By Helena Alcoverro, on 4 September 2024
Keyword difficulty is an SEO metric that measures how difficult it is for a given keyword to rank on the first page of Google search results. It’s often measured on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater difficulty. However, the term is also used more generally to describe ranking difficulty, and not to refer to a particular metric or SEO tool. In this article, we will share why keyword difficulty is important, key factors influencing it, tools to measure it, and ways to optimize your SEO strategy based on keyword difficulty.
Why Does Keyword Difficulty Matter for SEO?
Keyword difficulty helps you identify which words have the potential to rank highly on search engine results pages, which allows you to invest more in content that is likely to generate more search engine traffic. When combined with looking at the monthly search volume of a keyword, as well as other factors, keyword difficulty contributes to a thorough keyword research process.
Factoring in keyword difficulty to your content strategy is important to decide if you are going to invest time and resources into going up against the competition for certain high-difficulty keywords, if you are going to stick with low-difficulty keywords, or if you will use a combination of both.
Key Factors Influencing Keyword Difficulty
Keyword Search Volume
The search volume is the average number of monthly searches for a particular keyword, and the volume often correlates with keyword difficulty scores. Higher-volume keywords often drive more traffic, and therefore tend to attract more competition.
Page Authority
The authority of a specific web page is a very significant factor in its ability to rank well in Google search results. If you see a large volume of low-page authority pages for a keyword, it could be a good one to target using a newly-designed higher authority page.
Domain Authority
Domain authority significantly impacts a brand's ability to rank for keywords. High domain authority indicates a strong, credible, and authoritative website, which search engines are more likely to trust. Consequently, brands with high DA can more easily rank for high-volume, competitive keywords due to their established reputation and backlink profile. On the other hand, brands with lower DA may struggle to rank for these competitive terms and should focus on lower-volume, less competitive keywords to build their authority gradually.
Content Quality
High-quality content not only engages readers but also meets SEO best practices, such as keyword optimization, proper use of meta tags, and relevant internal linking. These factors significantly improve a site's ability to rank well in search results, as they demonstrate both relevance and authority in the topic area.
Backlink Profile
The volume and quality of backlinks to a page are significant to ranking, because keywords that have a large number of pages with robust backlink profiles are much harder to compete with.
Measuring Keyword Difficulty
There are a variety of different SEO tools which use various algorithms to measure keyword difficulty. Here are some of the most popular tools and their methodologies:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs calculates keyword difficulty using the number and quality of backlinks to the top-ranking pages for a keyword. They look at the top 10 ranking pages for the keyword and look up how many websites link to each of them, making their method very simple: the more backlinks, the higher its keyword difficulty score.
Moz
Moz uses a similar method but also looks at domain authority, page authority, and other on-page factors to determine keyword difficulty.
SEMrush
SEMrush analyzes search engine results pages by looking at backlink numbers, as well as qualities of the keyword itself. These qualities include referring domains, authority scores, and search volume.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner does not provide a direct difficulty score but it does offer insights into competition levels for paid search, which can indirectly indicate organic competition.
Optimizing Your SEO Strategy Based on Keyword Difficulty
Identify Goals and Resources
Understanding your own domain authority, backlink profile, and content quality is very important so that you can understand your strengths and limitations to set realistic goals and select the right keywords to target.
Conduct Thorough Keyword Research
Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner to conduct thorough keyword research and decide which ones are worth competing for.
Analyze Competitor Strategies
Examine the top-ranking pages for your target keywords so you can understand why they have been ranked highly. Compare their domain authority, content quality, and backlink profiles to your own to discover opportunities to improve your strategy.
Create High-Quality Content
Focus on SEO optimization, as well as creating comprehensive and engaging content. This will ensure your content is meeting the needs of your target audience.
Build a Strong Backlink Profile
Implement a link-building strategy that improves your backlink profile. This can include aspects such as guest posting and prioritizing shareable content.
