Keyword Difficulty Explained: How Hard Is It to Rank?

Keyword research becomes much more useful once you understand one number that appears in almost every SEO tool: Keyword Difficulty.

You enter a keyword into Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Ubersuggest, or another keyword research platform, and alongside search volume you see a difficulty score. Sometimes it is 12. Sometimes 47. Sometimes 82.

It is tempting to treat that number as a simple instruction: low number means write about it, high number means stay away.

SEO is rarely that straightforward.

Keyword Difficulty is an estimate of how difficult it may be to rank for a particular search query. It can help you compare keywords and narrow down a large list, but it does not tell the complete story. Two keywords with almost identical difficulty scores can present very different opportunities once you look at the actual Google search results.

That distinction matters, especially for a relatively new website.

A keyword with a difficulty score of 35 might be a realistic target for one website and a frustrating project for another. The difference can come from backlinks, topical relevance, content quality, website authority, search intent, the strength of competing pages, and even what Google is actually displaying for that query.

So, instead of asking whether a keyword is “easy” or “hard,” it is more useful to ask a better question:

How difficult would this particular search result be for my website to compete in?

That is what Keyword Difficulty can help you investigate.

What Is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword Difficulty is an SEO metric designed to estimate how difficult it may be for a page to reach the first page of Google’s organic search results for a particular keyword.

Most SEO platforms represent the metric on a scale from 0 to 100, although the exact calculation and interpretation differ between tools.

A lower score generally suggests that the existing search results have weaker competitive signals. A higher score generally indicates that established pages with stronger authority, backlinks, or other competitive characteristics dominate the results.

But there is an important detail that is often missed.

Keyword Difficulty is not a Google ranking factor, and it is not a score provided by Google.

It is a third-party estimate created by SEO software companies.

Google does not publish a “Keyword Difficulty score” for keywords. Each SEO platform collects search-result and other data and uses its own formula to estimate competition.

For example, Ahrefs says its keyword difficulty metric is primarily based on the referring domains pointing to the top-ranking pages. Semrush uses a broader calculation that considers factors such as backlinks, domain authority signals, search volume and SERP characteristics.

That is why a keyword can show a different difficulty score in different SEO tools.

The number is useful, but it should be treated as a benchmark rather than a verdict.

Why Does Keyword Difficulty Matter?

Imagine that you have 500 keyword ideas for your website.

You cannot realistically research every keyword in detail. You need a way to reduce that list to a manageable group.

This is where Keyword Difficulty becomes useful.

Suppose you find these three keywords:

The numbers immediately tell you something about the competitive landscape.

The first keyword may have enormous traffic potential, but it is likely to require considerable authority and resources. The third keyword may have a much smaller audience, but its specificity could make it more realistic for a newer website.

This does not mean the third keyword is automatically the correct choice.

You still need to examine the search intent, the pages currently ranking, the quality of those pages and whether the keyword is valuable to your audience.

Keyword Difficulty simply helps you decide where to look more closely.

How Do SEO Tools Calculate Keyword Difficulty?

There is no universal formula.

This is one of the most important things to understand before you start using keyword difficulty scores to make content decisions.

Ahrefs, for example, calculates its keyword difficulty score using the number of referring domains pointing to the top 10 organic search results. Its documentation specifically notes that its keyword difficulty calculation does not include on-page SEO factors.

Semrush takes a broader approach. Its current methodology considers factors including referring domains, Authority Score, link characteristics, search volume and SERP features.

Other tools have their own formulas.

That means a keyword showing a keyword difficulty of 30 in one tool might not show 30 in another.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this. The tools are measuring the same general concept using different datasets and models.

The mistake is assuming that a keyword difficulty score is an objective measurement in the same way that a physical measurement is.

It isn’t.

Think of it as a weather forecast. It gives you useful information about the conditions you may encounter, but it does not physically control the weather.

Backlinks Are a Major Part of Ranking Difficulty

One reason backlinks appear so prominently in Keyword Difficulty calculations is that strong links can make a ranking page difficult to displace.

Imagine two articles targeting the same topic.

Both are well written. Both answer the searcher’s question. Both are technically optimized.

