Keyword difficulty is a metric that can help you prioritize keywords, so you can target terms you’re likely to rank for. 

Our free keyword difficulty checker gives you a straightforward score so you can understand how hard it’ll be for you to rank for your target terms.

How to Use This Keyword Difficulty Checker

To use our keyword difficulty checker, just enter one of your target keywords.

Beyond the simple keyword difficulty (KD) score, our keyword difficulty tool also shows you the top URLs that rank for that content. And you’ll get helpful metrics for them, like:

• Page Authority Score: Indicates the authority of the pages ranking for your target keyword 
• Number of referring domains: How many unique websites link to that URL
• Number of backlinks: How many backlinks that URL has
• Search traffic: How much organic traffic that page drives from that keyword 
• How many keywords it ranks for: The total number of keywords the page ranks for

This information can help you understand far more about how tough a keyword will be to rank for than a score on its own.

How? 

Let’s look at an example. Imagine you wanted to rank for the keyword “cost of digital marketing”:

You see it has a keyword difficulty of 29, in the “Easy” range. 

Sounds like you should get to work, right? 

Well, if you take a look at the URL-level metrics, you’ll see that the top two ranking articles both have page Authority Scores of 59 and 50. This means they’re pretty authoritative in the niche. 

Besides that, the top result has 3K backlinks pointing to it from 184 unique domains. That will be tough to compete with, and even the second and third results have a good selection of backlinks pointing to them.

Remember: these are page-level metrics. So even if your domain has plenty of backlinks, your page will likely struggle to rank in the top 3 for this term without links pointing to it specifically. 

So, just because the term has a low keyword difficulty score doesn’t always mean it’ll be easy to rank for. The opposite is also true, as a high KD score doesn’t mean you shouldn’t touch it.

Let’s talk a bit more about what goes into keyword difficulty, why it matters, and other ways you can determine the difficulty of keywords.

Why Is Keyword Difficulty Important?

Keyword difficulty is a logical starting point when selecting topics you intend to research further.

Why?

Because you don’t want to rush into filling your content calendar only to discover that your keywords are too competitive for your content to actually rank. Some competition is not a bad thing. But I’m talking about competition that looks like an uphill battle.

Targeting the right keywords positions you to create great content that has a good chance of ranking well. When you understand how to figure out your chances of ranking for a specific keyword, you can make an informed decision about your priorities. (Which can save you time and money in the long run.)

And taking a few important precautions can make your work a lot easier.

For example, let’s say you sell art prints online. When we enter “art prints” in Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool, you quickly see that it has a high search volume. But it’s also a difficult keyword to target.

If your website is new, and you didn’t consider keyword difficulty, you might think it’s a good idea to create content for the keyword “art prints.” After all, it has a high search volume.

But if you don’t have a good chance of ranking for that term, you’ll never see any of that traffic. No matter how much there is.

Instead, you could consider getting more specific and targeting long-tail keywords that are relevant to the specific prints you sell.

If we enter “classic art prints” into the tool, we’re getting closer to better selections: 25% vs. 50%.

“Classic art prints” has a lower search volume, but if you actually do sell classic art prints, you’re going to attract much more relevant traffic than if you try to target the very difficult term “art prints.”

Not only do you have a better chance of ranking for this low competition keyword, but it also means that you have a higher chance of converting the people who land on your site. So, factoring in keyword difficulty can actually lead to some excellent keyword opportunities for your business.

How to Calculate Keyword Difficulty

When you know how to effectively evaluate keyword difficulty, you’ll be able to determine how difficult it is for your site to go after a certain keyword.

Let’s look at five elements that influence keyword difficulty, starting with your domain authority.

1. Assess Your Website’s Authority

Website authority (sometimes called domain authority or authority score) is a metric that sums up the overall quality of a domain. Your domain authority will grow as your site expands with better content that attracts more high-quality backlinks.

If your competitors’ websites are much more authoritative than yours, it will be more difficult to beat them in the SERPs. 

But, as our free tool shows, you also want to pay attention to the page-level authority metrics.

A website can have a relatively low overall Authority Score:

But it can have a high page Authority Score if it is highly relevant to the target term and has a lot of backlinks pointing to it:

So, just because a keyword appears to be difficult to rank for based on your site’s authority, you also need to factor in relevance and your page’s ability to get links. 

2. Perform a Competitor Analysis

Your website’s domain authority is going to help you make sense of keyword difficulty metrics, but you really have to investigate your competitors to see the full picture. 

Comparing the domain authorities of your top rivals to your own during an SEO competitor analysis will give you a clear understanding of what’s possible for you in the SERPs. 

There’s a SERP analysis within Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool. If we look at it for “classic art prints,” we can see which sites currently rank.

We also can evaluate other helpful data, including:

• Page authority
• Referring domains
• Backlinks

Comparing this information to metrics for your own site will help you determine whether or not you want to move forward with this keyword. Or if you want to narrow down your topic even further to find better options.

