Keyword difficulty: how to determine?

In the world of SEO, where glory is achieved by those who claim their site on the first page of search results, not using keywords is a huge mistake. But do you know how to assess keyword difficulty?

When you understand how to select the best ones, you gain a huge advantage over the competition. 

Here are some practical tips on how to determine the Difficulty of keywords to rank on search engines and generate traffic quality!

Why are keywords important?

Keywords are important because they are the link between what people search for on a search engine (Google, for example) and the content you offer on your site to meet that need. 

They can put your site in front of the right customers, but they need to be relevant to the people who are looking for them. Choosing keywords that are relevant to your business is one of the most important SEO strategies most used in the entire digital market.

How to interpret keyword research data?

Start by removing “useless” keywords, e.g. all those that don't belong to your business.

Now you have to start using 100%'s most important tool: your brain.

The success of your keyword research will depend on your ability to select the right keywords based on search intent behind each of them.

Every user types a keyword into the search engine with the intention of finding something specific, not by chance.

The aim is to study the possible scenarios in order to understand what intentions are hidden behind the user's search.

Keyword research is usually carried out through a thorough analysis of the sector in which the site must compete.

Generally, a survey is carried out to find out what terms users use to search for the product in the niche in which they operate.

Determining the difficulty of keywords

1 - Research the keyword

In the beginning, it's good to use specialized keyword research software. Using these tools, you can make an initial check on the keywords.

We won't use all the keywords we get, but only those that seem most relevant to the topic to be treated.

In the keyword research tool, we'll get a list of words with the volume of research related.

Some keywords will have a high search volume and others will have zero searches per month.

What are the keywords to optimize our article?

It depends.

As words with a high volume are the most difficult to position, because competitors will be interested in using them.

However, if your site is already very authoritative on Google, don't be afraid to try to position this type of keyword.

For all other sites (beginners), we recommend selecting keywords with a search volume ranging from 30 monthly searches to 100-150 (depends on the authority of the site).

2 - What kind of keyword to use?

It's important to remember that keywords are not necessarily made up of a single word. Sometimes they are made up of one word, sometimes two and sometimes 4 or more. 

Everything a user types into the Internet search bar can be taken into account in your keyword research strategies.

• Short-tail keywords

Shorter keywords are called ”short-tail keywords” and, although they are searched for more frequently online, longer variations are more common, are generally more vague. For example, if someone types the word “discount” into the search bar, what exactly are they looking for?

A website can offer a discount coupon, But it's hard to know if someone who writes the word “discount” wants this service. In addition, short-tail keywords are much more competitive.

• Long-tail keywords

There are longer sets of words, called ”long-tail keywords”. They generally generate less volume than their short-tail counterparts, but they can be much more important for companies because the user's search intent is clearer.

For example, “discount coupon stores” is a keyword with a clear objective, as opposed to “discount”.

Competition for these keywords will also be less intense, which is crucial for companies that don't have the same financial resources as the big multinationals.

Keyword research is the process in which you discover all the different short-tail and long-tail keywords related to your business and then help determine which are the most important with the content you create and publish.

• Keywords with commercial intent

These are the keywords that people use before making a purchase. Here are the words that tend to be part of this type: purchase, discount, shipping, etc. As you can imagine, these keywords have a high conversion rate.

3 - Google the keywords

Choosing keywords, It's time to type them into Google to see two things:

1. Who is on the first page of Google for that keyword
2. That type of sites are returned by Google for that keyword

Knowing who is on the first page of that keyword will give us the opportunity to analyze the pages of competitors who have positioned themselves well, highlight their strengths and weaknesses, evaluate their optimization and the status of on-page and off-page optimization.

The aim is to create a better post, It's important to make sure that your sites are better optimized and richer in specific content. So visit your sites and identify the keywords and topics for which they are positioned.

You can also “inspect” your competitor's page to see which subtitles (H1, H2, etc.) they use. There's a good chance that the main keyword they focus on on a given page is the H1 title tag.

4- Check the difficulty factor in SEMrush

The Keyword Difficulty tool from SEMrush evaluates which keywords are worth using and which are difficult to rank for. It's a very useful service, as it provides a keyword difficulty index from 1 to 100% to show how hard it is to beat competitors with the specified search terms and phrases.

So, the higher the percentage, the greater the effort needed to beat the competition for each targeted keyword.

The Semrush Keyword Difficulty assessment works like this:

• 1 to 20: Easy
• 21 to 40: medium difficulty
• 41 to 50: Difficult
• 51 to 60: Very difficult
• Over 60: almost impossible

5 - Calculate the Keyword Effectiveness Index

KEI is a predictive SEO variable used to evaluate the effectiveness of a given keyword in SEO optimization and is calculated by comparing the monthly search volume squared and SEO competition. To calculate, we use this formula:

KEI = monthly searches ² / Competitiveness of a keyword

Conclusion - Keyword Difficulty

Congratulations! You now have a list of keywords that will help you focus on the right topics for your business and achieve short- and long-term results.

Google is essential at this point to understand which keywords have a high monthly search volume and the least difficulty in positioning. So, before drawing up the list of keywords we want to use, it's a good idea to analyze the competition in order to understand their strategy and, subsequently, “win” positions in the competition. SERP.

At this point in the article, you will have understood that the process of selecting and evaluating keywords is not so intuitive. It takes time, patience and skill.

If you're thinking of optimizing your website, don't hesitate to talk to us first and get an SEO consultation with our professionals. Click on the button below and get a quote!

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Caio Nogueira

Caio Nogueira is co-founder of UpSites and a reference in website development and SEO consultancy. With over 10 years' experience and more than 900 projects completed for brands such as KaBuM, UNIMED, USP and Nestlé, Caio stands out for his competence in digital project management.Caio has also been a guest author on influential digital marketing websites such as Neil Patel, Rock Content, Hostinger, Duda, Hostgator and Locaweb, where he has shared his expertise in SEO and content marketing.

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