Keyword difficulty is a score, usually from zero to a hundred, that an SEO tool assigns to a search phrase to estimate how hard it would be to rank on the first page. It is calculated mainly from the link strength of the pages already ranking. It is not a Google metric, every tool computes it differently, and it is a rough guide rather than a verdict.
How the number is made
The tool fetches the current top results for the phrase, looks up how many links and how strong a link profile each has, and summarises that as a score. Some tools add content factors or the presence of big brands. Because the inputs are each tool's own link index, the same phrase can score thirty in one tool and sixty in another.
What it misses
Relevance. A page one full of strong sites that answer a slightly different question is beatable by a weak site that answers this one exactly. Intent. If every result is a national retailer and you are a local installer, the difficulty score says nothing about whether Google wants a local result there. Freshness, for queries where it matters. And your own site's standing on the topic, which the score knows nothing about.
How to use it
To sort a list, not to judge a single phrase. Given fifty candidate keywords, start with the low scores that carry buying intent, and treat the high scores as the pillar pages that the rest will eventually lift. Then look at the actual results for each, because five minutes of reading page one tells you more than the number does.
Where it shows up in the tracker
Search volume is shown alongside each tracked keyword and refreshed monthly. The better difficulty signal is your own history: a keyword that has moved from forty to fifteen in three months is easier than its score says, and one stuck at thirty for a year is harder.
Where this shows up in the tracker
Every term in this glossary is something the product actually measures or acts on. Plans start at £29 a month, with rank tracking, AI visibility, the daily AI readiness scan, security and domain health, Search Console, backlinks and audits on every one of them.
Related terms
Long-tail keyword
A long-tail keyword is a specific search phrase with a small number of searches a month, as opposed to a broad head term with many. Fireworks is a head term; quiet fireworks for a wedding in October is long tail. Long-tail phrases are less contested, so a small site can rank for them, and they are usually typed by someone closer to buying.
Bottom-of-funnel keyword
A bottom-of-funnel keyword is a search typed by someone who has finished researching and is choosing a supplier: a service plus a place, a product plus a price, a brand versus another brand, near me, cost, quote, book. They are a small fraction of all searches and most of the revenue. For a small business they are the right place to start.
Domain rank
Domain authority, domain rating and domain rank are scores from zero to a hundred that SEO tools calculate from the links pointing at a website. Each tool has its own name and its own formula. Google has said repeatedly that it does not use any of them. They are useful for comparing sites against each other, and useless as a target in themselves.
Striking distance
Striking distance keywords are the ones ranking just below where the traffic is, usually positions four to fifteen. They are the cheapest improvements available to most websites, because the hard part is already done.