3. Consider the Search Intent

The keyword “classic art prints” has commercial search intent. Keywords with commercial search intent and transactional search intent are used by people who are closer to making purchases. Naturally, this means they’re typically more competitive than other types of search terms.

If you want to find keyword opportunities with informational search intent, get even more specific about the types of art prints you sell.

For example, if you enter “van gogh quotes” into Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, you get a number of informational searches with decent search volume and realistic keyword difficulties for a newer site.

Content that you create around these keywords could attract interested prospects to the art prints you sell—all without targeting the very difficult keyword “art prints.”

Keyword Difficulty in SEO vs. PPC

A quick note on how keyword difficulty differs between SEO and PPC:

Achieving a high rank organically relies on content quality, backlink-building, and domain authority, making it a long-term strategy.

PPC, by contrast, offers immediate visibility at the top of the SERPs but comes at a cost. Your position in PPC depends on factors like your bid amount and ad quality, with high-difficulty keywords often costing more per click due to competition. 

For example, keywords like “order art prints” may cost several dollars per click:

While both SEO and PPC target user intent, they differ in approach. SEO builds organic authority over time, while PPC offers fast results by paying for visibility. 

If a high-difficulty keyword is challenging to rank organically, PPC can still provide valuable traffic through strategic bidding. But it will come with a price.

4. Check the Number of Backlinks

To calculate keyword difficulty, many SEO tools use the number of backlinks pointing to sites in the search results for the keyword.

The more authoritative sources link to your website, the more Google trusts your website (at least that’s the idea). 

To be able to rank for more difficult keywords, you need to create great content, consider using link-building tools to promote it, and remember to be patient. It can take days, weeks, or even months to start ranking for tough terms.

5. Assess the Quality of the Keyword

Don’t underestimate the quality of the keyword. Ultimately, it should be the perfect match for the people you want to attract to your site.

It doesn’t matter if it’s an “easy” keyword with a high search volume. If it doesn’t attract people to your site that are likely to engage or make a purpose, it’s not worth targeting.

The inverse of this is also true. If a keyword has a high KD score, but it’s the perfect fit for your website and target audience, it could still be worth going for. Plus, as your site gains authority, it should become easier to rank for these difficult but highly relevant keywords.

How to Check Keyword Difficulty

Evaluating average keyword difficulty is crucial to determine which keywords are realistic targets. This helps you understand where to invest your efforts for the best results.

You can use various tools to assess keyword difficulty, each offering unique metrics that add depth to your research. 

Let’s look at three popular options:

Semrush

Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool provides a keyword difficulty score (KD%) that ranges from 0 to 100%. The score is based on various factors, including:

• The number of referring domains pointing to the pages that rank for the keyword
• The ratio of follow/nofollow links pointing to these URLs 
• The authority score of the ranking domains
• SERP-related qualities for that keyword

The tool also provides other metrics for the keyword, like search volume, cost per click, and search intent. This ensures you get a full picture of whether that keyword is one you should target.

But you can even see personalized data by entering your domain into the tool.

This will show you your own Personal Keyword Difficulty score (PKD %) and even the potential traffic (Pot. Traffic) you could gain if you ranked for that keyword.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ keyword difficulty score is calculated based on the backlinks needed to rank within the top 10. You’ll find this data in the Keywords Explorer, along with other metrics like search volume, traffic potential, and cost per click.

Moz

Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Checker also provides a percentage-based score and information about the competition’s Page Authority and Domain Authority.

What Is a Good Keyword Difficulty to Target?

There is no standard “good” keyword difficulty score to target. For some established websites, even the most difficult keywords per the tools above might be fairly easy to rank for. 

While for new website owners with minimal authority, targeting anything above a keyword difficulty score of 10% might be out of the question.

Rather than thinking in terms of objective “good” or “bad” scores, treat keyword difficulty subjectively, based on:

• Your website’s authority
• The type of traffic you want to get
• How quickly you aim to rank

You also want to keep search intent in mind for your SEO forecast, like we did in the “van gogh quotes” informational search. 

If you can create the right content for interested prospects, “van gogh quotes” with a 25% KD might be the perfect option for a new site that wants to rank quickly. 

Then, after you’ve created additional content that ranks (and attracted backlinks to it), you can work your way up to the “van gogh” search with the 83% KD.

So, what is a “difficult” keyword to rank for now could become an easy one as your site gains authority over time.

Get More Out of Your Keyword Difficulty Tool

When it comes to reviewing different types of data and analytics software, it’s less a matter of finding the best keyword difficulty tool, and more a case of picking one and using it to make smart decisions about which keywords to realistically go after.

Mangools, Moz, and Ahrefs all have keyword difficulty checkers. I’m using Semrush because their keyword difficulty score is conveniently alongside other data I frequently reference when analyzing keywords. And it takes into account more than just links, so I can feel confident that the “easy” keywords are actually likely to be easier for my sites to rank for.nt is more important than driving huge numbers of users to your pages that are unlikely to convert.