Myst3ry
Elite Member
- Jul 6, 2013
- 1,533
- 1,400
This is newbie friendly guide which will help you determine the keyword difficulty.
Many of you ask and refer to some keyword difficulty numbers. In reality, none of them is correct.
Why? Because each tool have specific criteria which determines the keyword difficulty and that can be far from your reality.
Some of you can easily rank a keyword with Ahrefs keyword difficulty(KD) number 24 while others can lose months and still be on page 3 for the same keyword.
This is simple routine which I'm doing while I'm doing keyword research. This is not rocket science that's why I said it's newbie friendly.
Let's begin!
Tools you will need:
- MozBar
- Keyword Surfer
- Ahrefs(group buys are cheap and do the work)
1. Google the keyword you want to check:
Use VPN if you target specific countries to get accurate first page results.
- First pointer shows the total words of that page
- Second pointer shows how many times the keyword you searched is used in that page
- Third pointer shows Moz PA
- Fourth pointer shows the referring links
- Third pointer shows Moz DA
Moz DA and PA can be manipulated but in the most cases you won't see above 50 DA website which is easy to outrank. You can find it hard to outrank below 20 DA sites too but there are more important factors here. Stay tuned.
You need to check this:
- Is the page 1 filled with authority websites?
- Are there many high DA/PA sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- What links they have?(click on MozBar links to check)
2. Google the keyword with allintitle search operator:
Now, it's clear. No one is targeting this keyword. You have big chance to rank easily.
Let's cut the keyword into simpler one and see the results:
If you target this keyword, basically you are fighting with 3130 people, which is hard.
This one is better. Now, let's assume this is the keyword I'm checking from the beginning.
The results here are websites which have the keyword in the title, which means they are targeting that particular keyword.
I'm also checking the first page here to see the competition from this point of view.
Repeat the same:
- Is the page filled with authority websites?
- Are there many high DA/PA sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- What links they have?(click on MozBar links to check)
3. Go to Ahrefs keywords explorer(get yourself groupbuy for ~$10/m for Ahrefs only):
Let's analyze the first page results:
- Is the page filled with authority websites?
- Is the page filled with online marketplace sites?
They usually have high DR/UR. but don't confuse yourself.
Also, don't confuse if you see high metric sites like Pinterest, they rank because of their authority. They don't target the keywords we search in most cases.
- Are there many high DR/UR sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- What's their top keyword?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- Go and check manually what links they have.
Let's see the second site's backlinks:
Nothing strong here. All links are either automatic/bots or low quality ones.
Do the math, calculate the average first page word count, prepare the actionplan and get to work.
---
The whole point is to check the keyword manually from few points of view with the help of some tools & tricks. Don't rely just on numbers. Manual check is always the best.
You MUST NOT bite off more than you can chew!
You MUST be assured that you can outrank the first page sites.
So, the keyword difficulty is a relative number. Do the check manually!
Many of you ask and refer to some keyword difficulty numbers. In reality, none of them is correct.
Why? Because each tool have specific criteria which determines the keyword difficulty and that can be far from your reality.
Some of you can easily rank a keyword with Ahrefs keyword difficulty(KD) number 24 while others can lose months and still be on page 3 for the same keyword.
This is simple routine which I'm doing while I'm doing keyword research. This is not rocket science that's why I said it's newbie friendly.
Let's begin!
Tools you will need:
- MozBar
- Keyword Surfer
- Ahrefs(group buys are cheap and do the work)
1. Google the keyword you want to check:
Use VPN if you target specific countries to get accurate first page results.
- First pointer shows the total words of that page
- Second pointer shows how many times the keyword you searched is used in that page
- Third pointer shows Moz PA
- Fourth pointer shows the referring links
- Third pointer shows Moz DA
Moz DA and PA can be manipulated but in the most cases you won't see above 50 DA website which is easy to outrank. You can find it hard to outrank below 20 DA sites too but there are more important factors here. Stay tuned.
You need to check this:
- Is the page 1 filled with authority websites?
- Are there many high DA/PA sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- What links they have?(click on MozBar links to check)
2. Google the keyword with allintitle search operator:
Now, it's clear. No one is targeting this keyword. You have big chance to rank easily.
Let's cut the keyword into simpler one and see the results:
If you target this keyword, basically you are fighting with 3130 people, which is hard.
This one is better. Now, let's assume this is the keyword I'm checking from the beginning.
The results here are websites which have the keyword in the title, which means they are targeting that particular keyword.
I'm also checking the first page here to see the competition from this point of view.
Repeat the same:
- Is the page filled with authority websites?
- Are there many high DA/PA sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- What links they have?(click on MozBar links to check)
3. Go to Ahrefs keywords explorer(get yourself groupbuy for ~$10/m for Ahrefs only):
Let's analyze the first page results:
- Is the page filled with authority websites?
- Is the page filled with online marketplace sites?
They usually have high DR/UR. but don't confuse yourself.
Also, don't confuse if you see high metric sites like Pinterest, they rank because of their authority. They don't target the keywords we search in most cases.
- Are there many high DR/UR sites?
- Do they target the exact keyword you are checking?
- What's their top keyword?
- Do they have a lot of links?
- Go and check manually what links they have.
Let's see the second site's backlinks:
Nothing strong here. All links are either automatic/bots or low quality ones.
Do the math, calculate the average first page word count, prepare the actionplan and get to work.
---
The whole point is to check the keyword manually from few points of view with the help of some tools & tricks. Don't rely just on numbers. Manual check is always the best.
You MUST NOT bite off more than you can chew!
You MUST be assured that you can outrank the first page sites.
So, the keyword difficulty is a relative number. Do the check manually!
Last edited:
