It is not Google's number.
Google publishes no difficulty score, and MrKeyword never scrapes its results; the measured score is a prediction from MrKeyword's own index.
How it works
How do you check keyword difficulty?
Type the keyword
Enter the phrase and the market. It is carried through sign-in, and the search uses 1 of your 10 monthly lookups on the Free plan.
Read the score and its label
Keyword Research shows the difficulty with an Easy-to-Very-hard band, and “Who you're up against” lists the strongest pages MrKeyword's index finds for the phrase. Ideas measured from the index carry an M.
Check it for your own site
Pick your website in the app and the same screen adds the difficulty for your site, moved by how your site's strength compares with page one, and where your own page sits in MrKeyword's predicted results for the phrase.
The scale
What do the keyword difficulty scores mean?
Scores run from 0 to 100 in four bands, the same bands the app's difficulty filter and meters use. A higher score means stronger sites already compete for the phrase.
| Score | Label | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–29 | Easy | A focused page on a young site can rank; few strong sites target the phrase. |
| 30–49 | Medium | Winnable with a thorough page and some internal links; expect a few established sites. |
| 50–69 | Hard | Page one is held by strong sites; plan links to the page as well as the content. |
| 70–100 | Very hard | Dominated by the strongest sites on the web; aim at a longer, more specific phrase first. |
Measured
How is keyword difficulty measured from MrKeyword's index?
MrKeyword reads its own page index for the pages that target the phrase, takes the ten strongest, and scores how hard they are to beat. The ten strongest pages in MrKeyword’s index that target the phrase, weighted by predicted position: each counts its domain’s strength (MrKeyword web graph), more when its title or main heading matches the phrase. A page one with fewer than ten sites on it scores lower, because there is room on it.
The result is only called measured when the index finds at least 5 competing sites. It is then blended with the estimate below, 65% measured and 35% estimate (or used on its own when there is no estimate), and marked M in the ideas table. The blend uses an estimate MrKeyword already holds for the phrase in that market when there is one, so a keyword gets the same difficulty in Keyword Research and Rank Tracking. Site strength is MrKeyword's own authority score from its web graph; the domain authority checker shows it for any domain.
This is MrKeyword's prediction of who competes, not a copy of Google's results: MrKeyword never scrapes Google. Each index read is kept for up to seven days, and the app shows when it was read. In Keyword Research, the 25 ideas on screen are measured at a time, without using a lookup.
Estimated
How is keyword difficulty estimated when the index is too thin?
When too few competing sites are found, the score is a weighted average of the keyword data fetched live from Google Keyword Planner for your search and of the keyword itself. Inputs that are missing are left out and the weights are rebalanced; without either search demand or advertiser competition there is no score at all, and the app says Not available.
| Input | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Advertiser competition | 24% | Google Ads' own 0–100 competition index: how many advertisers bid on the keyword. |
| Search demand | 28% | Google's monthly searches on a log scale: about 1,000 searches scores 50, about 1,000,000 scores 100. |
| Topic | 20% | Money and health topics (insurance, loans, law, software, hosting and similar) score 100, other service and product topics 55; general topics leave this input out. |
| Commercial value | 12% | The top-of-page bid in US dollars on a log scale, where a $50 bid scores 100. |
| Keyword length | 16% | Short head terms are harder than long phrases: one word scores 100, two 65, three 40, four 25, five or more 15. |
Questions (“how…”, “what…”) score 30% lower and local searches (“near me”, “emergency”, “in [city]”) 35% lower, because forums, blogs and local businesses with lighter link profiles tend to win them. The estimate's confidence is medium when demand, competition and bid are all present, and low otherwise.
Worked example
What does a difficulty check look like, step by step?
It starts with the estimate, then blends in the measured competition, then adjusts for your site. The inputs below are invented for illustration; the scores are what MrKeyword's own code returns for them.
| Step | Inputs | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Estimate | 1,900 searches a month, advertiser competition 62, a $3.20 bid, a service or product topic, three words | 52 · Hard |
| 2. Measured | Competition score 40 from the sites the index finds, blended 65/35 with the estimate | 44 · Medium |
| 3. For your site | Page one's typical strength 44, your site's 29: the score moves 0.6 of a point per point of gap | 53 · Hard |
How to read it: in general the phrase is Medium, 44 out of 100. For this smaller site it is Hard, 53, because the sites on page one are 15 points stronger. A stronger site than page one would see a lower score than the general one.
