What Is Keyword Difficulty and How to Find Easy Keywords?

1 What Is Keyword Difficulty and Why Every Beginner Gets It Wrong

When I started doing SEO many years ago, I made the same mistake almost every beginner makes. I picked keywords based on search volume alone. High volume meant high traffic potential, so I targeted them without checking how competitive they were. Every article I wrote disappeared into page five or beyond, never to be found.

Keyword difficulty, commonly referred to as KD in SEO tools, is a score from 0 to 100 that estimates how hard it would be to rank on Google's first page for a specific keyword. The higher the score, the more authority, backlinks, and content quality you need to compete. The lower the score, the more realistic it is for a newer website to rank.

Think of it like a competition entry requirement. Some competitions are open to anyone. Others require years of credentials before you can even apply. Keyword difficulty tells you which competition you are trying to enter before you spend time preparing for it.

A score of 0 to 10 means almost any website can rank with good content. A score of 70 to 100 means you are competing against established websites with thousands of backlinks built over years. For a new website, targeting a KD 80 keyword is not ambitious. It is simply unrealistic at that stage of growth.

2 How Is Keyword Difficulty Actually Calculated

This is where most guides stop at a surface level explanation. Understanding how KD is calculated changes how you use and interpret the number.

Every major SEO tool calculates keyword difficulty differently. They all use the same 0 to 100 scale, but the inputs behind that number vary significantly between platforms. This is why the same keyword can show wildly different KD scores depending on which tool you check.

The most important thing to understand from this table is that Google Keyword Planner does not measure organic keyword difficulty at all. It measures paid ad competition. Beginners who rely on Keyword Planner's competition column for organic SEO decisions are reading completely the wrong signal.

Ahrefs uses the simplest and most transparent method. It looks at how many unique referring domains link to each of the top 10 ranking pages. The more backlinks those pages have, the higher the KD score. This gives you a clear, actionable benchmark: if you want to rank, you roughly need as many quality backlinks as the current top 10 pages have.

3 What Keyword Difficulty Score Should You Target as a Beginner

This is the question that matters most practically and the answer depends on where your website is right now.

A brand new website has no domain authority, no backlink profile, and no established trust with Google. Competing for high KD keywords from day one is like entering a Formula 1 race in a standard road car. The race is real. Your vehicle just is not built for it yet.

The single most important rule for any new website is this. Do not let high search volume tempt you into targeting high KD keywords before your site is ready. A keyword with 500 monthly searches and KD 8 will bring you more traffic in month three than a keyword with 10,000 monthly searches and KD 75 will bring you in year one.

Start where you can win. Win consistently. Then move to harder keywords from a position of established strength.

4 Why KD Score Alone Is Never the Full Picture

Here is the insight that separates experienced SEO professionals from beginners who rely entirely on KD scores.

Keyword difficulty is a useful starting filter but it is not the final decision. A keyword with KD 35 might be genuinely easier to rank for than a keyword with KD 20, depending on the specific pages currently ranking for it and what gaps they leave unfilled.

The concept Ahrefs calls "Personal Keyword Difficulty" captures this perfectly. The standard KD score tells you how hard the keyword is for the average website. Your personal keyword difficulty is how hard it is specifically for your website, based on your domain authority, your existing topical coverage, and the quality of your content compared to current top rankers.

Search intent alignment: If the top 10 results for a keyword are all free tools and you are publishing a blog post, you will not rank regardless of how strong your content is. Google has already decided the format searchers want. Your content format must match that.

Content freshness: A keyword where the top ranking articles were last updated in 2021 is genuinely easier to crack than the KD score suggests. Fresher, more comprehensive content can outrank older articles even when those older articles have more backlinks.

SERP cracks: Look at the Domain Rating of every page currently ranking in the top 10. If one or two positions are held by low authority websites with DR under 20, that is a signal that content quality can outperform backlink quantity for that keyword.

Topical authority: If your website has already published 15 articles on keyword research and you are adding one more, Google recognises your website as a topical authority on that subject. That topical relevance effectively reduces your personal keyword difficulty for all related terms.

