A practical guide to understanding average keyword difficulty

Let's be honest, the main reason you have a content strategy is to get more people to your website. Driving organic traffic is the goal, but it can feel like you're trying to be heard in a packed stadium. The biggest problem? The competition is fierce. For just about any topic you can imagine, there are probably hundreds of articles already duking it out for the top spot on Google.

This is where keyword difficulty (KD) becomes your best friend. It’s a metric that helps you make sense of the chaos. By understanding the average keyword difficulty for your topics, you can stop wasting energy on fights you can’t win and start focusing on keywords you can actually rank for.

Of course, finding those golden opportunities is just step one. The next, and most important, is creating the content. Once you’ve found a great keyword, tools like the eesel AI blog writer can help you generate a fully optimized blog post in minutes, turning your research into results. Just think about a search for "best CRM," you'll see massive brands like Salesforce and HubSpot owning the page. That's the kind of competition we're talking about.

Understanding keyword difficulty

So, what exactly is keyword difficulty? You might also see it called "SEO difficulty" or "KD." It's a metric that SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs use to estimate how hard it will be to land on the first page of Google for a specific keyword. It’s usually shown on a scale from 0 to 100.

While every tool calculates its score a little differently, the core idea is the same. They all analyze the top-ranking pages for a keyword to see how strong they are. Think of it this way: if ranking for a keyword is a race, the difficulty score tells you if you're competing against a few casual joggers or a team of Olympic sprinters.

A low score means the competition is weak, giving you a good shot at ranking. A high score means you’re up against heavy hitters with a lot of authority, which will be a much tougher climb. It's a quick way to size up the competition before you sink hours into writing. For example, Semrush breaks it down into simple categories, from "Very easy" (0-14) to "Very hard" (85-100), so you know what you're getting into.

What affects the keyword difficulty score?

That 0-100 score isn't just a random number. It’s calculated using several factors that signal a page's strength and authority to search engines. Let's look at the main ones.

The power of backlinks and domain authority

The biggest factor is the backlink profile of the pages that are already ranking. Backlinks are simply links from other websites to a page. In Google's view, every backlink acts as a vote of confidence, signaling that the content is valuable and trustworthy. The more high-quality votes a page gets, the more authority it has. This is a key part of data-driven blog writing.

SEO tools measure this authority with metrics like Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR). Semrush even has its own version called "Authority Score." When calculating keyword difficulty, these tools check the top-ranking URLs to see how many backlinks they have and how powerful those linking domains are.

For example, Semrush's formula looks at the median number of referring domains (the number of unique sites linking to a page) and the ratio of followed to unfollowed links.

How search volume and user intent affect difficulty

There's usually a direct link between how many people search for a keyword (search volume) and how difficult it is to rank for. Keywords with high monthly search volume tend to be more competitive because more websites want a slice of that traffic.

User intent also plays a big part. This is the why behind a search, and it usually falls into four buckets:

• Informational: Someone is looking for information (e.g., "how to bake a cake").
• Navigational: Someone is trying to find a specific website (e.g., "Facebook login").
• Commercial: Someone is researching before they buy (e.g., "best running shoes").
• Transactional: Someone is ready to make a purchase (e.g., "buy iPhone 17").

  

Keywords with high commercial or transactional intent are often much more competitive. Why? Because they're closer to making a sale, and businesses are willing to pour more resources into ranking for them.

The impact of SERP features

Have you ever searched for something and seen a big answer box, a "People Also Ask" section, or an info panel on the side? These are called SERP features.

According to Semrush, the presence of these features can make a keyword harder to rank for. Even if you hit the number one organic spot, you might still be pushed down the page by an AI Overview or a Featured Snippet, which means fewer clicks for you. The competition isn't just other websites anymore; it's also Google's own features.

Branded keywords, like "Nike shoes" or "eesel AI," are a different beast. They almost always have a very high difficulty score because search engines know that when someone searches for a brand, they want to go to that brand's official website. It's nearly impossible to outrank a brand for its own name.

Why content quality can beat a high difficulty score

While backlinks are a huge deal, they aren't everything. Google's primary goal is to give users the best possible answer. That means it also cares a lot about the quality, relevance, and freshness of the content.

This is great news for smaller sites. You might find a keyword where the top pages have tons of backlinks, but their content is old, thin, or just doesn't answer the question well. As Ahrefs points out, satisfying user intent is what really matters. If you can create a piece of content that is genuinely more helpful, comprehensive, or current, you have a real shot at outranking a page with a stronger backlink profile. These are the "cracks" in the SERP you should always be on the lookout for.

How to find the right keyword difficulty for your website

Here’s the most important thing to remember: there is no universal "good" or "bad" keyword difficulty score. What's "easy" for a giant like HubSpot might be "impossible" for a new blog. It all depends on your own website's authority.

