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Keyword difficulty checker
A transparent 0–100 difficulty estimate built from what you can see on the live search results page. No backlink index, no black box: the formula is printed below and every point is traceable to one of your inputs.
This is an estimate, not a vendor metric. It is not Ahrefs KD, Semrush KD, or Moz Difficulty, and it is not derived from a link graph. It scores the SERP you are looking at, using the published weights below.
The “About N results” line under the search box.
Wikipedia, Amazon, national media, .gov/.edu, category leaders
Evidence the term is deliberately targeted
A page about this topic, not a homepage or broad category page
Reddit, Quora, Q&A threads — usually a gap you can take
46
Moderate difficulty (estimate)
Expect to need topical depth around the term — a cluster of supporting pages, not one article.
Competing pages
clamp((log10(1,000,000) − 3) ÷ 5, 0, 1) × 25
Big brands in top 10
(3 ÷ 10) × 30
Exact-keyword titles
(5 ÷ 10) × 20
Purpose-built pages
(6 ÷ 10) × 15
Paid ads on the SERP
0 (no ads)
Forum / UGC results
−2 × 1 (capped at −10)
Keyword length
0 words → +5
Total (clamped to 0–100)
46The formula
difficulty =
clamp((log10(results) - 3) / 5, 0, 1) * 25 // competing pages
+ (bigBrands / 10) * 30 // brand barrier
+ (exactTitles / 10) * 20 // deliberate targeting
+ (dedicatedPages / 10) * 15 // purpose-built competition
+ (adsPresent ? 5 : 0) // commercial pressure
- min(10, forumResults * 2) // UGC opening
+ lengthAdjustment // 1 word +5, 4-5 words -5, 6+ words -10
clamped to the 0-100 rangeThe weights are a judgement call, chosen so that the barriers that actually stop pages from ranking — established brands holding the top 10 and pages built on purpose for the term — carry the most weight. Because the formula is fixed and visible, two people scoring the same SERP the same way get the same number, and you can argue with the weights instead of with a black box.
Quick answer
What is keyword difficulty?
Keyword difficulty estimates how hard it would be to rank on page one for a given search term. Every vendor computes it differently - most from their own backlink index - and no vendor's number is used by Google. This checker takes a different route: instead of inventing a score from data we do not have, it asks you for a handful of observations from the live search results page and runs them through a published formula you can read, argue with, and reproduce.
Why we ask you to look at the SERP
A difficulty score has to come from somewhere. Vendors derive theirs from a proprietary link graph, which is legitimate and expensive. We do not run a link index, and generating a confident-looking number without one would be a fabrication - so the honest alternative is to score the evidence that is free and visible to anyone: who currently holds the top ten.
This has a side effect worth more than the number. Spending two minutes actually reading the results page for your keyword tells you more about whether to target it than any score does - what intent Google is serving, what format ranks, and whether there is a genuine gap.
- Total results reported by Google - a rough measure of how much competing content exists, used on a log scale.
- Big brands in the top ten - Wikipedia, Amazon, national media, .gov and .edu, category leaders. The strongest barrier, weighted heaviest.
- Titles containing the exact keyword - evidence that competitors are deliberately targeting the term rather than ranking by accident.
- Purpose-built pages - a page about this topic beats a homepage or a broad category page landing there incidentally.
- Forum and UGC results - Reddit and Q&A threads in the top ten are usually an opening a real page can take, so they reduce the score.
- Paid ads above the organic results - a signal of commercial value, which attracts serious SEO investment.
How to use the number
Read the band, not the digit. Under 30 means a well-made page has a realistic shot even from a young site. Between 30 and 50 you will usually need topical depth - a cluster of related pages rather than one article. Above 50 the SERP is held by established sites, and the productive move is to win the longer-tail variants first and build toward the head term.
The score does not know your site. A domain with years of topical authority in a niche can take a 60 that a new site cannot take at 25. Compare the estimate against your own position, which our authority checker will give you for both your domain and the ones ranking above you.
What this score is not
It is not Ahrefs KD, Semrush KD, or Moz Difficulty, and it should not be compared with them - those are backlink-derived metrics on their own scales. It is not a prediction of how long ranking will take. And it is not a substitute for search volume: a difficulty of 12 on a phrase nobody searches is not an opportunity.
What it is: a repeatable, transparent way to compare candidate keywords using evidence you can verify yourself. Two people scoring the same SERP the same way get the same number, and when you disagree with the result you can point at the specific weight you would change.
Where this data comes from
The score is computed entirely in your browser from the observations you enter, using the fixed formula printed on this page: a log-scaled competing-pages component worth up to 25 points, big-brand presence up to 30, exact-match titles up to 20, purpose-built pages up to 15, a 5-point addition when ads are present, a discount of up to 10 for forum results, and an adjustment for keyword length. The total is clamped to 0-100. No backlink data, no search volume, and no vendor API is involved - the weights are our editorial judgement, published so you can evaluate them.
Frequently asked questions
How is this keyword difficulty score calculated?
From six observations you make on the live results page, run through a fixed formula printed on the page: competing pages on a log scale (up to 25 points), big brands in the top ten (up to 30), exact-keyword titles (up to 20), purpose-built pages (up to 15), ads present (5), minus up to 10 for forum results, plus an adjustment for keyword length. The total is clamped to 0-100.
Is this the same as Ahrefs or Semrush keyword difficulty?
No, and the numbers are not comparable. Those metrics are computed from proprietary backlink indexes on their own scales. This one scores the visible competitive landscape of the SERP. Both approaches are estimates of the same underlying question, and both should be treated as a way to rank candidate keywords against each other rather than as an absolute measurement.
What is a good keyword difficulty score to target?
It depends entirely on your site's standing. A new site should concentrate below 30, where a genuinely better page can win. An established site with topical authority can take 50-70 in its own niche. The useful comparison is not against a fixed threshold but against the sites currently ranking - if you match their authority and can write a better page, difficulty stops being the constraint.
Why do you not just show a difficulty score automatically?
Because we do not operate a backlink index, and producing a confident number without the data behind it would be inventing a metric. The transparent version asks for observations anyone can make and shows exactly how each one moves the score. It costs you two minutes and gives you a number you can actually defend to whoever is funding the content.
Does low difficulty mean I will rank?
No. It means the competitive barrier looks low. You still need a page that satisfies the intent better than what ranks now, a site that can be crawled and indexed, and enough internal linking for the page to be found. Difficulty describes the obstacle, not your ability to clear it.
Should I only target low-difficulty keywords?
Early on, mostly yes - early wins build the topical authority that makes harder terms reachable later. But a portfolio works better than a rule: a base of winnable long-tail pages that bring traffic now, plus a small number of deliberate bets on high-value head terms you build toward over months. Difficulty tells you which bucket a keyword belongs in.
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