Keyword Difficulty

What Is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword difficulty helps you deploy your SEO resources where they have the greatest effect. Keywords with low difficulty and relevant search volume offer the best quick wins, while highly competitive keywords require a long-term strategy with strong link building. Without this assessment, you risk spending months optimizing for keywords for which your domain doesn’t yet have the necessary authority.

Keyword difficulty refers to the degree of difficulty involved in ranking on the first page of Google search results for a specific keyword. This metric is calculated by SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Sistrix and helps marketers decide which keywords are realistic and which require more effort. A keyword with low difficulty is easier to rank for, while keywords with high difficulty require strong domain authority and comprehensive content.

The calculation is done by analyzing the existing top 10 results: how many backlinks do these pages have? How old are the domains? How technically optimized are they? From this data, a score (usually 0–100) is calculated. Google does not use these metrics directly — they are estimates by SEO tools based on observed ranking data. Low keyword difficulty does not automatically mean ranking is easy; it also depends on search volume, competitor quality, and the strength of your own website.

In practice, new websites or niche websites should start with keywords of low to medium difficulty. A “Difficulty 15” keyword may sound easier than “Difficulty 75,” and is often a smarter strategic decision. Long-tail keywords typically have lower difficulty scores and often combine low search volume with high conversion chances. A mix of attainable keywords and some “target keywords” with higher difficulty is a solid strategy.