If you’re aiming to get to grips with keyword difficulty scores to up your SEO strategy in 2023, here are some of the basics explained, including some of the terminology used in the most common SEO tools, and a 4-step approach to keyword difficulty.
What is keyword difficulty?
Keyword difficulty is a score of how difficult it is to rank on the first page of search engine results returned for a given keyword, through an organic search.
An organic search means those results returned that are unpaid, with no connection to paid advertising.
The score is worked out in various ways, including the search volume of the keyword, the number of other sites using the keyword and the authority of those websites.
Typical keyword difficulty scores
The lower the score, the easier it is to rank for the keyword. For example:
0-30 – easy
30-50 – medium?
50-70 - hard
70 and over - very hard
Keyword difficulty scores are important because…
The whole point of SEO is to write articles and content that browsers want to see. However, even if you write a highly SEO-optimised article, if many of the keywords and phrases rank high in difficulty, the article may not make it to the first page.
Competition score
Competition score, used by Google, refers to how competitive, or difficult, it is to win a bid for PPC (pay per click) advertising for the keyword or phrase you want.
The higher the competition score, the more bids there are.
Keep in mind that the competition score in different to the competitiveness for organic ranging.
Keyword competitiveness in PPC advertising may refer to the bidding going on for the keywords or phrases, not necessarily that it’s challenging in terms of rank.
How keyword difficulty is scored
The score for a keyword or phrase depends on a number of factors, including how strong the competition is, which is judged on how much authority a website and its pages has, including those already ranking for the keyword.
Domain and page authority
Domain authority (DA) is the rank of a website or domain. It is important for keyword difficulty, for example, if a domain already has a DA of 95, it is likely to rank highly for most content it posts. And, because it has a high DA, it will improve the DA of any site it backlinks to. In turn, any posts that link to a site with a high DA, show it is well-researched, which will also affect DA.
Page authority is like DA, but just concerns the authority of a single page of a website, rather than the whole domain, although one does affect the other and are completely linked when it comes to authority ranking.
Link equity
Link equity is based on the principle that links from and to trusted sources pass value and authority along, showing that a page and its content is a trusted source.
Search volume
Search volume refers to how many people are searching using a keyword or phrase. Good SEO is about balancing search volume with keyword difficulty. High search volume can often mean a keyword has a challenging score but there’s no point writing content that only a handful of people are searching for.
4-step approach to keyword difficulty
Get familiar with your domain authority
Firstly, check how high your domain authority is. If it’s high (85 plus), you can rank well for most of your content and can stop having to check keyword difficulty all the time.
Check keyword difficulty
Once you know your domain authority, check keyword difficulty. Try to aim for keywords with a difficulty that’s around the same, or lower, than your domain authority.
Check search volume
Remember, search volume needs to be balanced with keyword difficulty. If keyword difficulty seems high and the searches are low, it won’t be worth the time. However, if there’s a high search volume and the keyword is right for your business – it’s probably worth it.
There are always alternative keywords!
There’s no need to chase keyword difficulty endlessly, especially if they’re too high or difficult. Try alternatives with less search traffic but are in the same ballpark as your original or try longer tail keywords.
If you need help with your 2023 SEO strategy and understanding keyword difficulty, the Cultrix Digital team are here to help you. Get in touch!
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