Use Keyword Difficulty to Prioritize Buyer Questions, Not Just Easy Rankings

Keyword difficulty (KD) is an SEO tool’s estimate of how hard it would be to rank in Google’s top 10 organic results for a search term. Tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush express it on a 0–100 scale: higher scores mean greater estimated competition. It is a planning metric, not a Google ranking factor or a promise of results. Ahrefs and Semrush document their own scoring methods.

For a business choosing what to publish, KD answers only part of the question. You also need to ask: Does this search come from a potential buyer, and can we create the page they need?

How keyword difficulty is calculated

The score depends on the tool. Two tools can assign different scores to the same keyword without either being broken.

The providers document these methods as of October 2026. A referring domain is a distinct website linking to a page.

Tool	What its general difficulty score considers	Important limit
Ahrefs	The number of referring domains linking to the top 10 ranking pages	It does not include on-page factors; its scale is nonlinear
Semrush	Referring domains, follow/nofollow link ratios, ranking domains’ Authority Scores, and search-results-related characteristics	Its broader model is still an estimate, not a prediction tailored to every website

These are the providers’ documented methods, not interchangeable measurements. Use one tool consistently when comparing a keyword list, and record the target country and check date. Ahrefs methodology; Semrush methodology.

Semrush also offers Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD), which estimates difficulty for a specified domain rather than websites generally. That can help distinguish a competitive topic where your site has relevant strength from one where you are starting cold. It remains a modeled estimate. Semrush’s explanation of PKD.

A KD of 70 does not mean a 70% chance of failure. Nor does a low score tell you how many weeks ranking will take.

What is a good keyword difficulty score?

There is no universal cutoff. A suitable target depends on your existing visibility, competing pages, expertise, and resources.

For orientation, Semrush uses these bands:

KD score	Semrush label
0–14	Very easy
15–29	Easy
30–49	Possible
50–69	Difficult
70–84	Hard
85–100	Very hard

These are Semrush’s labels, not industry-wide thresholds or guarantees. Source: Semrush’s KD documentation.

A new or lightly established site can use the lower bands as a starting filter. An established specialist should also inspect harder terms closely related to its expertise. In either case, a low-difficulty keyword with no buyer relevance is a poor use of the content budget.

Do not confuse KD with Google Keyword Planner’s Competition column. Google defines that field by the number of advertisers showing for a keyword relative to other keywords. It measures paid-search competition, not organic ranking difficulty. Google Ads documentation.

A practical workflow for choosing keywords

1. Start with the buyer’s question

List questions from sales calls, support conversations, and buying objections. Identify which service or product each question relates to and what the reader should do next.

For example, an accounting-software provider might compare “accounting software” with “accounting software for multi-entity nonprofits.” The narrower phrase is worth investigating because it describes a specific buyer need—not because longer phrases are automatically easier.

2. Use KD to shortlist, not approve

Check difficulty alongside search volume and business relevance. Keep commercially important terms even when their scores are high; put them in a longer-term research queue rather than discarding them automatically.

For each candidate, record:

• Keyword, country, tool, KD, and check date
• Buyer question and intended page type
• Existing page, if one already serves that need
• Evidence or expertise your business can contribute

3. Inspect the actual search results

Review results for the target country—and location where relevant. Open the leading results and look beyond their titles:

• Intent: Are searchers being served guides, product pages, comparisons, directories, or local providers?
• Competition: Are there comparable specialists, or mostly major brands and established publishers?
• Content gap: Can you add useful implementation details, original examples, or supportable evidence?
• Click opportunity: Do ads, answer features, or map results occupy much of the page?

A low KD does not make a blog post suitable when results mainly serve people looking to book a service. Ahrefs itself recommends using KD as a first filter followed by detailed search-results analysis. Ahrefs guidance.

For local providers, assess map visibility separately. Google’s local rankings depend mainly on relevance, distance, and prominence; an organic KD score is not a forecast of your Business Profile’s position. Google local-ranking guidance.

4. Choose the page and measure its job

Prioritize keywords where buyer relevance, a suitable page format, and credible differentiation overlap. Estimate the work needed to compete: expert input, original evidence, page improvements, and promotion. Compare that effort with your available budget rather than treating KD as a cost estimate.

Improve an existing page if it already addresses the same need; do not create another URL simply because a keyword variation has a different score.

After publication, track discovery and visibility, then qualified enquiries, demos, or bookings. Use a post-launch content feedback loop to decide what to improve.

The strongest target is not necessarily the easiest keyword. It is the buyer question your business can answer convincingly, with a realistic route to visibility and a clear next step toward becoming a customer.