SEO Keyword Difficulty: Everything You Need To Know

Keyword research is at the heart of every well-thought-out SEO strategy. Without it, you’re going in blind, with no direction over what terms you’re trying to target or how to measure your success.

However, you can’t just fire up a keyword research tool and use whatever keywords you find related to your content. You need to consider the metrics for each keyword and make a strategic decision about whether that keyword is the best one for your strategy.

And when it comes to those metrics, the keyword difficulty score is one of the most important ones to consider.

What is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword difficulty (KD) is a metric that tells you how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword. It’s calculated using several different factors, including the backlink profile and domain authority of the sites currently ranking for the keyword. 

Different tools may calculate it slightly differently, but the main factors include:

• Competition Level: More websites targeting the keyword increase its difficulty.
• Search Volume: High search volume keywords are usually more competitive.
• User Intent: Keywords that align well with user intent may have lower difficulty.
• Backlink Quality: Strong, relevant backlinks boost a page’s ability to rank.
• Domain Strength: Websites with higher domain authority find it easier to rank for difficult keywords.
• Content Quality & Relevance: High-quality, relevant content improves ranking potential.

Understanding and analyzing this score for your target keywords directly impacts your chances of ranking on the first page of search engine results.

Importance of Keyword Difficulty in Your SEO Strategy

Keyword difficulty helps you decide where to focus your efforts for the best results. If you target keywords that are too difficult, you can spend a lot of time and resources without seeing any return.

For example, a highly competitive keyword like “best smartphone” will have many authoritative sites already ranking in the top spots and many more trying to get there. In contrast, a less competitive keyword like “best budget smartphone under $300” will have fewer competitors, making it easier to rank higher.

Here’s another example:

High Difficulty: “digital marketing”

This keyword has a high keyword difficulty score, with lots of competition from many authoritative sites. You would require lots of strong backlinks to rank for it, as well as high-quality content.

Moderate Difficulty: “digital marketing strategies for small businesses”

This keyword has some competition, but not as much as “digital marketing”, with fewer authoritative sites targeting it. Well-optimized and high-quality content, combined with a decent backlink profile, makes this keyword more achievable.

Low Difficulty: “digital marketing for interior designers”

This keyword has a low keyword difficulty score, as it’s in a niche market with low competition. It’s also known as a long-tail keyword, which tend to have a lower difficulty score. Out of the three, this keyword is the easiest to rank for with relevant and high-quality content.

Factors Influencing Keyword Difficulty

Several factors influence keyword difficulty and how easy it will be to rank your page for your chosen keywords.

Competition Analysis for Keywords

Analyzing SEO keyword competition is essential to understand how tough it is to rank for a specific term. Although the keyword difficulty score takes this into account, it’s always a good idea to carry out your own SERP analysis to gauge the true competition for your target keywords.

Search Volume

Search volume refers to the number of times a keyword is searched within a given period, showing the potential traffic a keyword can bring to your website.

High search volume often comes with more competition and a higher difficulty score, whereas low search volume keywords typically have less competition and a lower difficulty score. However, if you target keywords with low difficulty but also low search volume, the impact on your traffic can be minimal and not worth your time.

For the best results, combining the estimated monthly search volume and keyword difficulty allows you to target keywords with a good mix of search volume and achievability. 

User Intent

User intent is the purpose behind a search query, also known as the search intent, and is generally categorized into:

• Informational: Searching for information (e.g. “how to improve SEO”).
• Navigational: Looking for a specific website (e.g. “Wincher login”).
• Commercial: Deciding what to purchase (e.g. “best SEO tools”)
• Transactional: Intent to purchase (e.g. “buy SEO tools”).

By aligning your content with user intent, you can improve your chances of ranking higher and satisfying your audience’s needs.

Backlink and Domain Strength

Backlink strength and domain strength are two of the main factors in a keyword difficulty score, and improving them requires a long-term strategy.

High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites can significantly boost your ranking potential. It’s not just about the number of referring domains but their quality and relevance. And the more strong backlinks your website has, the easier it is to rank for keywords with a high difficulty score.

Domain strength (also known as domain authority) indicates the overall power of your website. Sites with higher domain strength find it easier to rank for competitive keywords and can target ones with a higher keyword difficulty score. 

Content Quality & Relevance

The higher the keyword difficulty score, the more important it is to create high-quality and relevant content. Search engines prioritize content that provides value and answers users’ queries comprehensively, and as the competition increases, the bar is raised on what search engines expect from sites in order to rank them.

How to Evaluate Keyword Difficulty

You can use Keyword Explorer to evaluate the keyword difficulty and find keywords suitable for your content. To get started, enter your seed keyword and location.

In the report, you can review the keyword difficulty metric for your seed keyword and the list of keywords related to it. You can also assess the search volume and SERP analysis for each keyword, allowing you to consider all factors influencing your ability to rank for your chosen keywords.

Interpreting Keyword Difficulty Scores

Keyword difficulty scores can vary between tools, but the interpretation is generally similar:

• Low Difficulty (0-29): Easier to rank for, especially suitable for newer websites.
• Medium/Moderate Difficulty (30-49): Moderate competition; achievable with good content and some backlinks.
• High Difficulty (50-69): Requires strong SEO efforts, including high-quality backlinks and authoritative content.
• Very High Difficulty (70+): Extremely competitive, typically dominated by well-established sites.

Summing Up SEO Keyword Difficulty

Carrying out keyword difficulty analysis for your target keywords is one of the most important steps in your keyword research process. Analyzing competition and using targeted strategies can improve your chances of ranking well and drive valuable traffic to your site. If you want the best chance to rank for a given keyword, we recommend an approach that combines keyword difficulty, monthly search volume and relevance. You can find all of these metrics with our Keyword Explorer tool, give it a try for free to supercharge your SEO strategy!