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In SEO, keywords are the most important ones to drive organic traffic to the business website. However, every keyword is different. Some are more challenging to rank for than others, and this is where the concept of keyword difficulty comes into play. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into understanding keyword difficulty and how it impacts your SEO strategy.
As a digital marketing agency experienced in tackling the complexities of SEO, we’ll share valuable insights and proven strategies for ranking high-difficulty keywords. Let’s get started.
Understand the concept of Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is also referred to as SEO difficulty or keyword competition. It is a metric used by SEO professionals to assess the level of competition for a specific keyword.
It takes into account various factors such as the authority of website ranking for the keyword, page authority, and the quality of content.
These factors are interconnected and determine the difficulty of ranking for a particular keyword.
A critical aspect of keyword difficulty is the relationship between high-quality content and authority.
Pages with exceptional content tend to attract more external references in the form of backlinks.
As a result, both the page’s authority and the overall website authority increase.
However, even with high-quality content, if it fails to satisfy the user’s intent, ranking in the top positions becomes a challenge.
Why Keyword Difficulty Matters: A Case Study Approach
Imagine you’ve recently launched a website that lists the top gadgets, and you’re keen on driving traffic to your site.
You conduct keyword research and identify a set of high-difficulty keywords that align with your content.
However, despite producing quality content, you may need help to rank for these keywords.
This isn’t a reflection of your content or website. Instead, it’s the difficulty search engines face in identifying your competitive advantage compared to established sites.
The key is to focus on low-difficulty keywords, especially if you have a relatively new website.
These keywords might have a moderate to high search volume and offer an opportunity to establish your initial topic authority.
Different SEO Tools, Different Calculations
Various SEO tools calculate keyword difficulty using their proprietary metrics and algorithms.
For instance, Moz’s Keyword Difficulty score relies on the page authority of the top-ranking pages, while Ahrefs considers the number of backlinks pointing to those pages.
SEMrush combines page and domain authority, search volume, and SERP features to calculate its keyword difficulty score.
If you understand these differences, you can easily make informed decisions when choosing the right tool for your keyword research.
Note: While these tools provide a keyword difficulty score on a scale from 0 to 100, the actual difficulty may vary due to the varying methodologies.
Moreover, if you’re a digital marketing company, then you have to know the latest Keyword tools to find the best in 2023.
Strategies for Ranking High-Difficulty Keywords
First, producing valuable content that offers unique insights and perspectives is crucial.
To stand out from the competition, focus on providing information that other top-ranking pages may have missed.
By offering comprehensive content that adds value to your audience, you increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
Next, to boost your page’s authority and improve rankings for high-difficulty keywords, acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites is essential.
Invest in organic link-building strategies by reaching out to influencers or relevant industry websites for collaboration opportunities. Alternatively, you may consider professional backlink-building services to ensure quality and relevance.
Optimizing your page plays a critical role in improving search engine visibility for competitive keywords.
Ensure that your target keyword is strategically placed in the title tag, meta description, headers, and throughout the content itself without resorting to keyword stuffing.
Additionally, make sure that your website loads quickly and provides a seamless user experience as these factors contribute significantly to both user satisfaction and search engine rankings.
Creating exceptional content alone is not enough; promotion is equally important when targeting high-difficulty keywords.
Utilize social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., email marketing campaigns, and other promotional channels, to increase the visibility of your content.
By encouraging engagement through likes or shares, you can generate backlinks while also creating social signals which search engines use as indicators of relevance.
Few Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
When dealing with high keyword difficulty, it is important to steer clear of common SEO mistakes such as:
- Focusing Solely on Keyword Difficulty: Consider factors like a relevance to your target audience, your website’s existing authority level, and alignment with your business goals alongside keyword difficulty when selecting keywords.
- Ignoring Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords often possess lower difficulty scores while boasting higher conversion rates due to their specificity in addressing user intent. It is essential not to overlook their potential impact on achieving success.
- Not Regularly Reevaluating Keyword Difficulty: Monitor changes within the SEO landscape by regularly reassessing the difficulty levels of your target keywords over time; this ensures you remain informed about any shifts in trends that could turn previously low-difficulty keywords into high-difficulty ones.
The Role of Keyword Difficulty in SEO Strategy
While keyword difficulty is a critical metric, it’s only one piece of the SEO puzzle. Your SEO strategy should consider multiple factors such as keyword relevance, search intent, content quality, and more.
Understanding and effectively utilizing keyword difficulty allows you to make strategic decisions and stay ahead of the competition in the ever-evolving SEO landscape.
