How to Check Keyword Difficulty Using Top 5 SEO Tools and Manual Methods

Do you want to know what keyword difficulty is and how toanalyze in order to be able to classify your keywords targets in the SERP?

You know it's every blogger's dream to rank their keywords in the top 10 SERP results.

But nowadays it is not so easy to get to the first page of the SERP for any keyword.

Gone are the days when just by placing your target keyword in important places in your post, you would get the #1 position.

To outperform existing sites, you need to consider a few performance indicators. SEO such as search volume, keyword trend, cost per click, keyword difficulty, etc. before targeting a keyword.

And keyword difficulty is one of the most important metrics, especially for beginners. Keyword difficulty determines how difficult it is for a new website to outperform existing sites.

So, in this article, we will share a complete guide on analyzing keyword difficulty for beginners.

Additionally, we will cover the top 5 tools of SEO (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, KWFinder, Serpstat) for analyze keyword difficulty scores as well as some manual methods.

Be sure to read until the end, as we will share our final verdict on the KD score of the tool SEO which is the most accurate.

A brief overview of what you can learn from this article?

• What is keyword difficulty?
• What does keyword difficulty score mean?
• How to Check Keyword Difficulty Using SEO Tools?
• Manually determine keyword competition.
• How to classify keywords desired?

So, before we get into the details of keyword difficulty analysis, let’s find out what keyword difficulty is.

Table of contents ☰

What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is one of the most important SEO metrics that shows how difficult it is to rank a keyword in the top positions in search engine results pages.

Keyword difficulty is also known as keyword competition .

The higher the SEO difficulty score for a keyword, the higher the competition and the lower the chances of ranking for the same keyword.

The lower the SEO difficulty score for any keyword, the lower the competition and the higher the likelihood of outranking existing websites for the same keyword.

So it is always recommended to target keywords that have a low difficulty score, especially for beginners.

But now the question arises: what is the keyword difficulty score and how to check it.

So in the next section we will cover both.

But before that, you need to understand the difference between keyword difficulty and paid difficulty because there is always some confusion between keyword difficulty and paid difficulty.

Keyword difficulty or SEO difficulty relates to organic rankings while paid difficulty refers to competition in paid search.

Now we are sure that you are clear enough about what keyword difficulty is and how important it could be for you.

The difficulty of all keywords is an important ranking factor.

Keyword difficulty score is what matters most for analyze the difficulty of a keyword.

As keyword difficulty primarily depends on keyword difficulty score, to make things clearer, let's find out what is the meaning of keyword difficulty score.

But before that, let’s try to understand some important factors that contribute to keyword difficulty.

What Factors Affect SEO Difficulty

1. Keyword Intent

Keyword intent is one of the most important factors that contribute to keyword difficulty.

This is simply related to the purpose of the query any user is searching for.

Ley says we search for “what’s my location” in the Google search bar.

Here I intend to find the current location of mine, right?

And when we search for the same keyword, Google itself shows me the exact location of mine and the websites targeting that keyword compete with Google itself.

Let's take another example.

What if we searched for “what is my IP address”?

Again, Google will give me its own result and I won't need to open a website.

This is how keyword intent leads to keyword difficulty.

So don't target these generic terms otherwise you will end up wasting your time.

2. Quality of content

Content quality is another perspective that matters the most when calculating keyword difficulty.

This can be analyzed by crawling the content of websites ranking on the first page of Google for the keyword you want to rank for.

If you find sites with high-quality and up-to-date content ranking, you can imagine yourself how much keyword competition would be there.

And to surpass them you have to do a lot of hard work to write 10x content, nothing else.

3. Backlinks

Backlinks are considered the backbone of the off-page SEO and play a vital role in outperforming already ranked websites.

If you see that the website rankings currently contain backlinks from high authority sites, this is an indirect sign of strong competition on keywords.

4. The DA of competing sites

It is almost impossible to outperform higher authority sites.

And if the first page of Google SERP is filled with only high authority sites, it just means high SEO difficulty.

5. Your own site authority

This is another factor that can contribute to keyword difficulty.

Let’s say you are a beginner, then there would be a high chance that your site’s DA is less than 10.

And if the website ranking for the keyword you want to target has an average DA of 20, that will also be considered high keyword difficulty for you.

On the other hand, sites have 30 DAs targeting the same keyword, then it would be easy for that website to rank for the same keyword.

So next time when targeting a new keyword, focus on your own domain authority and then choose a keyword for which existing ranking sites have the least average authority or some sites have less of DA than yours.