5 How to Check Keyword Difficulty for Free Step by Step

You do not need a paid tool subscription to check keyword difficulty as a beginner. Here is the exact process using free resources:

Step 1: Use Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator
Go to ahrefs.com/keyword-generator, enter your seed topic, and select your target country. The free version shows KD scores for the top keyword suggestions without requiring an account.

Step 2: Check SEMrush Free Version
SEMrush gives you 10 free keyword searches per day. Enter your target keyword and note the KD score alongside the monthly search volume. The combination of both numbers tells you whether the keyword is worth pursuing.

Step 3: Validate With Google Search Console
If your website is already live, check GSC for the keywords you currently rank for in positions 5 to 20. These are keywords where you are already competitive. Find similar keywords in the same difficulty range and target them next.

Step 4: Check the SERP Manually
Search your target keyword in Google and look at the first page results. Check the Domain Rating of the ranking sites using the free Ahrefs SEO Toolbar browser extension. If several results come from low DR websites, the keyword is more accessible than the KD number alone suggests.

Step 5: Assess Content Quality of Top Rankers
Read the top three ranking articles. Are they genuinely comprehensive or are they thin, outdated, and poorly structured? If you can write something significantly more useful and detailed, content quality can compensate for lower domain authority on low to mid KD keywords.

6 How to Find Low KD Keywords That Actually Have Search Volume

Finding keywords with low difficulty and meaningful search volume is the skill that separates growing websites from stagnant ones. Here are the most effective methods:

Method 1: Long-Tail Keyword Expansion
Start with a broad seed keyword and look for longer, more specific variations. "SEO" has a KD of 95. "SEO tips for small business owners" might have a KD of 12 with 300 monthly searches. The more specific the keyword, the lower the competition and the clearer the search intent.

Method 2: Question-Based Keywords
Questions are almost always lower difficulty than their statement counterparts. "Keyword difficulty" might have KD 65. "What does keyword difficulty mean" might have KD 15. Use Google's People Also Ask section to find question variations of any competitive keyword.

Method 3: Location-Based Keywords
Adding a location to almost any keyword dramatically reduces difficulty. "SEO services" has high competition globally. "SEO services for small business in Manchester" or "affordable SEO consultant London" have significantly lower KD scores with highly specific commercial intent.

Method 4: Competitor Gap Analysis
Use SEMrush or Ahrefs free Webmaster Tools to find keywords your competitors rank for that you do not. Filter this list for KD under 20 and search volume above 100. These are proven, rankable keywords that your competitor has already validated for you.

Method 5: Emerging Topics
New topics, tools, and trends have low KD simply because not many articles exist yet. Use Google Trends to identify rising topics in your niche and publish early. Being first on an emerging topic means you accumulate backlinks and authority before competition arrives.

7 Keyword Difficulty Tools Compared | Free and Paid Options

For a new website with no budget, the combination of Ahrefs free keyword generator, SEMrush free daily searches, and Google Search Console covers every keyword difficulty check you need for the first 12 months.

8 What Is KD in Ahrefs and What Does the Ahrefs Rank Mean

Since Ahrefs is the most widely used keyword difficulty tool among professional SEOs, understanding how to read its specific metrics is worth covering in detail.

In Ahrefs, the KD score is calculated purely based on the number of referring domains pointing to the top 10 ranking pages for that keyword. It is an absolute metric, not relative to your website specifically.

Ahrefs Rank is a separate metric that ranks every website in the Ahrefs database from strongest to weakest based on backlink profile strength. Ahrefs Rank 1 is the most linked-to website in the database. A lower Ahrefs Rank number means a stronger website. When you check a SERP and see websites with Ahrefs Ranks in the millions ranking on page one, that is a clear signal that a newer site with good content can compete for that keyword.

9 3 Expert Tips for Using Keyword Difficulty Like a Pro

10 Conclusion

Keyword difficulty is not a barrier. It is a map.

It shows you which keywords your website can realistically compete for right now, which ones to prepare for in six months, and which ones to add to your long-term target list as your authority grows.

The beginner who ignores KD wastes months writing content that will never rank. The beginner who understands KD builds a logical progression from easy wins to competitive keywords, accumulating authority and traffic at every step.

Start with KD under 20. Win those rankings. Use the traffic and credibility they build to go after harder keywords six months from now. That is not settling for small. That is building smart.