Keyword Difficulty Checker

Keyword difficulty tells you how hard it will be to reach the first page of Google for a search term. Enter a keyword and a country to get a score from 0 to 100, based on the backlink profiles of the pages already ranking.

Alongside the score you get an estimate of how many referring domains a page typically needs to compete, which turns an abstract number into a concrete link-building target.

What the keyword difficulty score measures

The score looks at the pages currently in the top ten results and how many unique websites link to them. The more strong, linked-to pages there are on page one, the higher the score.

It does not measure content quality, search intent match or topical authority directly. A low score with a SERP full of big brands can still be hard, and a medium score can be very winnable if the ranking pages answer the query poorly.

How to read the difficulty score
Score	Label	What it usually means
0-10	Easy	Rankable with good content and few or no links
11-30	Medium	Needs solid content and some referring domains
31-70	Hard	Needs a strong page and a real link-building effort
71-100	Super hard	Dominated by authoritative sites; plan for months

How to use it to pick keywords

Compare difficulty with your own site's authority. A new site should focus on low-difficulty, high-intent keywords first and build up to harder terms as it earns links.

Shortlist keywords with the Keyword Ideas generator.
Check difficulty for each, and open the SERP Overview for the most promising ones.
Prioritise keywords where you can realistically match the referring-domain estimate.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good keyword difficulty score?

For a new or small site, anything under about 20 is a good target. Established sites with many referring domains can compete on much higher scores.

Why does difficulty differ by country?

Each country has its own search results. The pages ranking in the US can be very different from those ranking in Germany or the UK, so the score is calculated per country.

Is keyword difficulty the same across SEO tools?

No. Every tool uses its own formula and data, so scores are not directly comparable between tools. Compare keywords using the same tool.

Related tools

Keyword Ideas Generator

Turn one seed keyword into dozens of related ideas and questions, with volume and difficulty.

SERP Overview

See the pages on Google's page one, with their authority and estimated traffic.

Backlink Checker

Domain Rating, total backlinks and referring domains for any site or page.