One article has been referenced by 120 relevant websites. The other has no external websites linking to it.

Those pages are not starting from the same position.

This is why tools such as Ahrefs place significant emphasis on referring domains when calculating keyword difficulty. Its documentation describes keyword difficulty as a proxy for the link popularity of the top-ranking pages.

However, there is another important distinction:

Backlinks are not the same thing as referring domains.

If 20 links come from the same website, you have 20 backlinks but only one referring domain.

For competitive analysis, the number of unique websites linking to a page can provide a more useful picture of how widely that page has earned references.

This is also why you should avoid looking only at the total backlink number shown by an SEO tool.

A page with hundreds of low-quality links is not necessarily stronger than a page with a smaller number of relevant, authoritative references.

A Low Keyword Difficulty Score Does Not Guarantee a Ranking

This is where many beginner SEO strategies go wrong.

Someone finds a keyword with a keyword difficulty of 12, creates an article and expects Google to rank it.

Nothing happens.

The keyword was supposedly easy.

The problem is that the keyword difficulty score never promised a ranking.

It only estimated one aspect of the competitive environment.

Your content could still fail because it does not satisfy search intent. Your website may have little topical relevance. The competing pages may be better structured. Your article may not answer important questions. The query may be dominated by established brands. Or the SERP may simply favor a different type of content.

This is why Ahrefs itself recommends manually studying the top-ranking pages rather than relying on keyword difficulty alone.

The search results are where the theory meets reality.

Search Intent Can Change Everything

Consider the keyword:

best email marketing software

Now compare it with:

how to create an email newsletter

Both relate to email marketing, but the searcher’s expectations are different.

Someone searching for the first phrase is probably comparing products. They may expect reviews, comparisons, pricing information and recommendations.

Someone searching for the second phrase is probably looking for instructions.

If you create a 2,500-word tutorial for the first keyword when Google predominantly ranks software comparisons, your content may not perform well even if the article is excellent.

This is one reason Keyword Difficulty should never be separated from search intent.

Before deciding whether a keyword is worth targeting, search it yourself.

Look at the pages that appear.

Are they guides?

Product pages?

Category pages?

Comparison articles?

Forums?

Videos?

Official documentation?

Local businesses?

If your planned content does not resemble the type of result Google is rewarding, the difficulty score becomes almost irrelevant.

The SERP Is Your Reality Check

A keyword tool can tell you that a keyword has a keyword difficulty of 25.

Google can tell you whether that keyword is actually interesting.

Search the keyword in an incognito window or use a location appropriate to your audience. Then inspect the results.

Do not just look at the first result.

Look at the entire first page.

If you see several relatively small websites ranking, outdated articles, thin pages, forum discussions or results that only partially answer the query, there may be an opening.

On the other hand, if every result comes from extremely established websites and the pages are comprehensive, heavily referenced and closely aligned with the query, the actual challenge may be much greater than the number suggests.

This manual check is particularly valuable for smaller websites.

You are not really competing against a number.

You are competing against specific pages.

Domain Authority and Page Strength Are Not the Same Thing

Another common mistake is seeing a high-authority domain ranking for a keyword and immediately deciding that the keyword is impossible.

That conclusion can be premature.

A large website can have an enormous domain-level authority while the individual page ranking for your keyword has a relatively modest backlink profile.

This is why page-level analysis matters.

Suppose a major website ranks in position four for your keyword. Its domain is powerful, but the specific article has very few referring domains and does not answer the query particularly well.

That is different from a SERP where every top-ranking page has a strong backlink profile and years of topical coverage.

The domain matters, but the page matters too.

This is one reason why looking at the actual URLs in the SERP is more informative than simply checking the authority score of the websites.

Keyword Difficulty and Search Volume Are Different Metrics

Search volume tells you approximately how often people search for a keyword.

Keyword Difficulty estimates how difficult it may be to compete for it.

They answer different questions.

A keyword with 50,000 searches per month may be difficult to rank for. A keyword with 300 searches may also be difficult if the commercial value is high and established businesses are aggressively competing for it.

Conversely, a keyword with relatively high search volume may sometimes present an opportunity if the existing results are weak or the query has several different interpretations.

