Any great SEO or content marketing effort starts with keyword research. It establishes the foundation for your content strategy and advises you on which keywords to target. 

The first step for every business owner or marketer who wants their website to rank well in search engine results is to conduct extensive keyword research. They can only begin their SEO and content optimization efforts when they've determined which keywords to target.

When picking keywords, two of the most important factors to take into account are search volume and term difficulty.

What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is an essential factor to consider when conducting keyword research. The greater the value, the more difficult it is to compete with other people who are using the same keyword. A keyword difficulty grade is intended to assist you in confidently choosing SEO keywords based on how easy they are for your site to compete for.

Other names of keyword difficulty are keyword competition and SEO difficulty. 

Pro Tip: Knowing your site's competitive power is necessary for finding low-competition keywords. Not every website has an identical probability of ranking on Google's first page. The key to SEO success is to concentrate on low-competition keywords.

Keyword difficulty is crucial because it's an essential step in the keyword research process. Keyword difficulty, together with monthly search volume and other parameters, aids in the selection of the ideal keywords for SEO.

What is a good keyword difficulty?

When it is about determining what constitutes a "good" KD and what constitutes a "poor" KD, it frequently depends on the website for which you're writing. But, in the end, it's up to you, the writer, or the person in charge of developing the SEO strategy, to decide what's good and what's wrong.

"Keyword difficulty plays quite a major influence in our content creation," says Michal Hajtas of AutoPi. We usually target keywords with a difficulty rating of 30 or less. The more complicated the difficulty, the more difficult it is to rank for it. We're also concentrating on long-tail keywords and precise phrases or things that users could type into a search engine."

Five methods to use keyword difficulty in SEO

Search for long-tail keywords.

Finding high-volume keywords and then looking for longer keywords that contain this term is an intelligent SEO tactic. For example, if your target term is 'France hotel,' it is far too competitive for a new site to compete for. Start with keywords like "boutique hotels in France" or "luxury hotels in France," which have low keyword difficulty; however, enough search volume is helpful.

If the keyword difficulty is exceptionally great, this indicates that major companies in your sector are ranking for those terms. Simply put, ranking for those keywords and leveraging their organic traffic potential will require a lengthy time and work.

Begin with low-volume keywords.

If you're just getting started with your website's content plan, you should make it a point to focus your SEO strategy on lesser-traffic keywords first.

In the new year, we'll be focusing on adding a lot of material, and keyword research will be vital to our success. You can't go after the significant keywords, especially if your website is still young. It would help if you began small.

Everybody knows that each website is unique and requires a customized strategy for keyword research. Still, when it is to organic keyword targeting, you cannot target all the high-volume, high-difficulty keywords.

Keep in mind the user's objective.

Diaz uses this method in their SEO strategy. "The keywords I try to utilize when planning content are low difficulty by high relevance," he reveals. If the keyword was broad, such as "cat toys," it might be too tough to rank with the wrong individuals. It would be preferable if you focused on the user's intent as well as the story behind the keyword. Try searching for 'cat toys for tiny households' instead.

Create a hub page for terms that are difficult to find.

"We utilize keyword difficulty to guide ourselves as we swiftly browse through all of the alternatives and categorize the types of content we need to write for each keyword," Vlad Rascanu explains. To complement our primary hub page, we often develop particular hub pages with many outbound connections to other authoritative sources and internal links to many different sub-topic pages for more challenging keywords."

Don't forget about the other elements.

There's no doubt that keyword difficulty must be considered when developing an SEO strategy, but don't neglect to include everything else you know about SEO in your plan.

When developing a content strategy, keyword difficulty is undoubtedly a consideration, but only that is a factor. And keyword difficulty is only one part of the equation.

How to calculate keyword difficulty?

The formula used by keyword research tools to calculate keyword difficulty scores differs from one tool to the next. The primary criteria that go into determining the keyword difficulty score are, however, the same.

As was previously said, keyword difficulty shows how simple or challenging it is to rank for a certain term. Consequently, the variables used to assess keyword difficulty are similar to those used to establish search engine ranking. Keywords that are challenging to rank for are among the factors that raise a page's ranking.

The following are the three main factors that are taken into account when calculating keyword difficulty:

Page Content 

Because page content is one of the most essential search engine ranking variables, it is also considered when determining keyword difficulty because the ultimate purpose of search engines is to offer consumers the most valuable and relevant results, pages with high-quality, appropriate information scores well.

Backlinks and referrer domains of high quality.

Another significant aspect that affects a keyword difficulty score is the number and quality of backlinks as well as the number of referring websites. Pages with varied high-quality backlinks perform well, making it difficult to compete for the keywords these pages target.

Domain Authority 

It is a term used to describe the level of authority. In terms of how relevant and beneficial its material is for a specific subject or industry, domain authority is similar to a website's reputation. The higher a site's domain authority is, the more it is regarded as an industry expert content source.

There are various tools for this purpose. The below-given tools are the best tools for estimating keyword difficulty:

SEMrush

SEMrush is the Swiss Army Knife of SEO; it is more than simply a keyword research tool. SEMrush does not generate a list of keywords; instead, it provides 5-10 extremely targeted keywords that your competitors are currently using.

A free seven-day trial of SEMrush's service is available. To access the practice, a credit card is required; however, if you decide to cancel your subscription during the first seven days, there are no fees.

SEMrush offers four pricing options. Annual billing is required for the most excellent deals: 

Pro – $99.95 per month; 

Guru - $191.62 per month; 

Business - $374.95 per month; 

Enterprise – SEMrush can tailor a plan for your needs if you have an effective content strategy beyond the preceding options' capabilities.

KWFinder

Mangools, a developer known for creating the most excellent keyword research tools across categories, created KWFinder. To get started, check out their beginner's guide.

Mangools' KWFinder is one of four SEO tools included in their bundle. Only a few free searches are permitted with this keyword tool. Choose an annual plan to keep to 40% on any of their three subscriptions.

Google Keyword  Planner

Google Keyword Planner is an uncomplicated keyword tool with limited functions. Despite its lack of usefulness, It is one of the most exact sources of keyword data on the market. The information is obtained directly from Google, and the results are compatible with AdSense revenue.

It is possible to use Google Keyword Planner for free.

Moz Keyword Explorer

The Moz Keyword Explorer provides out-of-the-box keyword suggestions that are simple to utilize. Moz's SEO tool has all of the capabilities you'd expect from the most excellent keyword research tools and two additional data points.

Get ten free queries per month when you want to sign up for a moneyless Moz account. The Keyword Explorer is not a stand-alone research tool; you'll need to buy the entire SEO package to get full access to this handy little tool. The Moz keyword research features are available in the platform's "Medium" plan, starting at $179 per month and a free 30-day trial.

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

Ahref is one of the best keyword research tools for content authors accessible today. Based on clickstream data, the program offers the user a thorough keyword report and distinctive click metrics.

There are four different pricing options available with Ahrefs. If you choose an annual payment plan, freelancers, web marketers, mid-sized businesses, and larger companies can pay as little as $82 per month.

Their Lite and Standard subscription tiers feature a 7-day trial offer ($7).