By oficly 
The highly competitive keywords according to certain tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush would never rank in a highly competitive market. Lesser-known or newly created websites would ever so slightly have a chance to rank for that keyword if something right is done.
But what does keyword competition mean? How are these difficulty scores evaluated-meaning whatsoever? And why should they matter in your SEO endeavors?
This guide will shed light on the occurrences of keyword competition and how it affects your ability to rank. Then, as we get smarter, SEO and content strategies will be embraced to implement these concepts.
What Does Keyword Competition Mean for SEO?
Sometimes called keyword difficulty and sometimes keyword opportunities, it actually is a way to assess how difficult it may be, on any keyword, to rank on the first page of a search engine.
A keyword has high competitiveness in a particular space depending on the number of websites that try to rank for that very keyword, the power of those websites, and how much traffic those websites manage to grab for themselves through this keyword.
The score elevates with increasing difficulty of something’s ranking, and the reverse applies to the score being lowered.
Commonly, SEO tools mark keyword difficulty as following:
- 0 to 30: Easy
- 31 to 50: Medium
- 51 to 70: Hard
- 71+: Very Hard
It behaves somewhat like grading in a range. For instance, the sky-blue ranged medium difficulty score ranges from 31 to 50. Within this, some keywords inadvertently fall toward the easier side than others: it is easier to rank for a keyword that has a difficulty of just 5 than to rank for one that has a score of 28, but both are considered easy.
Why Do Keyword Competition Scores Matter?
Keyword competition scores indicate how hard it is to rank for a keyword by itself. Information like this helps you make wiser choices in SEO strategy planning. To quickly attain visibility in front of the right people, targeting less competitive keywords on any new website would be wise. Less competitive keywords generally mean fewer people are searching for them, as opposed to higher competition keywords.
On the other hand, you may want to create the finest and hardest-working piece of content on the Internet and support it with backlinks or pick variations of the keyword and put the niche behind those for slow ranking, having knowledge of the highest competitive level keywords. Competition scores allow focusing on what counts, save time in the process, and thus will likely increase the chances for SEO success.
How the Keyword Competition Score Is Calculated?
Keyword competition is a measure of how hard it looks- to rank an establishment for any given keyword with the two differental factors entering its measurement systems.
1. Number of Competing Websites
It becomes harder to rank for a keyword; the more websites there are going after it. Fewer competitors mean lower scores; this allows smaller businesses to have a chance of reaching the first page.
2. Authority Level of Competitors
If strong authoritative websites are competing against you, it gets much harder to rank. Sometimes the very presence of such high authority websites, even with a few competitors, can increase the keyword difficulty score.
3. Volume of Searches
High search volume keywords earn higher competition and lower in number, whereas the niche or long-tail keywords, fewer in competition, are regarded as less difficult and therefore become easier to rank.
4. Content & SEO Strength of Top Ranking Pages
Some tools take into account the quality, relevance, and backlinks of the pages ranking for that keyword while calculating the difficulty, making further analyses more precise.
In this manner, the SEO tools duly assign a score or category such as easy, medium, or hard, which allows the user to identify actual targets among keywords and therefore wisely choose which SEO avenue to pursue.
How to Identify the Competitive Keywords?
These competitive scores indicate the relative difficulty or ease with which it may be possible to rank for any given keyword. Among the inputs use to derive such scores include multiple factors which determine that rating as a whole, on the basis of which the final estimate of difficulty is garnered.
1. Analyze Keyword Difficulty Score
Most SEO tools will give your competition a number or category of sorts: easy, medium, hard, etc. Theoretically speaking, highly scoring keywords, say 70 and above, are said to be tough for newer or less authoritative sites to get ranked. Very low-score keywords, on the other hand, say below 10, are usually taken to mean they are not too competitive; however, sometimes they are just low in search volume, in which case they do not really have traffic potential.
2. Analyze Top Ranking Pages in the SERPs and Under This Keyword
Look at the sites on top of the SERPs for the target keyword. If the top positions are taken by an authority site with ample backlink profiles in its favor, as well as good content and great SEO optimization, competition is very high. On the other side of the spectrum are keywords easier to attack where the top sites in those results are often smaller sites with very simplistic content.
