You know it’s every bloggers’ dream to rank its keywords into the top 10 results of SERP. Right? But nowadays, it’s not that easy to get into the first page of SERP for any keyword. Gone are the days when just by placing your target keyword in some prominent places of your post and you got the #1 position. To outrank existing sites, there are a few SEO metrics such as search volume, keyword trend, Cost Per Click, keyword difficulty, etc. that you need to consider before targeting a keyword. And keyword difficulty is one of the most important metrics, especially for beginners. Keyword difficulty determines how difficult it is for a new website to outrank the existing ones. So in this post, we will be sharing a complete guide to keyword difficulty analysis for beginners. Moreover, we will be covering the top 5 SEO tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, KWFinder, Serpstat) to analyze the keyword difficulty scores along with some manual methods. Make sure you read till the end as we will be sharing our final verdict on which SEO tool KD score is more accurate. A quick overview of what you can learn from this post?
What is keyword difficulty? What’s the keyword difficulty score meaning? How to check keyword difficulty using SEO tools? Determine keyword competition manually. How to rank for your desired keywords?
So before going deep into details of keyword difficulty analysis, let’s find out what is keyword difficulty.
What is the Keyword Difficulty?
What is the Keyword Difficulty?
Keyword difficulty is one of the most important SEO metrics that shows how difficult it is to rank for a keyword at the top positions in the search engine result pages. Keyword difficulty is also known as keyword competition. Higher the SEO difficulty score is for any keyword, the higher is the competition and lesser are the chances to rank for the same keyword. Lower the SEO difficulty score is for any keyword, the lesser is the competition and higher is the probability to outrank existing websites for the same keyword. So it is always recommended to target those keywords which have low keyword difficulty score, especially for beginners. But, now the question comes: what is the keyword difficulty score and how to check it. So in the next section, We will be covering both. But before that, you need to understand the difference between keyword difficulty and Paid difficulty as there is always some confusion between keyword difficulty and paid difficulty. Keyword difficulty or SEO difficulty is related to the organic rankings while Paid difficulty refers to competition in paid search. Now, we are sure you are clear enough what keyword difficulty is all about and how important it could be for you. All and all keyword difficulty is an important ranking factor. The keyword difficulty score is what matters the most to analyze keyword difficulty of any keyword. As keyword difficulty is all about Keyword difficulty score, so to make things more clear, let’s find out what is the meaning of keyword difficulty score. But before that let’s try to understand some important factors that contribute to the Keyword difficulty.
What are the Factors that Affect SEO Difficulty
What are the Factors that Affect SEO Difficulty
What is the Keyword Difficulty Score?
What is the Keyword Difficulty Score?
Keyword difficulty score or SEO difficulty score is the result of keyword difficulty analysis for any keyword in the SEO tools. There are lots of SEO tools available in the market which you can use to check the keyword difficulty score. All of these tools have their own keyword difficulty metric and consider different factors to measure the keyword difficulty. Unfortunately, you will see a huge discrepancy in the keyword difficulty score of SEO tools and that is the reason it is very hard to say which SEO tool shows the most accurate data and which tool you should opt for checking keyword difficulty. Here we will describe the keyword difficulty score of 5 top SEO tools and what are the factors they consider to measure the keyword difficulty.
1. Semrush Keyword Difficulty Index
The very first tool we have is Semrush which is used by around 5 million users. Semrush measures keyword difficulty in the form of a percentage (from 1 – 100%) that shows how difficult it is to outrank the existing websites ranking on the top results of search engine result pages. The higher the keyword difficulty percentage is, the more efforts you will have to put to secure a position in top results. Semrush categorized the Keyword Difficulty (KD) score into the following 6 buckets. Here’s the breakdown. How does Semrush calculate keyword difficulty? The Median number of backlinks & Median Authority Score for ranking domains along with the relative weight of the links is what MOSTLY Semrush takes into consideration while calculating the KD (Keyword Difficulty) score. Should you trust on Semrush for keyword difficulty? For us, Semrush KD score works the best. You can use it to get an idea for the keyword you want to rank for and then do some manual research from your end. Want to give a try to Semrush? Further Reading:
Semrush 30 Days Free Trial: Try Pro or Guru Account for Free Now Semrush Coupon Code 2023 Plus Free eBook Best Semrush Alternatives for 2023
2. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Score
Ahrefs measures keyword difficulty on a scale of 0 to100. As you can see in the above picture, the scale that Ahrefs uses to measure the keyword difficulty is non-linear and divided into 4 parts.
