Quick answer: keyword difficulty scores are estimates from third-party tools, and each tool calculates them differently. For a new blog, a manual look at the search results is more useful: if the top results are all big brands with in-depth pages that match the searcher’s intent, pick a narrower topic. If you see forums, thin pages, outdated posts or small sites ranking, the keyword may be within reach. Confirm with Google Search Console once posts are live.
Every new blogger hits the same wall. A topic looks perfect, the search volume looks healthy, and then the post never shows up anywhere near page one. Often the problem is not the writing. The keyword was simply out of reach for a young site.
Keyword difficulty is the idea of judging that before you write. This guide explains what the common difficulty scores mean, where they mislead, and how to size up a keyword by looking at the search results yourself. It is a companion to our guide on starting a blog that earns money, which covers niche choice, setup and monetization.
What Keyword Difficulty Scores Measure
Most SEO tools show a keyword difficulty score, often on a scale of 0 to 100. The number is meant to estimate how hard it would be to reach the first page of Google for that term.
These scores do not come from Google. Each tool builds its own model, and the inputs vary. Ahrefs, for example, describes its keyword difficulty metric as based on the backlinks pointing to the pages that currently rank in the top results. Other tools blend links with other signals. Because the formulas differ, the same keyword can score very differently across tools.
That makes a difficulty score a rough guide at best. It can help sort a long list of ideas, but it cannot tell you whether your specific site, with your specific content, can rank.
What the scores miss
Third-party scores often leave out factors that matter a lot for a new blog:
- How well the current results match what searchers actually want
- Whether the ranking pages are outdated or thin
- Whether forums and user-generated pages are ranking, which can signal a gap
- How closely your site’s topic matches the keyword
- The quality of the content you are able to write
A Common Mix-Up: Keyword Planner Competition
Google’s Keyword Planner shows a column called Competition, with values such as low, medium and high. Many beginners read that as SEO difficulty, which is a mistake.
Google Ads Help explains that the Competition column shows how competitive ad placement is for a keyword, based on how many advertisers bid on it. A keyword with high ad competition may be easy to rank for organically, and a keyword with low ad competition may be very hard. Use Keyword Planner for search volume ranges and keyword ideas, not for judging organic difficulty.
The Manual Check: Read the Search Results
The most reliable way to judge a keyword is to search for it and study the first page. The check takes a few minutes per keyword and shows you exactly what you would be up against.
Use a private or logged-out browser window so personal history affects the results less. Then look at each of the top results and ask these questions.
Who is ranking?
Note whether the top results are big brands, major publishers, government sites, niche blogs, forums or video platforms. A page full of national brands and big publishers is a tough field for a new blog. A mix that includes small blogs and forum threads suggests room for a focused, helpful post.
Do the results match the intent?
Google tries to show results that fit what the searcher wants. If someone searching the keyword clearly wants a product page, a calculator or a video, a blog post may struggle no matter how good it is. Look at the format of the top results. Mostly how-to articles means a how-to article fits. Mostly shopping pages means a blog post probably does not.
How good are the ranking pages?
Open the top pages and read them. Are they thorough, accurate and up to date? Or are they short, vague, outdated or full of ads? Weak pages ranking for a keyword are one of the clearest signs of an opportunity.
Are forums and Q&A sites ranking?
Reddit threads, Quora answers and community forums often appear when there is no strong, dedicated article on a topic. Their presence can mean searchers want an answer that no site has written well yet.
What else appears on the page?
Featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, video carousels, local map packs and shopping results all take space. A keyword whose results page is crowded with these features may send fewer clicks to regular articles, even at the top.
A Simple Scoring Sheet
To compare keywords quickly, score each one in a spreadsheet:
- Intent fit: can a blog post satisfy this search? Yes, partly or no
- Competition: mostly big brands, mixed, or mostly small sites and forums
- Content quality of top results: strong, average or weak
- Results page features: crowded or clean
- Topic fit: how closely the keyword matches your blog’s niche
- Your ability: can you write the most helpful page on this topic?
Keywords with good intent fit, mixed or weak competition, a clean results page and a strong topic fit go to the top of the list. Keywords dominated by big brands with excellent content move to a later list, to revisit once the blog has grown.
A Worked Example
Here is how the manual check might play out for two made-up keyword ideas on a home organization blog.
The first idea is a broad term like kitchen organization. The results page shows major home magazines, a big-box retailer’s category page, a video carousel and a long People Also Ask box. Every article in the top five is long, recent and polished. Intent is mixed between shopping and ideas. For a new blog, this goes on the later list.
