How to Calculate Keyword Difficulty? A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Calculate Keyword Difficulty

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Day 11 of my 90-day SEO course! I am Deepak Sharma, your local SEO expert and the founder of Digital Deep Tech. So, by now if you have been following along you already know how important keyword research is for an effective SEO strategy.

 

However, today is when we shall discuss one facet of keyword research where people normally go wrong: how to calculate Keyword Difficulty?

 

Let’s talk today about how to analyze keyword difficulty and get through the whole issue of understanding the influence on your SEO strategy. When you analyze keyword difficulty, you will achieve easier keywords, hence making you more competitive at search engine rankings.

 

In this article, I’m going to describe for you how to check keyword difficulty, what influences it, and how you may apply such knowledge in optimizing SEO on your website.

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Wasting Effort on Hard-to-Rank Keywords

Most people equate success in SEO with keyword stuffing or the need to fill up one’s content with the most popular, high-volume keywords. Those keywords that are too difficult to rank for may leave a site in total darkness regarding the visibility that is required.

 

This is but one of the traps newbies fall into when they see a picture of using those very popular keywords without realizing that competition has already flooded the search results with established sites competing for the same keyword.

Why It Is Hard to Calculate Keyword Difficulty

Let’s face it. Creating content is much too time-consuming and hard. Imagine working on a post where you spent a lot of your effort writing it, then optimizing it for search, only to stay on the tenth page of Google rankings. That is what happens when you ignore keyword difficulty. Your effort is just not worth it since the competition is hot.

 

But if I told you that you could absolutely avoid all that frustration? Learning how to measure keyword difficulty can help you focus only on keywords where you have a real shot at ranking. You will save time, energy, and resources while seeing faster SEO results.

keyword planner

Use Keyword Difficulty as Your SEO Compass

Now, here comes the silver lining: no more throwing a dart at a whiteboard hoping it’s going to magically land on a working keyword. With the right tools and strategies, you can accurately calculate keyword difficulty and target the best possible keywords that will open opportunities for you.

 

Let me walk you through step-by-step keyword difficulty analysis and find the best possible keywords for your business. This is what unlocks faster rankings and more traffic to your site.

What is Keyword Difficulty?

Well, let’s start with what keyword difficulty actually is. The simplest way to answer this is: a metric that tries to determine how hard it would be to rank with a given keyword on Google or any other search engine. Many factors influence keyword difficulty – from competitors’ sites and being as relevant as possible with your content and domain authority to more.

 

Winning SEO isn’t only about finding highly trafficked keywords; that’s more on the nuance. It is actually about finding keywords you can actually hope to rank for-and that’s where keyword difficulty comes into play.

ubersuggest

Important Concepts to Learn

  • Search Volume: This is how many times that keyword has been looked for during a given period-most of the time, it is during the month. The higher the volume, the higher the keyword-but there may be much more competition.

 

  • Competition Level: the sites competing for the same keyword. That tells how hard you would struggle to rank for this keyword. The higher competition level the hard.

 

  • Domain Authority: This is a rating from 0 to 100 that estimates the potential of a site to rank on the SERP based on its backlinks and more factors. More authoritative domains than yours are tough to beat for competitive keywords.

Why is Keyword Difficulty Important?

Knowing your keyword difficulty means that you’re focusing on where you should really be placing your SEO efforts. The likelihood of ranking is so much higher when attempting to rank for keywords that have a difficulty score corresponding with the strength of your site.

 

Of course, trying to chase after keywords that are simply too competitive too early in the game tends to leave one spinning wheels without much to show for it.

How Is Keyword Difficulty Calculated?

While there are various approaches that different SEO tools might apply in calculating keyword difficulty scores, essentially, it surveys the competitive landscape of a given keyword and assigns a score for the hard time it would be to outrank the current top-ranking pages. Factors included in look-up by these tools include:

  1. Backlink profile of the top-ranking pages: sites with a much higher quality backlink are tougher to outrank.
  2. Keyword Relevancy: How relevant and good are the contents of the top-ranked pages to the main search intention for the keyword?
  3. DA (Domain Authority) of competitor websites: Sites with a higher DA will be tough to defeat.
  4. Page authority: Like DA but specific to each page
  5. User intent: Does the content of the top-ranked pages align with what the user intends for that keyword?
  • Ahrefs: keyword difficulty score between 0 and 100. Chiefly depends on the backlink profile of the top-ranking pages.
  • Moz Keyword Explorer: SEOMoz’s tool is based on domain as well as page authority to derive keyword difficulty.
  • SpyFu: Competitive analysis, basically to give you an idea of competition for a specific keyword.
  • Google Keyword Planner: While it does not give a keyword difficulty score, it gives you an idea about the level of competition and search volume.

