How to Check Keyword Difficulty: The Actually Useful Guide

Why Keyword Difficulty Isn't a Single Number

When people search for keyword difficulty, they are usually looking for a single number, often a percentage or a score from 1 to 100. Different tools (like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz) give different numbers for the same keyword because they use different algorithms. However, the underlying truth is simpler: keyword difficulty is a measure of how hard it is to rank on the first page of Google for that specific term. High difficulty means big, established brands or sites with massive amounts of authority already occupy the top spots. Low difficulty means small blogs, local businesses, or niche sites currently rank, giving newcomers a realistic chance to compete.

You do not need to pay for a subscription to understand this. You can assess difficulty manually by inspecting the current search results. This method, often called "SERP analysis," is free and arguably more accurate because it looks at the actual pages that are winning right now, rather than relying on a tool's historical guess.

The Manual Check: What to Look At

To check the difficulty of a keyword for free, run a Google search in a new, private window (to avoid personalized results). Then, examine the top 10 organic results. Ask yourself three specific questions:

Who is ranking? If the top results are from Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, or major news outlets (like The New York Times or BBC), the difficulty is extremely high. These "domain giants" have near-infinite authority. If the top results are small personal blogs, local business sites, or niche forums, the difficulty is likely low to moderate.
How good are the pages? Click on the number 3 or 5 result. Is the content thin, outdated, or poorly formatted? If the page ranking well is low quality, high quality, new content can easily displace it. If the page is comprehensive, fact-checked, and well-optimized, it is hard to beat.
What is the Search Intent? Is Google showing "People Also Ask" boxes, videos, or image packs? If Google is trying to answer questions directly, the keyword may be less about ranking for a landing page and more about providing a direct answer. This changes your strategy.

Free Tools That Help, With Caveats

While manual analysis is best, several free tools can give you data points if you understand their limitations.

Google Keyword Planner: You need a Google Ads account to access it, but you don't need to spend money. It gives you search volume and a "Competition" metric. Be careful: Google's "Competition" metric refers to how much advertisers bid for ads, not necessarily how hard it is to rank organically. Use it as a secondary indicator, not the primary one.
Ubersuggest (Basic Tier): You get a limited number of searches per day for free. It gives a Difficulty score. Since their database is smaller than the paid giants, treat this number as a rough estimate, not a gospel.
Keyword Surfer (Extension): This free Chrome extension shows search volume and SEO scores directly in the Google results page. It is great for quick checks, but it lacks the depth of backlink data, which is crucial for understanding difficulty.
AnswerThePublic (Basic): Limited free queries, but excellent for seeing what questions people are asking related to your keyword. This helps you find long-tail variations that are often easier to rank for.

Why Long-Tail Keywords Are Your Best Bet

Most beginners fail because they target "shoes." The keyword difficulty for "shoes" is impossibly high. But the difficulty for "red running shoes for women wide toe box" is significantly lower. To find these, take your main topic and add modifiers like "how to," "for beginners," "vs," or specific use cases. Free tools like AnswerThePublic can help you brainstorm these variations instantly. When you check these longer phrases, you will rarely see domains with massive authority ranking for them. This is where new sites can win.

The Real Risk: Stagnant Pages

One important factor free tools often miss is page freshness. Check the date on the top-ranking articles. If the top article was published five years ago and hasn't been updated, the keyword is effectively "dead" or stagnant. Google frequently prioritizes newer, more relevant content for informational queries. You do not need to beat a 2020 blog post about "how to tie a tie" with a 2024 post that is clearly better organized and uses current images. This is a free way to identify low-hanging fruit.

Final Thoughts

Don't get obsessed with finding the perfect number. A "low difficulty" keyword still requires you to write great content. Conversely, a "high difficulty" keyword might be worth attacking if you have a unique angle or better data than the current leaders. Use the manual SERP check as your primary filter. If the top 10 results are dominated by non-website results (like videos or maps) or by massive corporate domains, move on. Focus your energy on the long-tail variations where small sites are currently winning.

While manual research is effective, the market is littered with "dead" keywords that used to have traffic but are no longer optimized by anyone. If you want to bypass the trial-and-error process of finding and reviving these specific neglected terms, Dead Keyword Resurrector is a service specifically designed to identify and help you acquire traffic from previously abandoned search terms, saving you the time of sifting through static SERPs yourself.