What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is a metric that estimates how hard it will be to rank in the top results of Google for a specific search term. It helps you decide which keywords are realistically achievable for your website given your current authority and resources.

Most SEO tools calculate keyword difficulty by looking at how strong the pages already ranking are. They factor in backlinks, domain authority and sometimes content quality or search intent. A high keyword difficulty score means you will need more links, stronger content and time before you can compete.

How keyword difficulty is calculated

Every tool calculates keyword difficulty slightly differently, which is important when you compare data. Common inputs include the number and strength of backlinks pointing to ranking pages, the authority of the domains in the top 10 and how closely current pages match the search intent behind the keyword.

For growth minded teams, keyword difficulty is not a theoretical number. It is a planning input. Paired with search volume and business value, it tells you where to focus your SEO effort and which battles to skip. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush use different formulas, so it helps to understand their limits before taking decisions based on a single keyword difficulty score. You can read more about this in our comparison of Ahrefs versus Semrush backlink data.

How to use keyword difficulty in your SEO strategy

Used well, keyword difficulty keeps your roadmap realistic. For a younger B2B or e commerce site in Belgium, targeting only high difficulty, broad keywords often leads to slow or no results. A smarter play is to build a mix of easy, medium and hard keywords that matches your current topical authority and link profile.

  • Prioritise low to medium keyword difficulty terms with clear intent and solid business value for quick wins.
  • Use high difficulty keywords as long term goals and build clusters of supporting content around them.
  • Combine keyword difficulty with search intent to avoid chasing traffic that never converts.
  • Align difficulty levels with your current authority and link building capacity, then increase ambition over time.
  • Regularly review difficulty scores because SERPs and competitors evolve.

Taken together, these steps turn keyword difficulty into a practical decision tool, not just another SEO metric in a dashboard.

Keyword difficulty, topical authority and 6th Man

Keyword difficulty also connects directly to topical authority. By publishing consistent, high quality content around a theme, you make it easier to rank for tougher terms in that space. Our guide on what topical authority is and why it matters explains how this works in detail.

If you want support with picking the right battles, our SEO services help you balance keyword difficulty, business impact and available budget so you get compounding growth instead of vanity rankings. For ongoing insights, you can follow our latest SEO articles and playbooks.