Keyword Difficulty (KD)

You want to rank for “Hotel,” but can you? Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a metric (usually 0-100) that estimates how hard it will be to rank on the first page of Google for a specific term. “Niagara Falls Hotel” has a very high KD because you are competing with Expedia and Hilton. “Pet Friendly Motel Fort Erie” has a low KD.

This archive teaches you how to read KD scores in tools like Semrush or Ahrefs. We advocate for the “Low Hanging Fruit” strategy: targeting low-KD keywords that you can actually win, rather than wasting years fighting for high-KD terms that are out of reach. Pick battles you can win.