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How Accurate is Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty?

Ahrefs keyword difficulty score depends mainly on the number and quality of backlinks to the top-ranked pages. The more backlinks needed, the tougher the score is. So if your keyword has a difficulty score of 50, you would need 50 backlinks to outrank the results that rank on top.

Low Competition + High Search Volume The Ultimate Keyword Strategy!

Step-by-Step: Keyword Difficulty Analysis

First of all, let’s research our keywords using one of the tools described above – Ahrefs, Moz, SEMRush. You will get a list of possible keywords with an associated keyword difficulty score, usually in the range of 0 to 100. The higher this number, the harder it is going to be to rank for such a keyword.

 

I would use personally all the keywords with a score of less than 30 in case your site is relatively young and has low DA. As the DA will grow, you can become more aggressive and target more competitive keywords.

1. Analyze the Competition

Once you’ve got your list of keywords with real potential, have a look at who is ranking in the meantime. When high-ranking pages derive from already well-established sites that have hundreds, even thousands, of incoming links, outdoing them may be challenging for your site. Run their profiles using Ahrefs or Moz backlinks to see how really competitive they are.

keyword research for website

2. Domain Authority Analysis

You can compare your chances of ranking by making a comparison between your domain authority compared to the DA of sites ranking for the keyword that you have chosen for ranking. Fetch the DA of any site from Moz’s Link Explorer or Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

 

For example, if your DA is 30 but the top ten results for a specific keyword contain a DA of 60 or more, you might not target that keyword at least for now. Start targeting keywords whose top ranking sites have a DA similar to your own.

keyword research services

3. Target long-tail keywords

Some ways to identify long-tail keywords include targeting long-tail phrases–which are essentially longer phrases with more specificity than a general search query. Although they may be less often searched for, these longer phrases also come with much lower competition. While not going after “SEO services,” maybe target “local SEO services for small businesses.”.

 

Long-tail keywords rank easier and tend to attract more qualified traffic-users more likely to convert into customers-meaning there is less competition.

4. Track keyword difficulty

keywordtool io

Step 1: Access KeywordTool.io: Open KeywordTool.io and input your keyword .

 

Step 2: Select a Platform: You shall search for keywords on other platforms, Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Instagram. Make sure you have selected the preferred choice on which to rank.

 

Step 3. Interpretation of Results: Keyword Tool will generate the long-tailed keywords using Google Autocomplete data. For example, if one types in a keyword like “yoga,” it may come up with the following long-tailed keywords: “yoga for beginners,” “yoga poses for weight loss,” among others.

 

Step 4. Find Related Questions: Scroll down to see a list of questions people are asking about your keyword. These could be solid ideas for content that would answer a specific question, putting you into the running for those very coveted featured snippet rankings.

 

Step 5. Export Suggestions: You can export keyword suggestions to a CSV file for later.

How do I find low difficulty keywords?

Possibly one of the best skills you can acquire as an SEO expert: finding low-difficulty keywords. Here are a few ways I find low-difficulty keywords:

Ahref

1. Google Autocomplete

Just start typing out a keyword in Google and see what comes up. Often, this will be long-tail keywords that users are actually searching for, so they will have lower difficulty.

 

Tools such as SpyFu will give you an idea of kinds of keywords that your competitors rank for. That would help you discover some low-difficulty keywords that they didn’t optimize.

2. Use the Difficulty Filter in SEO Tools

Most of the SEO tools, for example Ahrefs or SEMRush will apply a filter to the keyword results list so you will only see keywords with high “difficulty” scores. For now, seek keywords with a difficulty score lower than 30.

3. Find Local Keywords

The best prospect for local businesses is location-based keywords, which are generally low in difficulty. So, you would target “plumbing services in Parramatta” instead of targeting “plumbing services.” Those are local keywords, which are less competitive and more relevant to your target audience.

Role of Search Intent in Keyword Difficulty

While analyzing the keyword’s difficulty is important, understanding the search intent is even more so. It is not enough to have a low-competition keyword but have the content that doesn’t match the intent behind the keyword. You’re doomed for failure. Search intent is the reason behind the user’s search query. Are they looking for information? Trying to buy something? Needing a specific service?

 

  • Informational: The user wants to know something. Example, “how to fix a leaky faucet.”

 

  • Navigational: The user wants to go somewhere on the web. Example, “Facebook login”

 

  • Transactional: The user wants to take an action that involved some kind of transaction. Example “buy running shoes online.”

 

  • Commercial: The user wants to compare things. Example, “best digital cameras 2024.”

