Understanding the Basics of Keyword Difficulty

The task of selecting search terms for a content marketing strategy can be quite daunting. Knowing the difference between a short and long-tail keyword may be the least of your worries when it comes to keyword difficulty. When attempting to fine-tune a content strategy, particularly if you are new to the game, understanding the basics of keyword difficulty will help.

What is Keyword Difficulty?

The keyword difficulty (KD) score is an indication of how difficult it is to rank on Google for a particular search term. This score shows the estimated difficulty for a content creator to rank higher than the existing competition. The KD score can range from 0 (very easy) to 100 (nearly impossible). For example, a law firm may target the keyword legal advice with a KD score of around 95%, meaning it would be difficult to appear on the front page of Google.

Factors that Influence Keyword Difficulty

The latest search engine optimization (SEO) technology uses complex algorithms to calculate keyword difficulty. Certain factors will play a big part in determining this score and might even change on a regular basis. These include:

• Type of Content: The type of content used to target a keyword is an important factor. Pages with a lot of multimedia content such as images and videos may rank higher than those with just plain text.
• Competition: The amount of competition for the chosen keyword is a major factor. Too many competitors trying to target the same keyword will lead to a higher difficulty score as well as a higher cost of entry.
• Quality of Content: Search engine algorithms rank content based on its quality. Content that is up to date and contains valuable information stands a better chance of outranking the competition.
• Authority and Links: Search engines use various signals to determine authority. Pages that have backlinks, a good Domain Rating (DR), and an established domain history might rank higher for certain search terms.

Tools to Analyze Keyword Difficulty

Analyzing keyword difficulty is important for any content marketing strategy. Doing a keyword analysis can provide valuable insights about content and its potential performance. The following tools can help analyze Keyword Difficulty:

Google Trends

Google Trends provides keyword search volume data. Although it's not an exact science, it can provide a good indication of what content to work on first.

Moz

Moz is one of the most popular SEO tools and offers a suite of features to help analyze keyword difficulty. Their Keyword Explorer tool provides an approximate difficulty score as well as traffic volume and other metrics.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another popular all-in-one SEO software. Their Keyword Explorer shows a very accurate difficulty score. This score is calculated based on several factors including backlinks, page authority, and other ranking metrics.

In Summary

Understanding the basics of keyword difficulty is important when setting up a content marketing strategy. The difficulty score is based on a variety of factors such as content type, competition, and quality of content. Different tools such as Moz, Google Trends, and Ahrefs provide a range of features to help analyze keyword difficulty. Using these tools can help get an accurate picture of the competition and likely success with any given content.