Can Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty be trusted?
- Thread starter noiziat
- Start date
Turbo B.
Elite Member
- May 24, 2015
- 2,854
- 1,641
Yes it can be trusted in my opinion for initial undestanding - but it shows difficulty to get into top 10 by competitors backlinks profiles.
Always analyze that top 10 - can you beat them.
Also i assume you see KD 2 in some specific country - as i see KD in US is 66.
EDIT: You see KD 2 in Indonesia.
Of course Ahrefs does not sees hidden PBNs etc.
Always analyze that top 10 - can you beat them.
Also i assume you see KD 2 in some specific country - as i see KD in US is 66.
EDIT: You see KD 2 in Indonesia.
Of course Ahrefs does not sees hidden PBNs etc.
Last edited:
sarutobi87
Regular Member
- Feb 14, 2015
- 309
- 141
not to be trusted.
It is based on backlink profile of the top 10. Which is not accurate because ahrefs does not have complete data on backlinks. only google does.
They don't account for PBN and hidden 301s. They also don't account for powerful site-wide links.
Do your analysis manually.
The keyword in your screenshot is medium - hard.
It is based on backlink profile of the top 10. Which is not accurate because ahrefs does not have complete data on backlinks. only google does.
They don't account for PBN and hidden 301s. They also don't account for powerful site-wide links.
Do your analysis manually.
The keyword in your screenshot is medium - hard.
jeffro89
Senior Member
- Sep 12, 2015
- 1,192
- 926
I dont trust it...anymore.
Sometimes its right, sometimes its wrong. I ignore difficulty now. I just use it to analyse links in top 10 and their authority. Testing Semrush at moment tho...
For difficulty, I just asses links on page 1 and go from there, ignore the ZERO difficulty crap.
Sometimes its right, sometimes its wrong. I ignore difficulty now. I just use it to analyse links in top 10 and their authority. Testing Semrush at moment tho...
For difficulty, I just asses links on page 1 and go from there, ignore the ZERO difficulty crap.
- Feb 28, 2019
- 7,437
- 7,887
Keyword difficulty should be considered a field of science and should be taught to kids in schools. Some people consider it to be just a number where 0 is extremely easy and 100 is almost impossible. Before you trust this data, you need to research it yourself to see if the data is reliable. I usually do manual research to understand keyword difficulty.
- Nov 6, 2010
- 3,581
- 1,301
For every keyword- ahref shows an option named "SERP".
Click on SERP (the screenshot u did show... Simply scroll to the last and SERP will appear).
On SERP named option- Ahref will show "top 10 ranking urls" for that keyword.
Ahref will also show "DR" of those 10 ranking urls....Ahref will also show "how many backlinks" each of those 10 urls have....
Check SERP for that keyword and check if "atleast 2 low dr websites are in the top 10" AND "if most of the 10 ranking urls have less than 20ish backlinks".
If both of the above conditions are true- then its an easy keyword otherwise not.
Hope that helps. Cheers!
Click on SERP (the screenshot u did show... Simply scroll to the last and SERP will appear).
On SERP named option- Ahref will show "top 10 ranking urls" for that keyword.
Ahref will also show "DR" of those 10 ranking urls....Ahref will also show "how many backlinks" each of those 10 urls have....
Check SERP for that keyword and check if "atleast 2 low dr websites are in the top 10" AND "if most of the 10 ranking urls have less than 20ish backlinks".
If both of the above conditions are true- then its an easy keyword otherwise not.
Hope that helps. Cheers!
HustleTong
Elite Member
- May 30, 2019
- 13,466
- 10,661
You'll have to analyze the SERPs to gauge the competition
KD is flawed in almost all tools out there
KD is flawed in almost all tools out there
LimmyB
Junior Member
- Nov 14, 2017
- 108
- 51
What country have you selected?
If English is not their native language then I understand how you could end up with that keyword.
Also, what commercial benefits can you derive from the keywords 'YouTube MP3'?
Unless you're going to do a tutorial or have a youtube to mp3 converter?
If English is not their native language then I understand how you could end up with that keyword.
Also, what commercial benefits can you derive from the keywords 'YouTube MP3'?
Unless you're going to do a tutorial or have a youtube to mp3 converter?
Ramsweb
Supreme Member
- Mar 31, 2010
- 1,252
- 731
They are largely correct, with largely being the keyword here. When I try to rank for keywords with new sites, the keywords with low difficulty scores are the first to rank on Google, proving their KW Difficulty metrics right. There's always exceptions though. It's a good starting point. To truly understand the keyword difficulty, you have to do a deep dive into the top 10 SERP results and also understand things like KW parent topics.
SEO to RANK
Regular Member
- Aug 30, 2020
- 459
- 167
Third-party tools calculate metrics using their criteria. You can use those values for reference and don't depend on them totally. But doing it manually gives better values.
Henblack05
Newbie
- May 29, 2020
- 28
- 13
Never ever trust tools! Ahrefs as far as i can observe checks for RD of the individual page. Search intent is another important thing that ahrefs can't do