So here are some of the important factors that can contribute to SEO difficulties.

Now let's move on to the details of the keyword difficulty score.

What is Keyword Difficulty Score?

Keyword difficulty score or SEO difficulty score is the result of analyzing keyword difficulty for any keyword in SEO tools.

There are many SEO tools available in the market that you can use to check keyword difficulty score.

All of these tools have their own keyword difficulty measurement and take into account different factors to measure keyword difficulty.

Unfortunately, you will see a huge gap in the keyword difficulty score of SEO tools and that is the reason why it is very difficult to say which SEO tool shows the most accurate data and which tool you should opt for check keyword difficulty.

Here we will describe the keyword difficulty score of the top 5 SEO tools and what factors they consider to measure keyword difficulty.

1. Semrush Keyword Difficulty Index

The very first tool we have is SEMrush which is used by around 5 million users.

Semrush measures keyword difficulty as a percentage (from 1 to 100%) which shows how difficult it is to surpass existing websites ranking in the top results of search engine results pages.

The higher the keyword difficulty percentage, the more effort you will need to put in to rank in the top results.

Semrush has ranked the Keyword Difficulty (KD) score into the following 6 categories.

Here is the breakdown.

1. 0 to 14 = Extremely easy. If you want to rank quickly on a new website, you need to target these keywords.
2. 15 to 29 = Easy. These keywords have some competition, but you can still rank for these keywords with quality content.
3. 30 to 49 = Possible. These keywords have slightly more competition, but you can rank higher with quality content and properly optimize your target keywords.
4. 50 to 69 = Difficult. You will especially need to build links to be able to rank for these keywords.
5. 70 to 84 = Difficult. You need to create top-notch content, build more links, optimize well, etc. to be able to rank for these keywords. It is best to ignore such high KD percentage keywords if you are running a new website.
6. 85 to 100 = Extremely hard. Don't use these keywords unless you are running an authority website with a ton of links.

How does Semrush calculate keyword difficulty?

The median number of backlinks and median authority score for domain rankings as well as the relative link weight are what MOSTLY SEMrush takes into account when calculating the KD (Keyword Difficulty) score.

Should you trust Semrush for keyword difficulty?

For us, Semrush KD score works best . You can use it to get an idea of ​​the keyword you want to rank for and then do some manual research on your own.

Want to try Semrush?

2. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Score

Ahrefs measures keyword difficulty on a scale of 0 to 100.

As you can see in the image above, the scale Ahrefs uses to measure keyword difficulty is non-linear and divided into 4 parts.

1. Easy (0-10): If you get a keyword difficulty of 0-10 for the keyword you searched for, it is considered easy and you only need backlinks of 0-10 referring domains.

2. Medium (11-30): Keyword difficulty ranges from 11 to 30 and is called medium and you will need inbound links from 11 to 36 unique domains.

3. Difficult (31-70): If you get a keyword difficulty between 31 and 70 for the query you searched for, it is considered difficult and you need backlinks from 37 to 200 referring domains.

4. Great Difficult (71-100) so aptly put it: Keyword difficulty ranges from 71 to 100 and is called Super Hard and you will need inbound links from over 200 unique domains.

This scale clearly shows that to rank for a keyword, you will need backlinks from a number of unique domains.

To be more specific, take a look at the correlation between keyword difficulty and the number of referring domains.

This shows that, if you want to rank for a keyword in the top 10 search results containing 50 KDs, you will need backlinks from around 84 referring domains.

How does Ahrefs calculate keyword difficulty?

To calculate keyword difficulty for any keyword, Ahrefs gives top priority to the number of referring domains that the first 10 ranking pages have.

This means that the more referring domains on top-ranking pages for a given keyword, the higher the keyword difficulty score for that keyword will be.

Should you trust Ahrefs for keyword difficulty?

No, if you're talking specifically about the KD score, the Ahrefs score is really bad.

Quick note: Ahrefs keyword difficulty determines the chances of placing your keywords in the top 10 results (not the top position or top 3).

Do you still want to try Ahrefs?

Further reading:

• Best Ahrefs Alternatives: Competitors in 2024

3. Moz Keyword Difficulty Score

When it comes to the Moz keyword difficulty score, there is no specific scale.

All they have to say is that a higher keyword difficulty score means it would be harder to outrank already ranked results and a lower difficulty score just means it would probably be easier to compete with existing results.

Take a look at the image below to learn about Moz Keyword Difficulty Score in detail.

