Keyword Difficulty vs Competition: What Each Score Means
Keyword difficulty is an SEO tool’s estimate, usually from 0 to 100, of how hard it is to reach the first page of Google for a query, mostly based on the links pointing to the pages that rank today. Keyword competition is something else: in Google Keyword Planner and the tools built on its data, it measures how many advertisers bid on the query, not how hard it is to rank.
Both are useful, as long as you know which one you’re reading. This guide covers what each score measures, why tools disagree, and how to find keywords you can actually win.
What is the difference between keyword difficulty and keyword competition?
| Keyword difficulty | Keyword competition | |
|---|---|---|
| What it estimates | How hard it is to rank organically | How crowded the ad auction is |
| Where it comes from | Each SEO tool’s own model, often links to the top-ranking pages | Google Ads data: advertisers bidding on the query |
| Scale | Usually 0 to 100 | Low, medium or high, or 0 to 1 (or an index of 0 to 100) |
| Same across tools? | No, each formula is different | Close, since most read Google’s data |
| Best used for | Judging your chances in organic results | A rough signal of commercial value |
A query can be high competition and easy to rank: advertisers love it, but the organic results are thin. It can also be low competition and very hard: nobody bids, but huge sites own the first page.
Why do keyword difficulty scores differ between tools?
Each tool builds its score its own way. Some weight the number of linking domains to the top results, some add content signals or the authority of the ranking sites, and each crawls a different slice of the web. A query can score 30 in one tool and 55 in another, and neither is wrong by its own formula.
Compare difficulty only within one tool, and treat the number as a starting point. The search results page is the real answer.
How do you check keyword difficulty by hand?
Search the query in a private window and read the first page:
- Who ranks? Big brands and major publications on every result is a hard query. Forums, small blogs and thin pages mean there’s room.
- Do the pages answer the query? If the top results answer a slightly different question, a page that answers this one exactly has a chance.
- How old are they? Pages that haven’t been updated in years are easier to beat on a topic that has changed.
- What format wins? Lists, guides, tools or product pages. If you can’t make the format that wins, the query is hard for you whatever the score says. The search intent guide covers how to read this.
Five minutes on the results page tells you more than a single score.
How do you find low competition keywords?
Look where the big sites don’t bother:
- Long, specific queries. “how to write a refund policy for a coaching business” has fewer competitors than “refund policy”. The long tail keywords guide covers how to find them.
- Questions from “People also ask”. Big pages often answer them in one line; a full answer can win.
- Your buyers’ own words. Support emails and sales calls name problems no tool lists yet.
- Queries you already rank on page two for. Search Console shows them; a better section or title can move them.
Then measure the list and keep the ones with real volume and low competition. The keyword research guide has the full method, and the keyword generator guide covers growing the list from a seed.
What is a good keyword difficulty for a new site?
There’s no universal number, because the scale differs by tool. As a rule of thumb, a young site with few links does best with the lowest difficulty band its tool shows, and with queries where the first page has at least one small or outdated site. As your site earns links, you can move up.
What does Copix measure instead of keyword difficulty?
Copix doesn’t score keyword difficulty or track rankings; if you need those, a full SEO suite is the better pick.
What Copix Complete does, through the SEO Engine on credits, is measure keywords with Google Ads data: the ideas mode (25 credits) grows up to 5 seed topics into related keywords, and the volume mode (50 credits) measures up to 100 queries you give it. Each keyword comes back with monthly volume, a 12-month trend, CPC and advertiser competition from 0 to 1, so you can filter for low competition. The competitor mode (10 credits) lists the keywords a domain or page ranks for, which helps you see what a site you’d compete with already owns. Every run states its price and asks first. The engines come with Copix Complete, $29 a month with 1,500 credits every month.
Start your 14-day free trial of Copix Complete, or compare the plans first. The trial needs a card at checkout and charges nothing for 14 days, then $29 a month unless you cancel.
FAQ
What does keyword competition mean in Google Keyword Planner?
How many advertisers bid on the query compared with other queries, shown as low, medium or high. It’s about ads, not organic rankings.
Is low keyword difficulty always good?
No. A query can be easy because few people want it, or because the searchers aren’t your buyers. Check volume and intent too.
Can I rank for a high difficulty keyword?
Sometimes, when your page answers the query better than what ranks and your site already has some authority on the topic. For a new site, it’s usually faster to start with easier queries around it.
How is keyword difficulty calculated?
Each tool has its own formula, most often based on the links pointing to the pages that rank on the first page. The formulas aren’t public in detail, which is why scores differ.
Is a competition score of 0.5 high?
On a 0 to 1 advertiser scale, 0.5 is the middle. Many writers prefer queries under 0.5 as a rough filter, then check the results page before committing.