How to Use Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty Metric [3.5]

5. How to use Keyword Difficulty metric in Ahrefs

In this section, the speaker explains the concept of Keyword Difficulty (KD) metric in Ahrefs and its limitations.

Understanding Keyword Difficulty

• The Keyword Difficulty metric in Ahrefs is not a magical tool that guarantees ranking success.

• It is a proxy for the average number of linking websites among the top 10 search results for a keyword.

• The hint below the KD number indicates the approximate number of backlinks needed to rank in the top 10 for that keyword.

• The KD score is an approximation and may not always accurately reflect the actual number of backlinks required.

Importance of Keyword Difficulty

• Despite its limitations, Keyword Difficulty is useful for narrowing down keyword ideas that require fewer backlinks to rank.

• Reviewing the top 10 search results for thousands of keywords manually can be time-consuming.

• It is essential to review the top-ranking pages before making a final decision on targeting a keyword.

Understanding Keyword Difficulty Ranges

• The Keyword Difficulty score is not linear. Different scores represent varying levels of difficulty.

• Ahrefs defines four ranges to make it easier for users: easy (below 10), medium (10 to 30), hard (above 30), and super-hard (above 70).

• Each range corresponds to an approximate number of linking websites required for ranking.

Assessing Backlink Potential

• Users can assess their own blog's backlink potential using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

• By analyzing referring domains to their best-performing articles, users can determine their ability to target keywords with specific difficulty levels.

Trustworthiness of Backlink Data

• Ahrefs' bots crawl millions of pages every minute, collecting data on backlinks from across the internet.

• Third-party studies have shown that Ahrefs' bot is the second most active after Google, indicating the reliability of their backlink data.

Lesson #3 Wrap-up

The speaker concludes Lesson #3 and mentions upcoming content ideas for filling a content calendar.

Conclusion and Next Steps

• Lesson #3 covered analyzing keywords for traffic potential and ranking difficulty.

• The speaker encourages viewers to explore four sources of content ideas that will help fill their content calendars for the year ahead.

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