Do not assume:

High volume = impossible

or:

Low volume = easy

Neither formula is reliable.

The relationship between traffic potential, search intent and ranking competition is more complicated.

A page can also rank for hundreds of related queries after being created for one primary keyword. Ahrefs notes that traffic potential can therefore provide additional context beyond the search volume of a single keyword.

This is particularly relevant when deciding whether a topic deserves a complete article.

Why Keyword Difficulty Scores Differ Between Tools

Let’s say you enter the same keyword into three platforms and get:

• Tool A: Keyword Difficulty 18
• Tool B: Keyword Difficulty 31
• Tool C: Keyword Difficulty 47

Which one is correct?

There may not be a single correct number.

Different platforms use different formulas, databases, crawl frequencies and ranking signals.

Ahrefs explicitly explains that its keyword difficulty focuses on referring domains to top-ranking pages, while Semrush incorporates a wider collection of SERP and keyword characteristics.

Therefore, it is better to use the same tool consistently when comparing keywords within your own research process.

If one keyword has a lower score than another in the same platform, that comparison can be useful.

Jumping between tools and treating their numbers as directly interchangeable is much less useful.

What Is a Good Keyword Difficulty Score?

There is no universal number that qualifies as “good.”

This is perhaps the most important answer in the entire article.

You will often see recommendations such as:

“Target keyword difficulty below 30.”

Or:

“New websites should target keywords below 20.”

These can be useful starting filters, but they are not SEO laws.

A website with strong topical authority and a substantial backlink profile can compete for keywords that a brand-new site should probably avoid.

Meanwhile, a newer website may occasionally rank for a keyword with a surprisingly high difficulty score if the SERP contains an opportunity that the metric does not fully capture.

Your acceptable keyword difficulty range depends on your website.

A practical way to think about it is to examine the keywords your website is already ranking for.

If your site consistently ranks well for keywords with keyword difficulty between 10 and 25, moving gradually toward more competitive terms makes sense.

If your site is already ranking for terms in the 40s and 50s, there may be little reason to artificially restrict your research to keyword difficulty below 20.

Your own ranking history can become a useful benchmark.

How to Check Keyword Difficulty Manually

You do not necessarily need an expensive SEO platform to understand whether a keyword is competitive.

Start with Google.

Search the exact query and examine the first page.

Then ask yourself a few practical questions.

Are the top results genuinely answering the query?

Are they recent enough?

Do they cover the subject thoroughly?

Are the pages from websites that are clearly authoritative in the topic?

Do the ranking pages have substantial backlinks?

Are there smaller websites among the results?

Does the search result contain forums, Reddit discussions, outdated pages or weak articles?

Is Google showing a featured snippet, People Also Ask results, videos, shopping results, local results or an AI-generated answer?

The answers give you a more complete picture of the SERP.

You can then use a free or paid SEO tool to inspect the backlink profiles and other metrics of the ranking pages.

This combination is much stronger than blindly filtering a keyword list by keyword difficulty.

A Keyword with High Keyword Difficulty Can Still Be Worth Targeting

High difficulty does not automatically mean “never write about it.”

Sometimes a high-value keyword deserves a place in your content strategy even if you cannot realistically rank for it immediately.

For example, imagine your website is about SEO.

The keyword “SEO” may be extremely competitive.

You probably would not expect a relatively young website to reach Google’s first page immediately for that broad term.

But you can still build content around related topics such as keyword research, long-tail keywords, technical SEO, internal linking, Search Console and content optimization.

Over time, these articles can help establish topical depth.

The broader keyword can remain a long-term target rather than becoming the only keyword you pursue today.

SEO works better as a progression than as a lottery ticket.

Keyword Difficulty Should Influence Your Content Strategy

The real value of Keyword Difficulty appears when you stop treating individual keywords as isolated targets.

Suppose your website wants to build authority around keyword research.

You might have a broad topic such as “keyword research.”

Underneath it could sit more specific searches such as:

“how to do keyword research for a new website”

“how to find long-tail keywords”

“how to find low competition keywords”

“keyword difficulty explained”

“how to analyze competitor keywords”

“how to use Google Search Console for keyword research”

Each article addresses a different question.