That being said, the KD score is the AP-weighted average of the top 10 existing results and other entries such as DA, homepages, query term usage, etc.

How does Moz calculate keyword difficulty?

Moz calculates keyword difficulty for any keyword primarily based on the page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA) of the best existing Google results.

Should You Trust Moz for Keyword Difficulty?

It's better than Ahrefs. Can therefore be used to get an idea of ​​the SEO difficulty for any keyword.

Quick note: Like Ahrefs, Moz also takes into account the top 10 results from Google to determine the KD score for a given keyword.

Want to try the Moz tool?

Recently updated:

• Moz Alternatives: Tools Worth Trying to Improve Your SEO

4. KWFinder Keyword Difficulty Score

KWFinder shows keyword difficulty on a scale of 0 to 100 and it is divided into 6 different categories as shown in the image below.

The lower the KD score, the easier it is to rank the keyword on the 1st SERP.

How does KWFinder calculate keyword difficulty?

To determine the keyword difficulty of a given term, KWFinder calculates overall link profile strength (LPS) websites already ranked on the 1st page of Google SERP.

LPS is calculated taking into account the Moz (DA and PA) and Majestic (Citation flow and Trust flow) metrics.

And based on the LPS values ​​of all currently ranked websites, a KD score is displayed which shows how difficult it is to outrank already ranked websites.

Should you trust KWFinder for keyword difficulty?

Yes, KWFinder does a wonderful job and can be considered a good option to calculate keyword difficulty.

Want to try KWFinder?

5. Serpstat Keyword Difficulty Score

KD in Serpstat is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 and divided into 4 categories.

1. Easy: when the KD score is between 0 and 20, then it is considered low keyword difficulty and there is a high chance of ranking in the top 10 in Google for the requested keyword.

2. Medium: if the KD score is between 21 and 40, then the keyword difficulty is medium and there are relatively less chances of ranking on the first page of Google SERP.

3. Difficult: when the KD score is between 41 and 60, then it is considered as hard keyword difficulty and there is less probability of ranking in Google top 10.

4. Very difficult: if the KD score is between 61 and 100, then it is very difficult to guarantee a position in the top 10 of Google.

How Serpstat calculates keyword difficulty?

Serpstat takes into account the number of backlinks of the first 10 pages, where the average value is the KD.

In addition to the number of backlinks, many other parameters are involved to improve the accuracy of the KD, such as the number of referring domains, Serpstat Page Rank, Serpstat Trust Rank, domains with the keyword in the title, URL with the keyword in the title. title, main pages in SERP.

These are all the parameters that Serpstat takes into account to calculate keyword difficulty.

• Referring domains : displays the number of domains that reference the pages. of Google's top 10
• External backlinks — the number of backlinks pointing to Google top 10 pages
• Serpstat Page Rank refers to the number of backlinks your site has obtained
• Serpstat Trust Rank refers to the number of trustworthy and quality products. backlinks your site got
• Domains with the keyword in the title : number of domains containing the requested keyword in the title
• URL with keyword in title : the number of pages containing the keyword requested in the title
• Main pages in SERP indicate how many main pages are in the top 10 of SERP.

Should you trust Serpstat for keyword difficulty?

Yes, Serpstat results look important and one can use them to get an overview of keyword difficulty score.

Would you likeYou reprise the theme of the still try Serpstat?

So here are the details related to the keyword difficulty score of the top 5 SEO tools.

What we analyzed from this study is that each tool has its own keyword difficulty formula to calculate the KD score. So one needs to consider several factors while aiming to rank any term in the Google SERP.

Let’s find out how to check keyword difficulty using SEO tools.

How to Check Keyword Difficulty Using Top 5 SEO Tools

We tried to check keyword difficulty for 10 keywords and found some shocking results.

The first keyword, I checked the keyword difficulty for “ahrefs promo code” and got the following results.

1. Semrush Keyword Difficulty Index: 63% (difficult)

Semrush resulted in a Keyword Difficulty Index of 63%, meaning it is difficult to rank for this keyword.

To check keyword difficulty for any keyword, go to Semrush Keyword Magic Tool, enter the keyword for which you want to check keyword difficulty and click on the search button.

Once you click on the search button, all the SEO metrics data important keywords (volume, trend, KD%, CPC, etc.) related to this keyword as well as other broad match keywords will be displayed.

From here, you can also select other filters such as questions, phrase match, exact match, and related advanced filters.

