Keywords are essential for SEO because they help search engines understand what a webpage or site is about. Using targeted keywords in titles, headers, content, URLs, alt text, and metadata ensures search engines can match webpages with relevant search queries. The right keywords connect a site to users searching for related topics. One statistic is that 91% of searches begin with one of the major search engines like Google, so keywords help pages get discovered and ranked highly in results.
Keywords can be very useful, but you need to be choosing the right keywords to rank for. A surprising 94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer. Additionally, 0.0008% of keywords get more than 100,000 monthly searches. You would love to be the top site for those .0008% keywords but with competition like that it might be tough to do. So how do we find a balance? In this article we will talk about how to measure keyword difficulty.
What Is Keyword Difficulty?
The term keyword difficulty refers to how difficult it is for a website to rank for a certain keyword. This is generally referred to as competition.
Look at this as a numbers game. When it comes to keywords, you want to maximize your ROI by spending as little as possible and getting the best possible result.
This won’t happen if you keep trying to use difficult keywords. But when you understand keyword difficulty, you can make the most of keywords and take your SEO to the next level.
It’s important to understand keyword difficulty because this lets you know which keywords are worth your time and money. By focusing on the right SEO keywords, you can dominate the search results.
How Is Keyword Difficulty Measured?
Keyword difficulty is typically gauged on a scale from 1 to 100, with a higher number indicating increased difficulty in ranking. A keyword with a difficulty score of 71 or more is generally considered quite challenging to rank for. While targeting these tough keywords may sometimes be necessary, they often require immense effort that is not worth the time investment. Especially for a newer business.
There are numerous factors involved in calculating the 1-to-100 score. There is no single metric that defines difficulty. Rather, it is determined through multiple data points like competition, required backlinks, search volume, ranking history, and more. Different SEO tools incorporate various combinations of these factors into their difficulty scores. This means difficulty ratings can vary widely depending on the sources used.
Ultimately, keyword difficulty aims to provide guidance on the estimated work involved in ranking for a particular term. But the complexity of the different calculation methods and datasets demonstrates why pinpointing precise difficulty isn't an exact process. The difficulty score alone does not tell the whole story.
Related: How to Do Effective Keyword Research
Different Metrics for Difficulty and Keywords
There are several methods for measuring keyword difficulty, with the most common being Moz Keyword Difficulty, Google Ads Keyword Planner, Google Ads cost-per-click, and manual search result analysis.
With its Keyword Explorer tool, Moz assigns a 1-100 score to reflect ranking difficulty. This scale became an industry standard that other tools adopted.
Google Ads Keyword Planner also calculates competition as an indicator of difficulty for both paid and organic search. Even if not using Google Ads, the competition metric provides insight into how challenging keywords are to rank for. Additionally, Google Ads cost-per-click data can gauge difficulty - higher costs imply increased competition and effort to rank.
A simple manual approach involves searching keywords and evaluating the results. More search results generally signal higher competition and difficulty. Useful Google operators for this are "intitle:" to show results with keywords in titles, and "inurl:" for keywords in URLs.
While Moz automated difficulty scores are helpful guidance, manual analysis of search results provides important supplementary data. Evaluating ranking domains, their authority, optimizations, and engagement can inform keyword selection beyond sheer result volumes.
Ultimately, a combination of automated scores and manual search analysis creates a more accurate picture of true keyword difficulty. Multiple data points allow for a nuanced assessment of not just if a keyword is difficult, but specifically why and what it will take to rank well. A layered evaluation leads to improved keyword targeting.
What Does Keyword Difficulty Measure?
Keyword difficulty is primarily determined by analyzing the backlink profiles of top-ranking pages for a given keyword. The number and quality of backlinks on pages ranking on the first 10 search results pages impact difficulty assessments. More backlinks from authoritative domains to these ranking pages generally indicates a more difficult keyword to rank for.
Some SEO tools quantify backlink authority using metrics like domain authority and page authority. Essentially, these measure the strength or trustworthiness of a linking site. Backlinks from higher authority sites carry more weight and signal a competitive keyword landscape.
While backlink factors are central to difficulty, calculations also incorporate other elements like search volume, ranking history, and competition. The variety of metrics and datasets used across tools is why keyword difficulty can be complex to fully grasp.
Partnering with a digital marketing professional who specializes in SEO and has experience with difficulty assessment can provide valuable expertise. However, gaining even basic knowledge of what goes into keyword difficulty scores allows you to better interpret the data and make informed keyword targeting decisions. A little learning goes a long way towards leveraging difficulty insights for ranking success!
How Do Long-Tail Keywords Impact Keyword Difficulty?
Long-tail keywords are highly specific search queries that usually have a lower search volume and lower competition levels. Also, they also tend to have lower keyword difficulty scores.
It can be useful to target these keywords because they:
Are easier to rank for
Drive highly-targeted traffic
Tend to have higher conversion rates
Meaning that long-tail keywords with low difficulty percentage scores can be great keywords to target.
Get Started on Your Keyword Research
Now that you know how keyword difficulty is measured and why it's important for your SEO, it's time to start ranking for keywords and improving your SEO! As mentioned earlier, Moz, SEMRush, and Google's Keyword Planner are all great options to do keyword research and decide which you should start targeting.
And if you're looking to understand more about SEO, check out our complete SEO guide below.
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