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Keyword difficulty checker: how hard is it to rank for this search?
Type a search your customers make and see how hard it is to reach Google’s first page, with what to do about it. Free, with no sign-up.
Keyword Difficulty Checker
What this tool does and doesn’t do
- Rates one search at a time, for one country, using licensed search data read through BOOSTD’s own service.
- Doesn’t look at your website, so it can’t tell you how likely you are to rank. The free checkup does that.
- Doesn’t suggest other keywords or build a list. BOOSTD’s plans do that with you.
- Doesn’t keep what you type. Each check is counted, not stored.
What the score means
What the difficulty rating tells you
When a customer searches for what you do, Google shows ten or so results. Difficulty is a rough measure of how strong those results are, and so how much work it would take for your page to push in among them.
A hard search is not a bad search. It usually means big brands, directories and long-established sites already hold it. For a small business, the smarter move is often a longer, more specific version of the same search that fewer, better-matched customers make.
The four bands
What to do in each difficulty band
Easy
A clear, useful page on the topic has a fair chance. These are the searches to target first.
Medium
Winnable with a strong, specific page and a few mentions from other trusted sites. Think months, not weeks.
Hard
Established sites hold these results. Target a longer, more local version of the search first, then build up.
Very hard
Big brands and directories own the results. Rarely worth chasing directly for a small or local business.
Choosing searches
Signs a search is worth going after
- It names a service you actually sell, not just your industry.
- It includes a place you serve, if customers come to you or you go to them.
- The people searching it are ready to buy or book, not researching a school project.
- The current results are other businesses like yours, not only national brands.
- It is easy or medium difficulty, or a hard search you can approach with a narrower version.
Questions
Keyword difficulty questions
What is keyword difficulty?
It is an estimate of how hard it would be for a new page to reach the first page of Google for a search. It is worked out from how strong the pages already ranking are.
Every tool calculates it its own way, so a 40 in one tool is not a 40 in another. Treat the band (easy, medium, hard) as the useful part.
What difficulty should a small business aim for?
Start with easy and medium searches that say exactly what you do and where, such as “emergency plumber Hamilton” rather than “plumber”. They bring fewer visitors each, but the visitors are ready to buy and you can actually win them.
Where do the numbers come from?
From one live read of the first page of results for that search, fetched through BOOSTD’s service from a licensed data source. The same search is answered from that read for up to a week, and the result says so. If a search can’t be rated, the checker says so rather than guessing.
Why does it say it isn’t connected?
The checker only shows real search data. If that connection is switched off, it tells you so and points you to the free checkup, rather than showing a number it made up.
References
Sources for keyword difficulty checker
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
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Difficulty says how strong the competition is. The free checkup says how ready your website is to compete, and what to fix first.