Some may have lower difficulty than the broad topic. Others may be more competitive.

Together, they create a useful content cluster.

This approach allows a smaller website to build depth before attempting the most competitive search terms.

It also creates natural opportunities for internal links between related articles.

Do Not Confuse Keyword Difficulty With Keyword Value

A low-difficulty keyword is not automatically valuable.

Imagine a keyword with a keyword difficulty of 8 that receives almost no searches and has no connection to your products, services or audience.

Ranking number one could produce almost no meaningful business result.

Now imagine another keyword with keyword difficulty 35 that attracts people who are actively looking for something your website provides.

The second keyword may deserve more attention.

This is why keyword selection should consider at least three things together:

Can I realistically compete?

Does the keyword represent something my audience actually wants?

Would traffic from this search be useful to my website?

Keyword Difficulty addresses primarily the first question.

It cannot answer the other two for you.

What About Long-Tail Keywords?

Long-tail keywords often appear attractive because they are more specific.

For example:

“keyword research”

is broad.

“how to do keyword research for a new travel blog”

is much more specific.

Specific queries often have lower search volume, but they can also reveal clearer intent.

That clarity can make it easier to create a page that directly answers the searcher’s question.

This does not mean every long-tail keyword has low difficulty.

A very specific query can still have strong competition if businesses or publishers have identified its value.

The important point is that specificity gives you more information about what the searcher wants.

That information can help you create better content.

How New Websites Should Use Keyword Difficulty

For a new website, Keyword Difficulty can be particularly helpful because you do not yet have a large amount of ranking data to work with.

Instead of chasing the biggest keywords in your industry, start by identifying topics where the SERP appears realistically competitive.

Look for specific questions.

Look for underserved searches.

Look for keywords where the existing articles are outdated or incomplete.

Look for related queries around a topic where you can provide genuinely useful information.

Then publish strong content and watch what happens.

Google Search Console can eventually show you the queries for which your pages are appearing, including searches you did not originally target.

Those real impressions can reveal better keyword opportunities than a spreadsheet created before publication.

Your strategy should evolve as your website accumulates data.

Keyword Difficulty Is a Starting Point, Not a Decision Maker

The easiest way to remember all of this is to stop thinking of Keyword Difficulty as a traffic light.

It is not:

Green = publish.

Red = don’t publish.

A better interpretation is:

Low Keyword Difficulty = investigate the opportunity.

Medium Keyword Difficulty = investigate the competition carefully.

High Keyword Difficulty = understand what would be required to compete.

That small change in mindset makes keyword research much more practical.

A keyword difficulty score can save you time by highlighting competitive differences between keywords. It can help you filter large keyword lists and identify subjects that deserve closer attention.

But the final decision should come from the entire search landscape.

Look at the pages.

Understand the intent.

Study the competitors.

Check their backlinks.

Consider your own site’s authority and topical relevance.

Think about the value of the traffic.

Then decide whether the keyword belongs in your strategy.

Final Thoughts

Keyword Difficulty is useful because SEO competition is difficult to judge from search volume alone.

But it is still only an estimate.

Different SEO tools calculate keyword difficulty differently, which means you should not treat a score from one platform as an absolute measurement of Google’s ranking system. Ahrefs and Semrush, for example, use materially different approaches to calculating their respective difficulty metrics.

The most reliable approach is to use Keyword Difficulty as a filter and the actual Google SERP as your reality check.

If the tool says a keyword is easy but the first page is packed with exceptionally strong results, pay attention to the SERP.

If the tool says a keyword is moderately difficult but several smaller websites are ranking with relatively weak pages, investigate further.

And if a keyword has high difficulty but represents an important topic for your business, you do not necessarily have to abandon it. You can treat it as a longer-term target while building supporting content around more attainable searches.

Good keyword research is not about finding a magic number.

It is about understanding the competition well enough to choose where your effort has a realistic chance of producing results.

That is what makes Keyword Difficulty useful.

Not as a final answer, but as the beginning of a better question: what would it actually take for my page to compete here?

Frequently Asked Questions