Unlock the Mystery of Keyword Difficulty in SEO

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    • What Is Keyword Difficulty In SEO?

    Today's digital landscape has created fierce competition for success in the SERPs. As essential for success, incorporating the right keywords into your SEO strategy is imperative. However, with all the changes and updates to SEO algorithms, it can be difficult to measure how competitive the keywords you are using are. This is exactly why keyword difficulty scores exist; to help you determine which keywords to target in your campaign and craft your SEO strategy accordingly.

    A 'keyword difficulty' score is a metric used by SEO professionals to assess the difficulty of ranking for certain high-value keywords. These scores are most commonly used to gauge competition in the SERPS. By understanding this metric, SEO professionals can better understand which keywords to target or ignore as they craft their SEO campaigns.

    In general, search engine algorithms are in charge of generating the keyword difficulty metric. Thus, some popular keywords tend to be more difficult to rank for than others. In essence, keyword difficulty scores enable SEO professionals to tailor their SEO strategy to ascend the SERPs by taking into account the competition associated with every keyword.

    SEO specialists calculate keyword difficulty scores using a variety of metrics, most notably the competition's domain authority and the total number of back referring domains to target websites. Keyword difficulty scores are also determined by looking at a website's organic search engine rankings, as well as its content's uniqueness.

    Domain Authority, or DA, is a metric by Moz to express the strength of a domain. A higher Domain Authority score means that a domain has a stronger SEO ranking potential than those with lower scores. Generally, you should look for high Domain Authority scores with low competition when selecting keywords for SEO.

    In SEO terms, the number of backlinks to a certain website relates to its domain authority and keyword difficulty score. The more backlinks a website has, the higher its DA and the more difficult it is to rank. As a rule of thumb, less competitive keyword difficulty scores will have fewer back referrer domains.

    Organic Search Engine Rankings are another way to measure keyword difficulty, as they assess exactly where a website stands on the SERPs. Generally, websites with higher organic search engine rankings tend to have higher keyword difficulty scores.

    Last but not least, content uniqueness is also taken into account when measuring keyword difficulty scores. As the competition increases, the content created should be more unique and of higher quality. This helps a website rank better on the SERPs and will result in a higher keyword difficulty score.

    Keyword difficulty scores provide an insight into the competitive landscape on the SERPs, allowing SEO professionals to prioritize which keywords to target in a campaign. Calculating keyword difficulty is no easy task, however, as it requires a thorough analysis of a website's Domain Authority, back referring domains, organic search engine rankings and content uniqueness. With these metrics taken into consideration, keyword difficulty scores can be used to help SEO professionals craft their SEO campaigns to ensure the greatest success.