What Does Keyword Difficulty Mean?

Most everyone involved in marketing and SEO knows the importance of keyword research, but the assessment of keyword difficulty can often be perplexing and confusing. It is a critical step in developing a successful SEO campaign and understanding what it means is essential.

What is keyword difficulty?

Essentially, keyword difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword. It is a number that reflects how hard it will be for your website to gain organic visibility in search engine results by being placed in the top 10 organic results.

What determines the keyword difficulty score?

The keyword difficulty score is determined primarily by the number of competing websites and the authority of those websites. These metrics are king when it comes to keyword difficulty. How many websites are competing for the same keyword, and how powerful those competing websites are, are important factors in assessing the difficulty associated with that keyword.

How do you assess a keyword's difficulty?

The best way to assess the difficulty of a keyword is to use a tool such as Moz's Keyword Difficulty Tool, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools assess the competitive landscape of a keyword and offer a score from 0 - 100. The higher the score, the more difficult it is to rank for that keyword. It is recommended to start SEO campaigns for keywords with a difficulty score of under 40.

What other factors that are important to consider?

There are several other factors that should be taken into consideration when assessing keyword difficulty, including:

• Number of backlinks pointing to the URLs competing for the keyword
• The strength of the competing websites in terms of domain authority
• The on-page optimization of the competing pages
• The amount of time the competitors have had to optimize for the keyword
• The amount of content competing for the same keyword.

Conclusion

Keyword difficulty is a critical assessment of the difficulty associated with a particular keyword. Knowing this information can help marketers understand if the keyword is worth focusing on in their SEO campaigns. The best way to assess the difficulty of a keyword is to use a tool such as Moz's Keyword Difficulty Tool, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. Other important factors to consider when assessing keyword difficulty include the number of backlinks pointing to the URLs competing for the keyword, the strength of the competing websites in terms of domain authority, the on-page optimization of the competing pages, the amount of time the competitors have had to optimize for the keyword, and the amount of content competing for the same keyword.

Brief Recap

In conclusion, keyword difficulty provides a measure of difficulty associated with a particular keyword and should be taken into consideration when planning an SEO campaign. Tools such as Moz's Keyword Difficulty Tool, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help assess the difficulty of a keyword. Other factors such as the number of backlinks, domain authority, on-page optimization, the amount of time competitors have had to optimize for the keyword, and the amount of content competing for the same keyword should also be taken into consideration when assessing keyword difficulty.