Creating a Domain Specific Keyword Difficulty Score
-
Moz's Keyword Difficulty tool is great. Minus one thing... it does't take the domain itself into it's equation.
Of course it doesn't take a lot of other things into consideration too like relevancy of domain but lets at least start with adding domain authority to the equation.
I've come up with simple math that allows you to take the domain authority of the target URL into consideration.
The Equation KD = Moz Keyword Difficulty
DA = Domain Authority
DS = Domain Specific Keyword Difficulty(KD/DA)*KD = DS
Equation Applied
URL: atari.com
Keyword: classic video games
KD: 69
DA: 77
DS: 62(69/77)*69=62
You will end up with numbers larger than 100, but it makes sense. If your domain authority is 10 and you're trying to compete with a difficulty of 90 then you should be scared to compete for that term and the number should reflect that.
Thoughts? Other ideas?
-
It can be used for reporting as well helping set expectations for SEO clients. If Client A has a very low domain authority and wants to compete for very competitive keywords a score like this can help set expectations as to what keywords are realistic for them vs. keywords that are out of their grasp. Thus helping you develop a campaign that helps them target keywords that are within their grasp.
-
Okay, that's what I thought you were trying to do. Are you doing this for reporting? For better, realistic goal making?
-
How Keyword Difficulty works now, lets say you get a keyword difficulty of 50. It's 50 no matter what domain you're optimizing for. It's 50 if you're optimizing for wikipedia.com and it's 50 if you're optimizing a brand new website. This equation changes the keyword difficulty score based on the domain authority of the site you're optimizing
-
Are you talking about your domain? And how hard it would actually be for you to rank? It definitely factors in the DA from the ranking domains.
"Your Keyword Difficulty Score is based on the Domain Authority and Page authority for the top 20 search results that keyword is pulling on Google. These sites are analyzed using our Mozscape index to pull Page Authority and Domain Authority. These two metrics (along with a host of others from the Mozscape index) help create the Keyword Difficulty score." from the FAQ about KWD.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should i target more low moz keyword difficulty informational keywords?
I have created a blog of finding the best outdoor basketball and have targeted low keyword difficulty keywords and they are getting some traffic also. But the problem is the homepage is not ranking position still I want to ask that should I target more keywords of low Moz keyword difficulty for gaining more traffic or not?
Keyword Research | | gabrelapaula220 -
How to do a comprehensive SEO Keyword Research
Hi, What are the best tools and techniques to do a comprehensive keyword research on all the relevant search engines? There are times when there are no stats available on the Google keyword planner tool, in that case what do you suggest? Thanks
Keyword Research | | LaythDajani0 -
Keyword tool
Does anyone know of any good keyword tools that will help me find and then maintain a list of keywords? I currently use Google adwords and now the keyword tool from Moz but I am looking for something that will help me find and generate keywords not just get statistics about them. Thank you.
Keyword Research | | shiftins1 -
Confirm my thoughts for this keyword
I'm working with a local kitchen remodeler. In reviewing the organic keyword searches for the last month I notice the word "kitchens" appearing in the top 10 keyword searches. Since I know we aren't ranking for the term "kitchens" I dug deeper. A handful of the searches are from the local area but most are one occurence of searches from cities across the US and the world. My surmise is that because there are 2.2 million searches for kitchens every month we just happen to be scraping enough of these searches, irrelevant as they are to our client, to make it look like an important keyword. Most of the visitors using this keyword are gone in seconds. Just wanted some folks to confirm what I'm thinking - that "kitchens" showing up in our top 10 keywords list is a bit of a red herring - and we should focus on more localized keyword searches.
Keyword Research | | DenverKelly0 -
Keyword Research Tool
Which tool is most reliable to do Keyword Research ? I have observed that data in Google Keywords Tool seems to fluctuate a lot. For instance a particular keyword in GKT had an exact Global Search Volume of 2800 3 days back , today it is around 1200 . I can not make decisions on such unreliable data ...
Keyword Research | | iamnew0 -
Geographically Specific Keyword Research - What do you use?
Does anyone recommend a particular keyword research tool or tools for geographically modified keywords? i.e. Web DesignerF Fargo. I often find that searches focused on services in the area we serve does not get the traffic volume Google's keyword tool needs to provide me with a number. I know the traffic is there, because I see it coming in via analytics. Thoughts? Recommendations?
Keyword Research | | BedeFahey0 -
Google Keyword Tool
I have been analysing some specific seasonal keywords in terms of search volume within the Google keyword tool. When I download the google keyword volume for each term, this is displayed as a monthly average. I am wanting to get search volume over previous months which I am sure the Google keyword tool used to offer Does anyone have a solution to this? Thanks Simon
Keyword Research | | simonsw0