Keyword Difficulty Scoring Algorithm Documentation

Overview

<aside> 💡 This algorithm is designed to quantify the difficulty of ranking for a particular keyword on search engines. It takes into account a wide array of factors grouped into five main categories:

• Content Difficulty
• Link Difficulty
• Domain Difficulty
• General Factors
• SERP Features

Each category is broken down into several sub-factors, all normalized to a 0-1 scale.

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A Glimpse into the Evolution of Keyword Difficulty Metrics

I've been on a journey through the ever-evolving landscape of keyword difficulty metrics. Let's start with a flashback. Remember Moz’s original keyword difficulty rating from 2012? It was like a pioneering step in SEO, combining page scores, link metrics, and rankings to gauge the toughness of ranking for a particular keyword.

Those were the days! I recall being mesmerized by those butterfly charts, feeling like a tiny fish in a big pond with my DA 12 site. How did those sites with higher DA outrank me? Maybe I should have focused more on building links, but that's a story for another day.

Enter Ahrefs’ KD Scores

Fast forward a bit, and we saw Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty Scores emerge. What set it apart was its laser focus on links to URLs on the first page of search results. It's clear, straightforward, and offers a realistic sense of the ranking challenge, especially if you're not actively building links.

However, no metric is perfect. Ahrefs' links-only approach sometimes misses the mark, especially with keywords where link strength isn't the main ranking factor. Case in point: high volume keywords with a low KD score that are still tough to rank for due to factors like search intent.

Consider these instances of keywords with high search volume but a Keyword Difficulty score below 10:

Notice that there are specific search queries here where only a limited number of websites could realistically hope to rank.

It's unlikely that just by enhancing link-building efforts and crafting a well-targeted page, you would land in the top 4 search results for a terms like "Alaska Airlines," "Allrecipes," "Chick Fil A menu," "Craigslist Phoenix," "Metacritic," "shop white sneakers," "tv.youtube tv/start," and "YouTube downloader." Here, a Keyword Difficulty score doesn't quite reflect the actual challenge.

Each of these has high search volumes but surprisingly low Keyword Difficulty scores, which can be quite deceptive.

• Take "Alaska Airlines" or "Allrecipes" - you might think, "Hey, low KD, let's go for it!" But hold on. These are heavyweight brand names. Trying to outrank them is like being a new kid on the block challenging the established stars. Not easy, right?
• Now, consider "Chick Fil A menu" and "Craigslist Phoenix." These aren't just terms; they're almost like digital destinations for specific, established pages. Breaking into this space? It's a tough nut to crack.
• Moving on to "Metacritic" and "shop white sneakers," here's where things get interesting. "Metacritic" is all about brand dominance, while "shop white sneakers" throws you into an e-commerce battle royale with big retail players.