 

So when you’re optimizing for targeted keywords, you really want to make sure that the content of the page lines up with search intent. So if the keyword has transactional intention, for example, you would have clear CTAs or recommendations on what to do with the product versus just information.

Common Mistakes in Keyword Difficulty Analysis

Even the most well-seasoned SEO practitioners make mistakes in keyword difficulty analysis. Here are a few things to watch out for:

1. Pay no mind to User Intent

Use keyword metrics, and you easily get carried away from where the core of it lies. The intent of the user. Be sure that your content will cater to the purpose of keyword search intent.

2. Target only high volume keywords

High volume keywords attract much traffic. However, they are much hard to rank for. But there is no reason you should ignore low volume keywords with low difficulty provided they are highly relevant to your niche.

3. Ignoring On-page SEO

Now, irrespective of how well advanced keyword research has been done, if your on-page SEO is not there, you do not rank. So be very sure that your content is keyword-optimized for the keyword for which you are writing. It requires the optimization of the title, meta description, heading as well as body content.

4. Too much dependence on tools

Programmatic SEO tools are handy, but you truly should not rely on the number that’s surfacing. Use your own head and judgment, not to mention other very important factors, like the quality of your content and user experience, to determine which keywords to utilize.

How to Rank on Competitive Keywords

It is actually very challenging to rank for high difficulty keywords, but not impossible. Here are some strategies that help to rank:

1. Create In-Depth, Quality Content

Content is the king and quality content is, in fact, rewarded by Google. So, if you target highly competitive keywords, then your content must be deep, well-researched and have real value. Make sure that you offer a cover on the topic at hand using LSI keywords or the Latent Semantic Indexing concept or directly answer questions closely related to the topic.

2. Obtain High Quality Backlinks

In either of these cases, backlinks are actually one of the most important ranking factors for difficult keywords. You need to earn links from authoritative websites of your niche to build a strong backlink profile that allows you to compete with other pages.

3. Improve Your On-page SEO

Make sure you do proper optimization for your content. That should include usage of your target keyword strategically used in a title, meta description, headings, and all through the body content. Ensure your images are optimized using alt tags and linking up to internal and external links.

4. Social Media and PR

Social media promotion and PR can provide you with more visibility and more backlinks, which can increase ranking potential for competitive keywords. The more often they see you, the greater the chances that that content will earn backlinks and engagement.

Conclusion

You cannot ignore keyword difficulty if you really care about SEO. In knowing keyword difficulty, you will focus on the keywords with most likely chances of ranking while avoiding frustration in pursuit of overly competitive terms.

 

Recognize that SEO is a long game. It will provide you with the piece of momentum and domain authority eventually if you are targeting the lowest difficulty keywords.

 

Start practicing keyword difficulty analysis today and see magic happen in your SEO strategy!

 

Want customized SEO training? Reach me on WhatsApp at +91 9780668174 or leave a request for one on one. Do not forget to share this blog with your networks. And, watch out for more tips in my 90-day SEO course!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What is the ideal keyword difficulty score?

The keyword difficulty score relies on the site’s domain authority. For starters, therefore, you should target keywords whose scores are less than 30. Once your site acquires more authority, you can now go for bigger values of keyword difficulty.

This is possible, but very challenging. For momentum building, I will advise you to get started with low difficulty keywords. The more the domain authority shoots up, so does the chances of ranking for those competitive terms.

Ranking can take a few weeks or up to a number of months, depending on the competing keyword and the quality of your SEO strategy. However, in most cases, ranking happens faster for low-difficulty keywords than for high-difficulty ones.

Among the most effective tools in keyword difficulty analysis are Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush. Each of these has some unique insight, hence a more holistic analysis would be required by using more than one of them.

Yes! Building high-quality backlinks, producing excellent content, and improving your site’s technical SEO are all contributions toward increasing domain authority over time.

Keyword difficulty should determine your content strategy on which keywords to pick on. It will inform you of your quick wins and long-term agendas.

Indeed, finance, legal service, health care, etc. show a higher keyword difficulty because competition is very high and the search volume will be high too, so targeting niche subtopics can be a better strategy.

No way! Just remember not to start immediately with such keywords; rather, choose easier ones when your authority increases. A balanced approach will always bear the best fruit.

Reassess your target keywords regularly. Reassess it when its content or the market changes. Check them periodically-every month-and update to keep you in track.

Yes. Not all long-tail keywords have easy difficulty. Some may have higher difficulty-when the level of competition is very high as well. Prior to adding them to your strategy, analyze its metrics.

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About the Author

Deepak Sharma is the founder of Digital Deep Tech and a renowned SEO and digital marketing expert with over a decade of experience. Passionate about helping businesses enhance their online presence, Deepak specializes in creating SEO strategies that drive traffic and generate leads.

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