What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is a score from 0 to 100 that SEO tools like Ahrefs and Moz use to estimate how hard it is to rank in the first ten organic Google results for a given search term. It is calculated from the strength and number of backlinks pointing at the sites currently ranking, not from search volume. As a rule of thumb:

• under 20 — realistic for a new small business site to rank for
• 20–50 — requires sustained content effort
• over 50 — typically requires a large content team or a national brand

Australian small businesses should focus their SEO budget on under-20 keywords that match real customer intent.