Once you select a particular keyword from the displayed result, all the relevant information related to that keyword will be presented to you in more detail.

2. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Score: 3 (easy)

When we checked the same keyword in Ahrefs tool, I got a keyword difficulty of 3 only. This means there is almost no keyword difficulty and you need backlinks from 4 domains to rank in the top 10 results for that keyword.

3. Moz Keyword Difficulty Score: for the Moz tool, I got an SEO difficulty score of 27.

4. KWFinder Keyword Difficulty Score: KWFinder resulted in a difficulty of 18 keywords, which means it is easy to rank for this keyword.

5. Serpstat Keyword Difficulty Score: Serpstat got a keyword difficulty of 12,65. This means it is easy to rank for this keyword.

Basically the keyword difficulty score for that keyword varies from 3 to 63 .

So, based on these results, you can clearly see that there is a huge gap in the keyword difficulty score of these top SEO tools.

Additionally, we tested other keywords for keyword difficulty and again found the same results as shown in the image below.

These results clearly show that you cannot rely entirely on SEO tools.

So what is the solution ?

Manual analysis?

Yes!!

But before that, let's take a quick look at our personal verdict on the SEO difficulty of these 5 SEO tools.

Small Verdict on the Accuracy of SEO Tools’ Keyword Difficulty Score

All 5 SEO tools I included here are top-notch and have a massive user base.

And we have been using these tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, KWFinder and Serpstat) for a very long time.

If we only talk about measuring keyword difficulty, based on our experience and research above, Semrush data seems the most important and the Ahrefs data seems the worst to me.

Want to use Semrush to check the competition for your target keywords?

Additionally, KWFinder from Mangools also does a good job.

Ahrefs only considers the number of referring domains while other tools consider DA, PA, backlinks, referring domains and other factors to calculate keyword difficulty.

That being said, no tool is 100% accurate and it is up to you how you use and benefit from these tools.

How to manually analyze SEO keyword competition?

As we have seen, each SEO tool gives a unique value to keyword competition, so it is best to get an idea from these tools and then do some manual research on your end and find better keywords to target.

So, we present to you the best ways to manually analyze keyword difficulty.

1. Keyword Golden Ratio

The Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) is the most popular technique to find the keywords which have huge demand but less supply on the Internet.

And if you target these keywords, chances are you can rank the same within days or even hours.

The KGR can help you with:

• Getting your initial traffic and sales
• Prioritize the keywords you need to target

The best advantage of using the KGR method is that it is a manual process and the data you get from it will not be available to those using SEO tools.

Now you must be wondering how to use it, right?

As you can see, KGR is the ratio of all title results divided by search volume.

If this ratio for a keyword is < 0,25, then it is GREAT to target and you can rank in the top 50 as soon as your page is indexed.

Note : To achieve this, you need to target keywords with search volume below 250. This way, all the title results would be around 63.

If the KGR is between 0,25 and 1,00, your page can therefore rank in the top 250 quite quickly.

And if the KGR is above 1,00, then it's BAD and not worth targeting.

Allintitle: This is an advanced search feature of Google that allows you to find the total number of results containing all the words in the Meta title of the article.

Let’s say we searched for “ahrefs promo code” and got 228 results. This means that there are a total of 228 articles indexed that contain the exact keyword in their meta title.

Now take a look at the step-by-step process for finding the right keywords to target.

1. Find long-tail keywords with a search volume below 250.

2. Filter the list by choosing keywords with a difficulty score below 30 because they are easy to rank for.

Here we searched for the term “best Chromebook for writers” using the KWFinder tool which has 220 search volumes and 17 is the keyword difficulty. This means that our two conditions are met.

3. Check the number of Google results having the same phrase in the Meta title.

Note : the fewer allintitle results, the better the chances of ranking for the same keyword.

4. Calculate the KGR.

Here the KGR would be <0,36 (220/81) and it could work.

This way, you can follow the steps above to find keywords that are easy to rank for.

Target keywords with a keyword golden ratio less than 0,25.

2. Analyze Domain Authority

The next method you can use to manually check keyword competition is the domain authority of already ranked websites.

Whenever we talk about domain authority, you need to consider two things.

Page Authority (PA): it shows how powerful a single page is on any website.

Domain Authority (DA): It is linked to the entire domain and ensures the best ranking of a domain and all its pages.

To analyze keyword competition, you first need to know your domain authority and then the domain authority of websites ranking in Google SERP for the keyword you want to rank for.

To do this, you can take advantage of some Chrome extensions like SEOquake, MozBar, etc.

