How to Calculate Keyword Difficulty for SEO: The Ultimate Guide

Keyword difficulty is one of the most important concepts to understand in SEO. By calculating how hard it will be to rank for a specific keyword, you can build a smarter SEO strategy, prioritize your efforts, and get better results.

But what exactly is keyword difficulty? How do you calculate it? And how do you use keyword difficulty scores to guide your SEO campaigns?

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll answer all of those questions and more. You‘ll learn:

What keyword difficulty is and why it matters
The key factors that influence keyword difficulty
How to calculate keyword difficulty, step-by-step
Tips for prioritizing keywords based on difficulty scores
Tools and resources to streamline your keyword research

Whether you‘re an SEO beginner or a seasoned pro, this guide will give you the knowledge you need to master keyword difficulty. Let‘s dive in!

What is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword difficulty (also known as keyword competition or SEO difficulty) is a measure of how hard it will be to rank on the first page of search results for a particular keyword.

In other words, it‘s an estimate of the level of effort and resources required to outrank your competitors and claim a top spot for your target keyword.

Keyword difficulty is typically expressed as a numerical score, like 1-100 or 1-10. The higher the number, the more difficult the keyword.

For example, a long-tail keyword with low search volume, like "best vegetarian restaurants in northwest Portland," will likely have a very low difficulty score. There just aren‘t that many pages optimized for this specific phrase.

On the flip side, a popular head keyword like "weight loss" will have an extremely high difficulty score. Ranking for this keyword would be incredibly challenging due to the sheer number of high-authority websites targeting it.

Why Keyword Difficulty Matters

Understanding keyword difficulty is crucial for SEO success for a few key reasons:

It helps you pick your battles. By focusing on keywords that offer the best combination of high search volume, high relevance, and low competition, you can get more bang for your SEO buck.
It saves you time and resources. There‘s no point wasting time creating content and building links for keywords that are virtually unwinnable. Keyword difficulty analysis helps you spot those untouchable search terms early.
It makes your SEO strategy smarter. When you understand the competitive landscape for your niche, you can be more strategic in your content creation, link building, and promotional efforts.
It helps you forecast and report results. By considering keyword difficulty, you can set smarter traffic and revenue goals. You can also explain to stakeholders or clients why some keywords are taking longer to rank than others.

Bottom line, keyword difficulty should be a key part of your SEO process. Armed with this data, you can make better decisions and drive more successful results.

Factors That Impact Keyword Difficulty

Now that you understand what keyword difficulty is and why it‘s important, let‘s explore the specific factors that influence ranking difficulty.

While every tool calculates keyword difficulty a bit differently, most consider the following key variables:

Search volume: In general, keywords with higher search volumes will be more competitive and harder to rank for. More eyeballs = more competition.
Competitor page authority: The authority of the pages currently ranking on page 1 is a major factor. If those spots are held by big brands with super high domain ratings and tons of quality backlinks, you‘ll have a tougher time outranking them.
Competitor website authority: Beyond page-level authority, the overall authority of the domains ranking on page 1 matters too. A new website will have a harder time outranking massive, household-name domains.
On-page optimization: How well optimized are the top-ranking pages for the keyword? Do they use the keyword in their title tag, URL, header tags, and frequently throughout the copy? The more relevant the page, the harder it will be to beat.
Content quality and depth: Google wants to rank the most useful, in-depth content for each search query. If the pages in the top spots have extremely thorough, high-quality content, the bar will be higher for you.
Use of SERP features: For some keywords, SERP features like featured snippets, "People Also Ask" boxes, and video carousels will be present. These take up valuable real estate and can make it harder to get clicks even if you are ranking on page 1.

When you‘re calculating keyword difficulty, it‘s important to look at the full competitive landscape and consider as many of these factors as possible. Only then can you get an accurate picture of how hard ranking for a keyword will be.

How to Calculate Keyword Difficulty

Ready to calculate some keyword difficulty scores? Here‘s a step-by-step process you can use:

Make a list of the keywords you want to analyze. Focus on search terms that are relevant to your business and that prospective customers are likely to use.
For each keyword on your list, gather the following data:
- Average monthly search volume
- Current ranking position (if applicable)
- Number of search results
- Domain authority of websites ranking on page 1
- Page authority of pages ranking in the top spots
- Number and quality of backlinks pointing to the top ranking pages
- On-page optimization of the top ranking pages (use of the keyword in key elements)
- Presence of SERP features
Plug this data into the following formula to calculate a difficulty score on a scale of 1-100:

Keyword Difficulty = (Competition Score + Relevance Score + SERP Features Score) / Search Volume

Where:

Competition Score = Assessment of competitor page/domain authority and backlink profiles
Relevance Score = Analysis of on-page optimization and relevance of top ranking pages
SERP Features Score = Evaluation of the impact of SERP features on organic traffic potential
Search Volume = Average monthly search volume for the keyword

Analyze your keyword difficulty scores and bucket your keywords into categories like "low difficulty," "medium difficulty," and "high difficulty."
Use these difficulty scores to prioritize your keyword targets, guide your content strategy, and set smarter expectations for your SEO results.

