Fundamentals
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is an estimate, usually on a 0 to 100 scale, of how hard it is to rank on the first page for a given keyword.
It is based largely on the strength of the sites already ranking. Newer sites should target lower-difficulty terms first and build authority before chasing competitive ones. It is a guide for prioritisation, not an exact prediction.
Difficulty scores mostly compress one input: the link profiles of the current first page. They miss the things that decide marginal cases, whether those pages actually answer the query, whether they are exact-match or incidental rankings, and whether the SERP is stable or churning. A manual check of the top ten tells you more: weak pages from strong domains are beatable, strong pages from weak domains are a warning. The score orders a spreadsheet well; the eyeball decides what this quarter's content plan should actually chase.
Example
A new travel blog checks two targets: "things to do in bangkok" scores 72, first page held by TripAdvisor, Timeout and airline magazines. "things to do in ari bangkok" scores 8, first page held by thin forum threads. The blog wins the second within a month, and uses fifty such wins to build the authority the first requires.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I check keyword difficulty properly?
- Use the tool score to shortlist, then read the actual first page. Check whether the ranking pages answer the query directly or incidentally, how strong their specific pages are, and whether any weak site is holding a spot. That reading beats the score alone.
- What difficulty range should a new website target?
- Roughly the bottom third of whatever scale your tool uses, and even then verify by eye. A new domain wins by stacking many easy terms into topical authority first; competitive head terms only become realistic after that base exists.
Related terms
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