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3. Moz Keyword Difficulty Score
When it comes to Moz keyword difficulty score, there is no specific scale. All they have to say is that a higher keyword difficulty score means it would be more difficult to outrank already-ranking results and a lower difficulty score simply means it would likely be easier to compete with existing results. Have a look at the image below to know more about Moz keyword difficulty score in detail. That being said, the KD score is the weighted average of the PA of the top 10 existing results and the other inputs such as DA, homepages, query term use, etc. How Moz calculates keyword difficulty? Moz calculates keyword difficulty for any keyword primarily based on the Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) of the existing Google’s top results. Should you trust Moz for keyword difficulty? It is better than Ahrefs. So can be used to get an idea related to the SEO difficulty for any keyword. Quick Note: Like Ahrefs, Moz also considers Google’s top 10 results to come up with the KD score for a given keyword. Want to give a try to Moz tool? Recently Updated:
Moz vs Semrush: My Honest Comparison of Two SEO Tools Moz Alternatives: Tools Worth Trying to Improve Your SEO
4. KWFinder Keyword Difficulty Score
KWFinder indicates the keyword difficulty on a scale from 0 to 100 and it is divided into 6 different categories as shown in the picture below. The lower KD score is, the easier it is to rank for the keyword on the 1st SERP. How KWFinder calculates keyword difficulty? To determine keyword difficulty of any given term, KWFinder calculates overall Link Profile Strength (LPS) of the websites already ranking on the 1st page of Google SERP. LPS is calculated by taking Moz metrics (DA and PA) and Majestic metrics (Citation flow and Trust flow) into consideration. And based on the LPS values of all the websites ranking currently, a KD score is displayed that shows how difficult it is to outrank already-ranking websites. Should you trust on KWFinder for keyword difficulty? Yes, KWFinder does a tremendous job and can be considered as a good option to calculate keyword difficulty. Want to give a try to KWFinder? Read: Mangools SEO Tools Review with 40% OFF Read: KWFinder Review: Is It the Only Keyword Research Tool You Need?
5. Serpstat Keyword Difficulty Score
The KD in Serpstat is measured on a scale from 0 to 100 and divided into 4 categories.
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So these are the details related to the keyword difficulty score of 5 best SEO tools. What we analyzed from this study is that every tool has its own keyword difficulty formula to calculate the KD score. So one has to take care of several factors while aiming to rank for any term in the Google SERP. Let’s find out how to check keyword difficulty using SEO tools.
How to Check Keyword Difficulty Using Top 5 SEO Tools
How to Check Keyword Difficulty Using Top 5 SEO Tools
We tried to check the keyword difficulty for 10 keywords and found some shocking results. The first keyword I checked keyword difficulty for “ahrefs coupon code” and got the following results.
Small Verdict on SEO Tools Keyword Difficulty Score Accuracy
Small Verdict on SEO Tools Keyword Difficulty Score Accuracy
All of the 5 SEO tools I included here are top-notch and have a massive user base. And we have been using these tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, KWFinder, and Serpstat) for a very long time. If we talk about keyword difficulty metric only then based on our experience and above research, Semrush data looks the most prominent, and Ahrefs data looks the worst to me. Want to use Semrush to check competition for your target keywords? Furthermore, KWFinder by Mangools also does a good job. Ahrefs only considers the number of referring domains while other tools take DA, PA, backlinks, referring domains, and other factors into consideration to calculate the keyword difficulty. Being said that, no tool has 100% accuracy and it’s completely up to you how you use these tools and take advantage of them.
How to Analyze SEO Keyword Competition Manually?
How to Analyze SEO Keyword Competition Manually?
As we have seen that every SEO tool gives a unique value for keyword competition so it’s better to get an idea from these tools and then do manual research from your end and come up with better keywords to target. So presenting you some best ways to analyze keyword difficulty manually.