Here‘s an example of what your keyword research might look like:

In this example, we can see that a keyword like "project management software" has a very high difficulty score due to its large search volume and the presence of big brands in the SERP.

On the other hand, a long-tail keyword like "best project management software for small teams" has a lower difficulty score. While it has a smaller search volume, there‘s less competition, making it a more feasible target.

Tools for Calculating Keyword Difficulty

While you can gather all the data you need to assess keyword difficulty manually, there are plenty of great tools out there that can help automate the process.

Some top options include:

Most of these tools operate on a freemium model. You can use them to assess a limited number of keywords for free, but will need a paid subscription to check difficulty scores at scale.

Here‘s a quick overview of how a few of the most popular tools calculate keyword difficulty:

Ahrefs: Uses a weighted formula that looks at the number of referring domains to the top ranking pages. Expressed on a scale of 1-100.
Moz: Predicts how difficult it will be for a new page to break into the top 10 search results based on the Page Authority and Domain Authority of pages currently ranking. Expressed on a scale of 1-100.
SEMrush: Estimates how hard it would be to outrank competitors‘ pages based on factors like number of referring domains, webpage authority, and trust scores. Expressed on a scale of 1-100.

No matter which tool you choose, remember that keyword difficulty scores are always an estimate. Many other variables — like the quality of your content and the authority of your domain — will influence your ability to rank. Use these scores as a guideline, not gospel.

Frequently Asked Questions About Keyword Difficulty

Before we wrap up, let‘s address some common questions about calculating and using keyword difficulty for SEO:

What‘s a "good" keyword difficulty score?
This will depend on your website‘s authority and your available resources, but in general, focus on keywords in the 10-30 range if you‘re just starting out. As you build your authority, you can start targeting more competitive keywords.

How often should I assess keyword difficulty?
The SEO landscape is always changing, so it‘s a good idea to check your target keyword difficulty scores every few months. You may find that some have gotten easier or harder to rank for over time.

Can I rank for a keyword with a high difficulty score?
Yes, but it will take more time and effort. If you have your heart set on a competitive keyword, be prepared to invest significant resources into content creation, link building, and promotion.

Should I only go after low difficulty keywords?
Not necessarily. Low difficulty usually correlates with low search volume. The sweet spot is keywords with high search volume, high relevance, and relatively low competition. But you‘ll also want to mix in some low-difficulty, low-volume keywords for long-tail traffic.

Wrapping Up

Keyword difficulty is a crucial concept for any SEO strategy. By understanding how hard it will be to rank for specific keywords, you can make smarter choices about where to focus your time and effort.

While many beginners are tempted to go after the biggest, juiciest keywords in their niche, that‘s usually a recipe for frustration. The smarter play is to analyze difficulty early in your keyword research process. Hunt for those golden nuggets that offer great potential with less competition.

That‘s how you start seeing SEO traction faster. That‘s how you avoid burnout and discouragement. And that‘s how you ultimately build a sustainable, profitable organic presence for your brand.

The key takeaways:

Keyword difficulty measures how hard it will be to rank for a keyword based on variables like search volume, page authority, domain authority, competitor optimization, content quality, and SERP features.
Calculating keyword difficulty is essential for building an effective SEO strategy, prioritizing your efforts, and forecasting results.
To calculate keyword difficulty, gather key SEO metrics for your target keywords and plug them into a formula that considers search volume, competition levels, and page relevance.
Keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush can help automate keyword difficulty analysis.
Focus on a mix of low, medium, and high difficulty keywords to get quick wins while making progress toward bigger SEO goals.

Now it‘s time to put this guide into practice. Fire up your favorite keyword research tool, grab your spreadsheet, and start analyzing difficulty scores. The more you practice, the better you‘ll get at identifying smart keyword targets.

Have any other questions about assessing keyword difficulty? Tweet us at @seofriendly — we‘re always happy to help!