What determines SEO difficulty? Introducing a check tool and three criteria

“I want to target keywords that are easy to rank for (keywords with low SEO difficulty)!”

Anyone involved in SEO would think the same, right?

However, if you’re just starting with SEO,

“I don’t even know how to determine the difficulty level in the first place.”
“I’m judging the difficulty level based only on search volume.”

Many people might feel this way.

If you want to maximize results with limited time and budget, you should carefully check the difficulty level when selecting keywords.

That’s why, in this article, we’ve compiled methods for checking keyword difficulty for SEO professionals.

The content is also helpful when you’re wondering, “Which keyword is best to create content for?” so SEO professionals should definitely take a look.

What Determines SEO Difficulty?

SEO difficulty refers to “how easy or hard it is to rank high for a specific search keyword.”

Some search keywords are easier to rank for in SEO, while others are not.

The SEO difficulty for each keyword is determined by, simply put, the “strength of competing sites.”

This is because search rankings are “relative evaluations.”

Regardless of the search keyword, only the top 10 sites that Google highly evaluates will appear on the first page of search results.

For example, if a certain search keyword has:

• A large number of competing sites
• Strong competing sites

it will not be easy to surpass your rivals.

Therefore, the difficulty of ranking higher increases.

Conversely, if there are fewer competitors or if the sites appearing on the first page are not heavily invested in SEO or lack high-quality content, the difficulty will be lower.

As such, SEO difficulty is influenced by the evaluation of “competing sites,” resulting in variations depending on the keyword or genre.

SEO Difficulty from 2021 Onward

Since 2021, the difficulty of SEO has particularly increased in the “YMYL” field.

YMYL is a coined term derived from the initials of “Your Money Your Life,” referring to topics related to people’s money and health.

The information in the YMYL field significantly impacts our happiness and life.

Therefore, Google sets stricter evaluation criteria for content and sites in the YMYL field compared to other themes.

Specifically, “E-A-T” is rigorously evaluated.

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

For example, when considering keywords related to “illness,” you can easily imagine that the sites with E-A-T are those of clinics, government bodies, or medical institutions that hold authority and trust in that field.

In fact, even outside of the YMYL field, the importance of E-A-T and content has increased, leading many companies to implement measures accordingly.

Therefore, some view that the overall difficulty of SEO has increased compared to before.

However, this also means that if you strive to create a site that is useful and trustworthy for users, you can be properly evaluated.

So, how can you check the SEO difficulty of each keyword?

We will explain this in the following chapters.

Three Criteria for Assessing Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty cannot be determined by a single metric alone.

Check all three criteria introduced here, and then decide comprehensively whether a keyword is easy to rank for.

Criterion 1: Search Volume

The first indicator to consider when assessing keyword difficulty is “search volume” (i.e., the number of searches per month).

Search volume indicates how many users are searching for that keyword.

Thus, it does not directly represent SEO difficulty.

However, as search volume increases, the number of competitors targeting the top positions also increases, making it generally more difficult.

A keyword that is searched 5,000 times per month will attract more traffic when it ranks at the top than one that is searched 100 times. This is why it is popular among competitors.

In SEO, the following keyword classifications based on search volume are commonly used:

Usually, big keywords are more difficult, while long-tail keywords are easier.

To check the search volume of a keyword, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner.

Simply enter the keyword you want to check to see the search volume.

Note that the “competition” displayed along with the search volume represents competition for “search ads,” not SEO.

Criterion 2: Profitability

The “profitability” of each keyword also affects its difficulty.

Keywords that users search for when considering purchasing or subscribing to a product or service tend to be more profitable.

Keywords with high profitability often have ads displayed in the search results.

As you can see, keywords like “SEO company” often have numerous ads in their search results.

The presence of ads in search results indicates many companies willing to pay to rank higher, suggesting high competition and difficulty.

From the perspective that it falls under the “shopping” area of the YMYL domain, the difficulty is also high.

In SEO, this falls into the “Buy Query” category in the commonly used “Four Types of Search Queries” (though this is just a general trend).

Criterion 3: Strength of Competing Websites

The “strength of the top competing websites” directly influences keyword difficulty.

Try searching for a keyword to see what types of sites appear in the top 10 positions.

If the top sites are strong, the difficulty will be high; if they are weak, the difficulty will be low.

For example, if the top results are large e-commerce sites (like Amazon or Rakuten), well-known companies in the industry, portal sites, or government and public institution sites, it will be challenging for a small-scale site to rank high.

Similarly, if the top results consist of high-quality content, you will need to surpass them, making it more difficult.

For a detailed analysis of the “strength of competing websites,” please continue reading the next chapter.

So far, we have introduced three criteria. Ideally, from a results-driven perspective, you should aim to find:

• Keywords with moderate search volume but low difficulty
• Keywords with high profitability but low difficulty

To identify such keywords, it is necessary to thoroughly check the “strength of competing websites,” as introduced in the next chapter.

4 Elements to Understand the Strength of Top-ranking Sites

From here, we’ll introduce methods to examine the “strength of top-ranking sites.”

By checking the following four elements, you can determine the strength of top-ranking sites.

They are listed in order of importance, so if you’re short on time, prioritize checking from the first item.

Element 1: Quality of Content

“Quality of content” is arguably the most important factor in ranking.

Be sure to check the quality of the content displayed at the top.

“High-quality content” is content that meets user intent and solves problems 100% without needing to search again.