Compared
How does MrKeyword's keyword difficulty compare with Semrush KD and Ahrefs KD?
All three use a 0–100 scale, but each is built from different data, so the same keyword gets a different number in each tool. Semrush and Ahrefs are described from their own help pages as of November 2026; neither publishes its full formula.
| Tool | What the score is built from | Bands |
|---|---|---|
| MrKeyword | The strength of the sites MrKeyword's own page index finds targeting the phrase, blended with an estimate from Keyword Planner's volume, advertiser competition and bid, the topic and the keyword's length; the estimate alone when the index finds fewer than 5 sites. | 0–29 Easy, 30–49 Medium, 50–69 Hard, 70–100 Very hard |
| Semrush KD% | Semrush says it uses factors such as the median number of referring domains and the median dofollow-to-nofollow ratio of the ranking pages, the median Authority Score of the ranking domains, and the SERP-related qualities of the keyword. | 0–14 Very easy, 15–29 Easy, 30–49 Possible, 50–69 Difficult, 70–84 Hard, 85–100 Very hard |
| Ahrefs KD | Ahrefs says it is based on the number of referring domains the top 10 organic results have, using its own algorithm, and that it does not factor in on-page SEO. | 0–100, higher is harder |
The practical rule is the same in every tool: compare keywords within one tool, not numbers across tools. Our Semrush alternative and Ahrefs alternative pages compare the rest of each product.
In the app
Where can you check keyword difficulty in MrKeyword?
In three places: Keyword Research, a bulk check, and Rank Tracking. Keyword Research shows the searched keyword's difficulty and its competition, and measures the 25 ideas on screen at a time. A bulk check takes up to 500 keywords and shows the estimate for each, at one lookup per 25 keywords.
Rank Tracking shows the measured difficulty and the difficulty for your site in each tracked keyword's panel wherever the index can measure them, with the next step up, and uses no lookup: the free rank tracker tracks 25 keywords on the Free plan. To find new keywords to check, start from the keyword generator, or the free keyword research tool for one keyword's full picture.
What this does not do
A difficulty score is a model, whoever makes it. These are the edges of ours.
A thin index means an estimate.
Below 5 competing sites the score is estimated from keyword data, labelled as such, with its confidence.
It does not judge content quality.
It weighs site strength and how closely titles and headings match the phrase, not how good the ranking pages are.
Bulk checks show the estimate only.
The measured score is worked out in Keyword Research and Rank Tracking.
FAQ
Questions about keyword difficulty.
Type a keyword above and its difficulty is one sign-in away.
Check difficulty freeIs this keyword difficulty checker free?
Yes. It runs on a free MrKeyword account with no credit card, on a Free plan that never expires. Searching a keyword uses 1 of your 10 monthly lookups; the measured difficulty for the ideas on screen, and for keywords you track, uses none.
How does MrKeyword calculate keyword difficulty?
Two ways, and the app says which one you are looking at. Where MrKeyword's own page index finds at least 5 sites targeting the phrase, the score is measured from the strength of the ten strongest and blended with an estimate (65% measured, 35% estimate). Where it finds fewer, the score is an estimate from Keyword Planner's volume, advertiser competition and bid, the topic and the keyword's length.
What is a good keyword difficulty score?
Under 30 is Easy, 30 to 49 Medium, 50 to 69 Hard and 70 or more Very hard. What is good for you depends on your site: with a website connected, MrKeyword also shows the difficulty for your site, which rises when page one is stronger than you and falls when it is weaker.
Why is MrKeyword's score different from Semrush's or Ahrefs'?
Because each tool measures something different. Ahrefs and Semrush build their scores largely from link data on the pages ranking in Google; MrKeyword measures the sites its own index finds targeting the phrase, or estimates from Keyword Planner data. The same keyword can score 30 in one tool and 50 in another, so compare keywords within one tool rather than numbers across tools.
Can I check keyword difficulty in bulk?
Yes. A bulk check takes up to 500 keywords at once and uses one lookup per 25 keywords, so the Free plan's 10 lookups cover up to 250 keywords a month. Bulk results show the estimate; the measured score appears in Keyword Research and Rank Tracking.
Does MrKeyword check Google's live results?
No. MrKeyword never scrapes Google. The measured score comes from MrKeyword's own page index, which predicts who competes for a phrase; each index read is kept for up to seven days, and the app shows when it was read.
Check how hard your next keyword is.
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