approach, add your own domain to Semrush and analyze the personalized keyword difficulty specific to your domain. This feature adjusts the difficulty score based on your website’s existing authority and backlink profile, giving you a customized view of your competitive landscape. This can be particularly helpful in identifying achievable target keywords that align closely with your site’s current SEO strengths.

Conclusion

So, you must have understood what keyword difficulty is. It is essential for optimizing your SEO strategy and enhancing your site’s visibility in search results. 

You can make informed decisions on keyword targeting by understanding factors like backlinks to the domains, authority scores, and search volumes. Use tools for thorough insights, and always be ready to adapt. Remember, the key to success lies in balancing ambition with achievable goals.

Frequently Asked Questions