If, from the user’s perspective, reading a page makes you think, “This is a great article; I’m glad I read it,” then the competition is strong.

The key point is whether the content you create can surpass the quality of the top-ranking sites.

Specifically, you should look at:

• Answering the search intent (Is the page capable of solving problems immediately?)
• Comprehensiveness (Does it cover comprehensive information and answers related to the keyword or problem?)
• E-A-T (Is it written by someone with expertise? Is the information trustworthy?)
• Originality (Does it provide unique information that can’t be found on other pages?)

These are some of the aspects to consider.

After reviewing the top content,

“I think I can provide better information than this page!”“I can offer unique value that this page doesn’t provide,”

if you feel this way, you should consider targeting that keyword.

Element 2: Number of Backlinks

Google places significant importance on “backlinks” when evaluating pages.

Backlinks are links to your site that are placed on other websites.

Pages with many backlinks are treated by Google as pages that have gathered votes in a popularity contest (the idea being that good content is frequently recommended by third parties).

If the top-ranking pages have many backlinks, the competition can be considered strong.

Here, we introduce a tool to check the number of backlinks.

• “ahrefs” (Paid)

The paid tool “ahrefs” is an analytical tool worth considering for those who are serious about SEO.

By entering the keyword you want to check in “Keywords Explorer,” you can see the number of backlinks for top-ranking pages in the “Backlinks” section.

Element 3: Domain Strength

Search rankings are influenced not only by the evaluation of individual pages but also by the overall evaluation of the site.

Be sure to check the domain strength of competing sites (i.e., the overall authority of the site).

Domain strength can be checked with tools, but the names vary depending on the tool, such as “DA (Domain Authority)” or “DR (Domain Rating).”

※ “DA” and “DR” are just reference values. They are not officially used by Google in ranking.

There is no absolute standard for what constitutes a “strong” score, so compare the domain strength of your site with that of competing sites to determine the strength of the competition.

Here, we introduce two tools to check domain strength.

• “MozBar” (Free)

“MozBar” is a tool available for free as a Google extension.

If you register and turn on the extension, you can see “DA (Domain Authority)” directly on the search results screen, as shown below.

• “ahrefs” (Paid)

In the paid tool “ahrefs,” “DR (Domain Rating)” corresponds to domain strength.

Element 4: Site Size

The size of a site (i.e., how many pages are indexed within the site) can also provide clues about the strength of competitor sites.

However, a large site does not necessarily mean it is strong. What matters is how comprehensive the articles related to the topic are.

Sites with comprehensive articles on a specific topic are more likely to be seen by Google as “highly specialized and useful to users.”

Therefore, it is a good idea to check the number of pages in each category.

By analyzing these four elements, you can comprehensively assess the strength of your competitors.

Understanding the strength of your competitors allows you to determine how likely you are to rank highly for a targeted keyword.

In the next section, we will provide tips on how to quickly rank higher in search results during the initial stages of SEO.

Tips for Quickly Ranking Higher for Targeted Keywords

Building a site from scratch and achieving top rankings in SEO naturally takes some time.

Remember, SEO is about building results over the medium to long term.

However, it’s understandable to want to shorten the time it takes to see results.

Whether or not you can rank higher depends on the keywords you choose.

Here are two tips for selecting keywords that can help you quickly rank higher.

Tip 1: Target Long-Tail Keywords

In the initial stages of SEO, target long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are search terms with relatively low search volumes (below 500) and are generally composed of 3 to 4 words.

For example:

• “SEO capitalization rules” (Vol. 40)
• “Painful dental cleaning” (Vol. 320)

These are good examples.

As mentioned earlier, the reason is that they have low competition and are easier to rank for.

Long-tail keywords have clear user intent, so they also have benefits like:

• Higher likelihood of conversion
• Easier to create content for

These advantages make it easier to achieve results even in the early stages of SEO.

However, even within long-tail keywords, there are varying levels of difficulty, so make sure to check them using the methods introduced in this article.

Tip 2: Focus on a Specific Theme

First, focus on keywords related to a specific theme.

Google highly values specialization.

For instance, if you target keywords in the following order, even though they all fall under the umbrella of “Web Marketing,” the themes are scattered, reducing the perceived specialization:

• “Web marketing methods” → “Twitter traffic” → “SEO E-A-T”

Now, consider this series of keywords:

• “Twitter traffic volume” → “Twitter traffic by time of day” → “Twitter traffic analysis”

Even with just three articles, your specialization in “Twitter traffic” becomes more evident, right?

That’s why you can aim for higher rankings more quickly.

Start by targeting keywords specific to a particular field.

[Summary] Aim to Rank Higher by Targeting Low-Difficulty Keywords

If you only target high-difficulty keywords, it will take a significant amount of time to see results from SEO.

When selecting keywords, make sure to carefully check:

• Search volume
• Profitability
• Competitor strength

Evaluate the difficulty and then implement your strategies accordingly.

However, if the content being ranked is of low quality, your rankings will not improve, no matter how long you wait.

Providing high-quality content is a prerequisite for ranking higher.

Make sure to create high-quality content that meets the search intent.

Additionally, SEO involves various other measures, such as on-page and off-page optimizations, which need to be implemented in parallel to improve the overall evaluation of the site.

Therefore, if you try to optimize without sufficient resources or expertise, it may be difficult to see results.

For those in such situations, it is recommended to consult with or hire an SEO agency that is an expert in the field.