3. Search Volume
While competition may be fair with little search volume for some keywords, the reverse is true for easy rank keywords with low competition, and hence giving low traffic. Ideally, such keywords should find a good compromise between unfair competition and decent search volume in order to yield the best results.
4. Check Your Website Authority
Present strength of your website matters: Usually, new websites with low domain authority aim at low to medium competition keywords; established websites with a higher level of domain authority will preferably compete for high competition keywords and increase their reach.
5. Assessment of Search Intent Alignment
Ensure a keyword is of moderate competition and is serving the decision making process of the sputters-intended customer: In deciding, of course, a moderately competitive keyword becomes hard if its actual search intent does not correlate with your content. Then determine whether the keyword would be applicable to the sort of audience or content that you wish to associate to rank higher.
How to Perform Competitor Keyword Analysis
This is a fairly time consuming keyword research to perform if done manually. One keeps looking into their blog posts, webpages, or contents to generate insight into what their target keywords might be. Yet this is a ridiculous oversimplification because the whole of their SEO strategy is hidden from view.
An immediate shortcut for the most valid approach to competitor keyword analysis is through an SEO tool-benefit since most of these tools operate along the same lines-So, let’s consider Ahrefs as an instance.
In the SEOptimer dashboard, the Backlink Research area is where you can check the Domain Strength of a website and the backlinks that point to it. You can also see total backlinks, referring domains, and dofollow/nofollow links.
Following that, the Keyword Research tool names the keywords your competitors will rank for, how much organic traffic these keywords earn for them, and their monthly search volume.
Depending on the learning from that exercise will be very instrumental in helping you in deciding which keywords can actually be targeted by you for SEO or which opportunities can send your content for higher ranks.
Tools to Check Keyword Difficulty
It will get a little tiring and time-consuming to assess all the keyword difficulties of so many keywords you want to rank for.
- Ahrefs: One of the most talked-about SEO programs to do keyword difficulty analysis. The KD Score is issued along with the highest ranking pages so, backed with the profile of backlinks, organic traffic, and all, you will know what it takes to outrank a competitor.
- SEMrush: Others provide keyword difficulty in percentage along with search volume, CPC, and competitive density. One can also search through their ranking pages to get info about domain authority and backlink profile.
- Moz: Moz’s Keyword Explorer provides a difficulty score, as well as metrics for opportunity like organic CTR and priority. Directions basically say it is a tool that will be helpful to beginners trying to determine if they can rank on a keyword on their site.
- Ubersuggest: Ubersuggest gives you keyword difficulty score, search volume, and the level of SEO competition in an easy-to-understand, visual manner. It is very easy to use for someone new who wishes to assess a keyword quickly.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, depending on the search term selected, all things have to do with its domain strength or influence. In contrast, the volume of the search term must be the number of people searching for the said keyword. It is also apt to pick some other keywords with less difficulty, easy to rank, and able to bring in sensible traffic.
So the ball is in your court now: give a good look into keyword difficulty and select those keywords that shall best promote your SEO while drawing visitors to your website!
FAQs
What is keyword competition in SEO?
Keyword competition in simple words is how difficult it is in search engines to rank for any keyword. This difficulty depends upon the number of websites that chase the keyword and the strength of those sites. Competition, therefore, is the factor that will help you select the keywords suited to the authority of your site so you have more chance of being ranked.
How would a keyword be measured to be high or low in SEO competition?
SEO tools like SEOptimer, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz will display the level of competition for any particular keywords that are entered. They look at backlinks, domain authority, and sites holding the top rankings to rank them with difficulty scores that show you whether a keyword is worthy to go for or not.
How many keywords should be there per 1000 words?
The thumb rule being followed is 3-5 main keywords per thousand words that include your focus keywords and related terms. Keywords most certainly harm your SEO when stuffed into the body copy. So, place your keywords in strategic spots without compromising natural readability.
What are the 4 main types of keywords in SEO?
These four major types are:
- Short-tail keywords: One or two words to describe a general and highly competitive search.
- Long-tail keywords: Three or more: Less competition and highly targeted.
- Brand keywords: Include trademark name.
- LSI—that is, related keywords: These can be any alternate variations of the original keyword or simply related terms to help give context to your content.
What are broad match keywords?
A broad match search will cause your content to be exposed to queries that are nearly associated or related to but not literally the very same. So, it lets the search reach wider for your synonyms and some vague user intent very close to your keyword.