1. Keyword Golden Ratio
The Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) is the most popular technique to find those keywords which have huge demand but less supply on the Internet. And if you target these keywords then there are high chances that you can rank for the same within a few days or even hours. The KGR can help you with:
Getting your initial traffic and sales Prioritize what keywords you should target
The best advantage of using the KGR method is that it is a manual process and the data you will be getting from this, will not be available to those who use SEO tools. Now you must be wondering how to use it, right? As you can see, KGR is the ratio of allintitle results divided by search volume. If this ratio for any keyword is < 0.25 then it is GREAT to target and you can rank in top 50 as soon as your page gets indexed.Note: To achieve this you should be targeting those keywords which have less than 250 search volume. This way allintitle results would be around 63. KGR is between 0.25 and 1.00 then your page can rank in the top 250 pretty fast. And if KGR is greater than 1.00 then it is BAD and not worth targeting. Allintitle: It is an advanced search facility from Google that lets you help to find the total number of results having all the words in the Meta title of the post. Let’s say we searched for “ahrefs coupon code” and got 228 results. That means there are a total of 228 indexed posts that have the exact keyword in their Meta title. Now have a look at the step by step process to find good keywords to target.
2. Analyze Domain Authority
The next method you can use to check the keyword competition manually is the domain authority of the already ranking websites. Whenever we talk about domain authority, there are two things you need to consider Page Authority (PA): It shows how strong a single page is of any website. Domain Authority (DA): It is related to the whole domain and ensures the better ranking of a domain and all its pages. To analyze keyword competition, first, you should know your domain authority then domain authority of the websites which are ranking in the Google SERP for the keyword you want to rank for. For doing so, you can take advantage of some chrome extensions like SEOquake, MozBar, etc. We have installed a MozBar chrome extension to make our job easy. It will show me DA, PA, and the number of links of all the sites ranking in the Google search engine result pages. Again, if we search for “best chromebook for writers” and analyze the SERP for domain authority then also I can come up with how much competition is for this keyword. Here you can see one of the websites ranking for the same keyword has 21 Domain authority. Though some websites have more than 90 DA, two sites have domain authority less than 30. As our site DA is 48, so there is much probability that our site can rank easily for this keyword. So this way you can analyze the domain authority of the websites that are ranking on the first page of the SERP and can further use these sites DA to determine the keyword competition. Make sure to target the relevant keywords only.
3. SERP Volatility
Next, you can consider the movement of ranking pages across the first page of SERP. If you see no to minimum changes in the SERP positions for the keyword you want to rank for and every page is able to secure its position for a long time then it indicates there is high keyword difficulty. As we have concluded that there are many SEO tools available to determine the keyword difficulty but manual keyword difficulty analysis is essential to finalize the good keywords to target. Now let’s explore what it takes to rank for your desired keywords.
How to Rank for Your Desired keyword?
How to Rank for Your Desired keyword?
Based on the above study, we found that each tool uses a different formula to calculate the SEO difficulty and there is a huge discrepancy in the SEO difficulty for the keywords we analyzed. And all because of this it’s very hard for beginners to understand how to rank for the desired keyword. Then we also explained two ways to check keyword competition manually that can certainly help you to choose some better keywords to work on. Here we will be sharing some common factors that contribute to better rankings.
Google sometimes gives preference to pages of high domain sites in the search results, directly or indirectly. Interlinking in strong websites gives an extra advantage to all other pages that lead to better rankings in Google. A weak website having comparatively more quality backlinks can outrank a strong website.
Finally, they concluded that websites with high authority are the brand name and that is the reason people click on these websites pages even if low authority sites are ranking along with them. So do perform the manual analysis while taking advantage of SEO tools and consider the factors that contribute to the higher rankings.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
That’s all related to keyword difficulty.
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Based on RD numbers, keyword difficulty score is displayed which is between 1 and 100 along with the number of referring domains you would need to rank for the same keyword. We have shared everything related to the SEO difficulty including what is keyword difficulty, what SEO difficulty score is, how to check keyword difficulty, and how to rank for the desired keywords. From the above study and research, it is clear that every tool shows different keyword difficulty thus it is not worth trusting these tools blindly. Sadly, most of the beginners make the same mistake by relying on SEO tools completely. So, it’s our personal advice to the beginners that you can use these SEO tools to get a quick idea but do not rely on these tools completely. It’s better to do some manual research in Google SERP by analyzing the top 10 results already ranking for the keyword you want to rank for. We hope you will find this post worth reading. So, next time you plan to target any keyword, do consider these tips, and experience the improvements.