We installed a MozBar Chrome extension to make our work easier. It will show me DA, PA and link count of all sites ranked in Google search engine results pages.

Again, if we search for “best Chromebook for writers” and analyze the SERP for domain authority, I can also determine how much competition there is for that keyword.

So, you can analyze the domain authority of websites ranking on the first page of the SERP and further use these DA sites to determine keyword competition. Make sure you only target relevant keywords.

3. SERP Volatility

Next, you can consider the movement of ranking pages on the first page of the SERP.

If you see no minimum changes in SERP positions for the keyword you want to rank for and each page is able to secure its position for a long period of time, this indicates that the keyword difficulty is high.

As we concluded that there are many SEO tools available to determine keyword difficulty, but manual keyword difficulty analysis is essential to finalize the right keywords to target.

Now let's explore what it takes to rank for your desired keywords.

How to rank for the desired keyword?

Based on the above study, we found that each tool uses a different formula to calculate SEO difficulty and there is a huge gap in SEO difficulty for the keywords we analyzed.

And all because of this, it is very difficult for beginners to understand how to rank for their desired keyword.

Next, we have also explained two ways to manually check keyword competition that can definitely help you choose better keywords to work on.

Here we will share some common factors that contribute to better rankings.

1. Quality Content

They say content is king and that’s absolutely true. The very first thing that Google considers when ranking websites is the quality of the content.

And for beginners, it's only the content that they can use to beat competitors because in most cases you won't have quality backlinks or domain authority.

So if you can write 10x better content to that of sites already ranking for the desired keyword, chances are you can outrank them.

2. User Intent

User intent is another important perspective that can help you rank better for your desired keyword.

If your content is good enough to satisfy searchers, you can also beat existing websites.

Waiting time and the bounce rate are some factors that can make your website trustworthy in the eyes of Google.

And as soon as Google sees that your page satisfies user intent more than others, your website will definitely rank higher.

3. Backlinks

Backlinks also play a crucial role in ranking content in Google SERP.

Google considers each backlink to a website as a vote and websites with a higher number of backlinks tend to rank higher.

That being said, the number of referring domains, linking page quality, anchor text, etc. are important factors. are also very important.

4. Domain Authority

This is the most controversial factor when it comes to ranking a website.

Google claims that it does not use domain authority as a ranking factor, while most SEO experts believe that there is a correlation between domain authority and better rankings.

According to Ahrefs' study, you can consider three things:

• Google sometimes gives preference to high domain site pages in search results, directly or indirectly.
• Interconnecting strong websites gives an added advantage to all other pages which lead to higher rankings in Google.
• A weak website having comparatively more quality backlinks can outperform a strong website.

Finally, they concluded that high authority websites are the brand name and that is the reason why people click on the pages of these websites even though low authority sites rank with them.

So do the manual analysis while taking advantage of SEO tools and consider the factors that contribute to higher rankings.

Browse more SEO tutorials:

• How to check if your website is penalized by Google
• Bing SEO: A simple and practical guide for beginners
• Top 12 Ahrefs Alternatives: Free and Paid SEO Tools to Use
• How to optimize WordPress SEO – The detailed guide
• What is EEAT in SEO? How to optimize it on a website?
• 100 SEO Glossary Terms For Beginners To Know
• What is SEO? The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
• 11 Types of SEO: What Are They and How to Use Them?
• How to Reoptimize Your Existing Blog Content to Skyrocket Your Search Traffic
• 10 Best Link Building Tools to Find Link Opportunities
• Link Building Strategy for Niche Sites: The Ultimate Guide
• Link Building Awareness: A Simple Beginner’s Guide 
• Things to Balance When Doing SEO: 5 Important Things 

---

Some FAQs on Keyword Competition

Latest Thoughts

This all has to do with keyword difficulty.

We have shared everything about SEO difficulty, including what keyword difficulty is, what is SEO difficulty score, how to check keyword difficulty, and how to rank for your desired keywords.

From the above study and research, it is clear that each tool has different keyword difficulty, so it is not worth trusting these tools blindly.

Unfortunately, most beginners make the same mistake by relying entirely on SEO tools.

So this is our personal advice to beginners that you can use these SEO tools to get a quick idea, but don't rely entirely on these tools.

It's best to manually search the Google SERP by analyzing the top 10 already ranked results for the keyword you want to rank for.

We hope you find this article interesting to read.

So, the next time you consider targeting a keyword, consider these tips and see the improvements.