Bye Bye Keyword Difficulty Tool :(
-
So the Keyword Difficulty Tool will be retired from the end of this month. Is anyone else worried about this? - because I just don't trust the numbers coming back from Keyword Explorer. Never have. I've even raised this with Moz staff previously, when there was a huge difference between the score given by the keyword difficulty tool vs keyword explorer.
From what I see in Domain and Page authority and in the SERPs then the score from keyword difficulty tool, was always more accurate, and thankfully have been able to use both tools, but from next month I feel somewhat uneasy about solely relying on the score from Keyword Explorer.
Thoughts? and feel free to run your own tests on keywords and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.
-
Yes! We've had this ability since day one
Just click "create or upload a new list" and you can create a list of hundreds or even thousands of keywords for analysis and comparison all at once.
-
This Biggest disappointment is the ability to analyze multiple keywords at once. The SERP analysis was accurate and that's what we used it for. Will the keyword explorer tool be able to analyze multiple keywords at once?
Our agency uses another tool for semantic search optimization, so, unfortunately, the new tool doesn't have the functionality we need to look at the landscape of the SERP for multiple keywords. The keyword difficulty tool looked at 20 keywords at a time.
-
Thanks Greg - I hear you on the comparison graphic side. I'll see what we can do about upgrading the UI/UX of that longer term.
-
Hi Rand, thanks for taking the time to reply, and give your examples. I appreciate the old tool is most likely outdated pullling on old stats, and of course there is a need for forward development.
I’ve run some more keyword tests and am seeing for the most part a lot closer difficulty score between the two tools now, so am feeling slightly less nervy about solely relying on the new kw tool.
I’ll give you the example of mine which I gave to the Moz help team some months ago when I was consistently seeing bigger differences in the two tools numbers. 'constitutional homeopathic remedies' - the new keyword Explorer gave a Difficulty of 6, whereas the old Keyword tool shows difficulty at 22%. 6 with DA’s of 40’s and 50’s in the SERPs just didn’t seem to add up. and I was seeing lower scores for many many keywords, all of which looked way more difficult to rank for. (even this example checked again now is a ‘slightly better’ “gap” at 15 new kw explorer tool vs 23% old)
other keywords checked now for reference:
- late menopause benefits - old tool 45%, KW explorer 40
- decorating a holiday home - old tool 25%, KW explorer 25
- tree pruning - old tool 58%, KW explorer 64
So it seems like there’s more similarity than difference now (maybe the tool has been worked on some more) and possibly I just need to get used to the wider spread of numbers in some cases. I’m certainly a lot more confident seeing what I’m seeing now.
As an aside, feedback while I’m here!… the old SERP view graphic was a LOT easier to read at a glance with the DA / PA scores for each of the top10, vs the new tool list view
-
Hi Greg - totally hear you, but strongly, strongly disagree
I worked personally on the scores for both and I can promise that the old KW Difficulty tool's numbers just aren't right. The old tool frequently over or understates the difficulty of ranking, and it relies on metrics that are outdated (age of domain? yech). I would strongly advise you to switch to using the metrics from KW Explorer. They're more accurate, the spread is better (the old KW Difficulty tool scrunches up scores so almost everything is between 30-70, when it really should be a wider spread), the other metrics are way more useful (CTR % and volume), and the accuracy of the metrics fetches is solid too (sometimes, old KW Difficulty doesn't even grab data correctly).
A few examples:
- "Harry Potter" - old tool says 80, KW Explorer says 89 (not a huge difference, but you can see what I mean about the scrunching effect -- clearly this KW should be one of the highest difficulties possible)
- "calendar app" - old tool says 62, KW Explorer says 76 (on a hand review, I think we'd all agree 76 is far more accurate; this is a very tough keyword)
- "northwest moss garden examples" - old tool says 47, KW Explorer says 33 (this is one of the easier keywords out there, with lots of low DA sites in the results; I think 33 is far more indicative of reality)
I know it's tough to make a switch or trust something new, but having studied these both closely and worked on the design of the metrics and data for both, I can assure you KW Explorer's Difficulty metrics are head and shoulders above the old tool.
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
-
Long tail keyword research
Is there any way for me to figure out long tail key words related to keyword such as "IT solutions"? This is a competitive term. How do I figure out related keywords with high search volume and less competition?
Keyword Research | | zsyed0 -
Keyword Conundrum...