Why a good keyword difficulty score is relative to your site

If you just launched your website last month, it probably has a low Domain Rating (DR) and few backlinks. Trying to rank for a keyword with a difficulty of 70 would be like a rookie boxer stepping into the ring with a heavyweight champion. It's not going to end well. Instead, a new site should focus on keywords with very low difficulty scores (maybe under 15) to build momentum and earn those first backlinks.

I use Ahrefs, and any keyword with a KD of less than 5 can rank on a new website. BUT, you'll only rank if your content is better and more relevant than the current SERPS. Merely going by the KD won't guarantee success.

Reddit

On the other hand, an established website with a strong backlink profile and a high DR can go after more competitive keywords. They already have the authority to compete with the big players. Ahrefs' KD score is an absolute metric, but they always recommend interpreting it based on your own site's strength.

Using PKD to find your personal keyword difficulty

To make things even simpler, some tools offer a more personalized metric. Semrush, for instance, has a feature called Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD).

This is incredibly useful. Instead of just giving you a generic difficulty score, PKD analyzes the keyword specifically for your domain. It considers your site's authority, topical relevance (how much you've written on similar subjects), and other factors to give you a personalized score. This can uncover hidden gems: keywords that might have a high general KD but are actually achievable for you because they fit perfectly in your niche.

Finding your sweet spot: Low-difficulty keywords

The best strategy, especially when you're starting, is to hunt for "low-hanging fruit." These are keywords that hit a sweet spot of three things:

1. Decent search volume (enough to be worth your time).
2. High relevance to your business or audience.
3. Low difficulty for your site.

A great way to find these is by targeting long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific search phrases (like "best budget AI blog writer for small business" instead of just "AI writer"). As noted by Semrush, these keywords usually have lower competition because they're more niche. The added bonus? The user's intent is much clearer, which often leads to better conversion rates.

Tools for analyzing keyword difficulty

Okay, enough theory. How do you actually put this into practice? Let's talk about the tools and workflows you can use to evaluate keywords and, more importantly, act on your findings.

Using Semrush and Ahrefs to check keyword difficulty

The standard tools for keyword research are platforms like Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool and Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer. These are massive databases that let you search for keyword ideas and see all the important metrics, including KD and search volume.

You can filter your results by keyword difficulty to instantly find terms that fit your site's authority level. You can also filter by search volume to ensure you're targeting terms people are actually searching for. These tools are great for building a big list of potential keywords, but they leave you with the next step: turning that list into content.

Acting on insights with the eesel AI blog writer

Finding that perfect low-difficulty keyword is a great feeling. But then the hard work begins: writing the blog post. This is where a modern workflow can save you a massive amount of time. Instead of just analyzing a keyword, you can act on it right away.

The eesel AI blog writer is built for this exact purpose. You take your target keyword, plug it in, and it generates a complete, publish-ready blog post. It doesn't just spit out generic text. It performs context-aware research to understand the topic, includes automatic assets like charts and tables, and even pulls in authentic social proof with real quotes from Reddit to make your content more trustworthy. It also optimizes for both traditional SEO and the new wave of AI Answer Engines (AEO).

We used this exact tool to grow our own organic traffic at eesel AI, going from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in just 3 months by publishing over 1,000 optimized blogs. It closes the gap between research and results.

Why manual SERP analysis is key

As helpful as a KD score is, it's still just a number. Before you commit to a keyword, you should always, always take 30 seconds to look at the actual search engine results page (SERP).

This is where you can spot those "cracks" that Ahrefs talks about. As you scan the top 10 results, ask yourself:

• Are forums like Reddit or Quora ranking on the first page?
• Do the top articles look old and have outdated information?
• Are there any sites with a low DR ranking in the top spots?

  

If you answer "yes" to any of these, it's a huge green light. These are all signs that Google isn't completely happy with the current results and is looking for something better. This is your chance to swoop in with superior content and grab a spot, sometimes regardless of what the KD score says.

While keyword difficulty scores from tools are a great starting point, it's also important to understand their nuances and limitations. For a deeper dive into how these metrics work and how much you should rely on them, the following video from Ahrefs provides some valuable insights.

This Ahrefs video explains how their Keyword Difficulty score works and how much you should rely on it.

Using keyword difficulty to move from analysis to action

Understanding average keyword difficulty is a core SEO skill. It’s the compass that guides your content strategy, helping you put your energy where it will actually make a difference.

But remember, it’s a guide, not a strict rule. The best strategy is to balance the KD score, search volume, user intent, and your own website's authority. Finding the right keywords is the first step, but it's the high-quality, relevant content you create that ultimately earns the rankings and brings in the traffic. The real magic happens when you can move from analysis to action without skipping a beat.

Ready to turn your keyword opportunities into high-ranking content? Try the eesel AI blog writer for free and generate your first publish-ready article in minutes.