The second idea is narrower: how to organize a deep corner kitchen cabinet. The results include one solid article from a mid-size blog, two forum threads, a short post from several years ago and a product listing that only partly answers the question. Intent is clearly how-to. A thorough, well-illustrated guide that answers the question better than the forum threads has a realistic chance here, so it moves to the top of the list.
Neither example needed a difficulty score. Reading the results told the story, and the same process works for any niche.
Match the Depth of What Ranks
Length is not a ranking factor on its own, but depth matters. Look at how thoroughly the top results cover the topic. When they answer a simple question in a few hundred words, a sprawling post may not serve searchers better. Where they cover many subtopics with examples and visuals, a short post will struggle to compete.
The goal is to be the most useful page for the search, which sometimes means more detail and sometimes means a faster, clearer answer. Our article on how long a blog post should be covers how to decide.
Why Topic Focus Helps a New Blog
A new blog with many posts on one subject often has an easier time than one that covers everything. Google’s guidance on creating helpful content encourages people-first content made by those with real knowledge of the topic, and a focused site makes that easier to show.
In practice, that means choosing keywords that fit together. A cluster of related posts, each answering a specific question and linked to one another, builds a clear picture of what the site covers. Our guide to internal linking for beginners explains how to connect those posts.
Start With Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific searches, such as how to clean a cast iron pan after cooking fish rather than cast iron care. They usually have lower search volume, but they also tend to have less competition and clearer intent.
For a new blog, long-tail keywords offer a path to early traffic. A post that ranks well for a specific question can bring steady visitors, and many such posts together add up. Over time, as the site earns links and builds a track record, broader keywords become more realistic.
Free tools help find long-tail ideas: Google autocomplete, the People Also Ask box, related searches at the bottom of the results page and the questions people post in forums. Our step-by-step method for free keyword research for beginner bloggers covers these in detail.
Confirm With Google Search Console
Difficulty estimates are guesses until real data arrives. Google Search Console, a free tool from Google, shows how a site performs in search once pages are indexed.
The Performance report lists the queries that brought up your pages, along with impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position. Google’s documentation explains each metric. Use it to check your judgment:
- If a post earns impressions at positions 11 to 30, it is close, and an update or better internal links may help
- If a post earns no impressions after a reasonable time, the keyword may be harder than expected or the page may not match intent
- If a post ranks for related queries you did not target, those queries are clues for new posts
Revisit your scoring sheet with this data every month or two. Over time, your own results will tell you more about what your site can rank for than any third-party score.
When to Revisit Harder Keywords
Keywords moved to the later list are not gone for good. As a blog publishes more posts on a topic, earns links from other sites and builds a record in Search Console, harder terms become more realistic.
A simple habit is to review the later list every few months. Search each keyword again, since results pages change. A brand that ranked last year may have dropped out, or a new results feature may have changed the layout. Your own site may also have started ranking for related long-tail terms, which is a sign the broader keyword could be next.
Mistakes to Avoid
A few habits waste time for new bloggers:
- Treating one tool’s difficulty score as fact
- Reading Keyword Planner’s Competition column as SEO difficulty
- Chasing high-volume head terms on a brand-new site
- Ignoring search intent and writing the wrong type of page
- Skipping the manual results check
- Giving up on a post too early, before it has had time to be crawled and settle
- Writing many posts that target the same keyword and compete with each other
Frequently Asked Questions
?? What is a good keyword difficulty score for a new blog?
There is no universal number, because each tool calculates difficulty differently. Many new bloggers start with the lowest scores in their tool, then confirm by checking the search results manually.
?? Is Keyword Planner competition the same as keyword difficulty?
No. Google Ads Help says the Competition column shows how competitive ad placement is, based on advertisers bidding on the keyword. It does not measure how hard it is to rank organically.
?? Does Google use keyword difficulty or domain authority scores?
These scores come from third-party SEO tools, not Google. They are estimates built from each tool’s own data, such as backlink counts.
?? How can I tell if I can rank for a keyword?
Search for it and study the first page. Look at who ranks, whether results match the intent, how strong the pages are and whether forums or thin pages appear. Weak or mismatched results suggest an opportunity.
?? How long does it take a new blog post to rank?
There is no fixed timeline. It depends on how quickly Google crawls and indexes the page, the competition and the content. Search Console shows when a page starts earning impressions.
?? Should new blogs target long-tail keywords?
Long-tail keywords are usually a practical starting point. They tend to have clearer intent and less competition, which gives a new site a better chance to rank.
Sources: Google Search Central (Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content; SEO Starter Guide); Google Search Console Help (Performance report); Google Ads Help (Keyword Planner metrics); Ahrefs documentation on its keyword difficulty metric. Tool features change, so check current documentation.