I have 3 keywords that I am targeting. Assume for the time being that they are all equally competitive. Includes local exact match monthly searches: Managed IT Services - 3600 IT Managed Services - 720 Managed IT Support - 170 They are all exactly synonymous, not to mention other keywords such as IT Managed Support, Managed IT Service, IT Managed Service, Managed IT Service Provider, etc.. My current strategy is to target the top 3 all on one page. The problem then is the title tag: Managed IT Services | IT Managed Services | Managed IT Support Pretty spammy. I could build pages for all 3, but how would I incorporate them into the website since they are all synonyms. Can I get some recommendations on how to handle this? What would you use for a title tag? How would handle separate pages with synonymous content?
Keyword Research | | CsmBill0 -
How reliable is GWT's keyword data & what is the most accurate way of determining keywords you currently rank for?
I have been monitoring the query data (keywords, average position, CTR, etc.) in GWT, but sometimes the ranking data seems off. I filter the dates for the past week, so it is the most recent. I manually check some of the rankings and they are way off. Does anyone have feedback on this? If you have access to multiple domain data, that would be great. What is the most accurate way of determining keywords you currently rank for? I have also used keywordspy, and that is off too!
Keyword Research | | inhouseseo0 -
How to Document Keyword Research?
How do you guys document keyword research? My best idea for this is an excel document that is separated into different areas for the topics of the website. Does anyone have any examples of documenting keyword research?
Keyword Research | | qlkasdjfw0 -
Newbie question about keyword difficulty tool
Hi guys, It's my first day here ate seomoz and I got intrigued about the results from the keyword difficulty tool. Even though I do understand the results, I noticed the ranking analysis table has some highlighted cells and some of them have a dark checkmark sign inside. What exactly do they mean? I couldn't find it anywhere. Cheers from Brazil. i0tzl.png
Keyword Research | | lenineto0 -
A question about local longtail keywords
Hello all. This is my first interaction with SEOmoz, and I am still in my learning phases. I currently own a lawn fertilization company near Allentown, PA. I do the site for myself, and I am ranked number one for organic lawn care for my cities. My question may seem kind of elementary, but I just want to clear this up for myself. I want to start a side business doing SEO, and from what I gather step one is keyword research. I plan on building new sites to start as opposed to going in and fixing existing ones. So, I've been reading a lot on how to do keyword research and so forth. I will use my current business as a reference for my question. Should my main keywords be along the lines of "lawn care" and "lawn services", and then the location specific stuff be seperate? Or should my main keywords be "lawn care allentown, pa"? I plan on running my business solely for local businesses, so I am not to interested in competing with the entire world for keywords. I just wasn't sure how to differentiate my keyword research for local business. I hope that question made some sense. I am really starting to grasp the elements of SEO, but for some reason the keyword part of things perplexes me. Thanks for any responses!
Keyword Research | | GroundFloorSEO0 -
Do you use broad match or exact match on Adwords Keyword Tool when doing keyword research?
I wasn't sure whether to classify this as a discussion or a question. I'd love "the right answer" but I'm not sure if we're going to get one... Let's try. When you use the Adwords Keyword Tool for doing keyword research, do you use the numbers from "broad match" or "exact match" when comparing relative search volume of keywords? (And yes, I know the numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, but when it comes down to it, you're using the numbers to compare and come to conclusions regarding the best keyword to use - so which match type gives you the data you're looking for?) To be a little more specific - when you select "exact match" for, let's say the keyword "baking supplies", is that telling you how many people searched for that phrase within quotes <"baking supplies">, or how many people searched for only <baking supplies="">, as opposed to that word within a phrase <baking supplies="" stores="">or with the words reversed <supplies baking="">?</supplies></baking></baking> Based on some keyword research we had done a year ago where any phrase reversals like <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">were coming out with the exact same numbers, even when it wasn't so intuitive that there would be the same search volume, we came to the conclusion - with the tentative suggestion of the SEOMoz staff on the old Q & A - that broad match would include all instances of the keywords in reverse order, so if you wanted to know how many people were searching for <water bottles="">only, you needed to use exact match. </water></bottles></water> That's what we did for about a year (I also think I saw Rand mention that somewhere in a presentation slide recently, although I could be mistaken and I don't recall exactly where it was to check it up) and then based on a recent forum discussion I had where someone was questioning that premise, I did another check with two KW reversals and while <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">still give the same number, <baking supplies="">and <supplies baking="">do not. </supplies></baking></bottles></water> So I'm left with a big question here as to what the best policy is. Google Adwords Help is very vague on what the match type means in the tool (it seems to be talking about only your settings for your campaigns). So - any input after this long saga? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | debi_zyx0 -
Most Important Keyword Term
Question about a sites most important keyword term. So lets say you have a website and your most important keyword term is "Blue Widgets", you also have a page named "blue-widgets.htm". What do we do with our index page in this instance? Especially for the title tag? Should I put "Blue Widgets" in the title tags of both pages? I'm guessing this would be a duplicate meta tag error? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems
Thanks
-Brandon0