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Is a keyword with a difficulty score of 40 out of reach for a small site?
Summary
On Ahrefs, a 40 means pages in the top 10 typically need links from about 56 different websites. That is a long way off for a site with a handful of referring domains, but the score says nothing about page quality, because Ahrefs leaves on-page factors out. On Semrush, 40 falls in the "Possible" band, and the Personal Keyword Difficulty score adjusts the estimate for your own domain.
What an Ahrefs score translates to
Ahrefs looks at how many referring domains the current top 10 pages have, and each point on its 0 to 100 scale maps to an estimated number of referring domains a page needs to reach the top 10. The scale isn't linear. A 10 corresponds to about 10 referring domains, a 20 to 22, a 40 to 56 and a 60 to 129. By 80 the estimate is 353, and by 90 it is 756.
Ahrefs is explicit that the score doesn't account for on-page factors, so a better article won't move it. The number to read beside it is Traffic potential, which Ahrefs defines as the organic search traffic of the page ranking first for the keyword's parent topic. Two keywords at KD 40 can differ a lot on that measure, and so can the payoff for earning 56 links.
Semrush's bands and the personal version
Semrush scores difficulty as a percentage in six bands: 0 to 14 very easy, 15 to 29 easy, 30 to 49 possible, 50 to 69 difficult, 70 to 84 hard, 85 to 100 very hard. Besides referring domains, it factors in the authority of ranking domains and features of the results page, so its 40 and Ahrefs' 40 aren't the same measurement.
The standard score is the same for everyone. Personal Keyword Difficulty estimates how hard it would be for a specific domain to reach the top 10, using an AI model that weighs how closely the domain's topics match the keyword. It uses the same bands. It isn't available on a free account, and Semrush's help pages don't say which paid plans include it.
What it costs to check difficulty
For a few keywords, Ahrefs' free Keyword Difficulty Checker needs no registration, and a free Semrush account gets 10 reports a day. Scoring a long list means a paid plan. The cheapest Ahrefs route is Starter at $29 a month, with 200 credits and no exports. Because Keywords Explorer accepts up to 10,000 keywords for one credit, pulling difficulty for a whole list costs far less than opening reports one keyword at a time.
Work out your own number: the SEO Tools Cost Calculator finds the cheapest published plan for your sites, tracked keywords and users.
Sources
- https://ahrefs.com/keyword-difficulty
- https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/2138010-what-is-the-difference-between-traffic-potential-and-search-volume-in-keywords-explorer
- https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/9419051-about-ahrefs-starter-plan
- https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/6061658-what-actions-consume-credits
- https://www.semrush.com/kb/1158-what-is-kd
- https://www.semrush.com/kb/1434-how-is-personal-keyword-difficulty-calculated
- https://www.semrush.com/kb/262-keyword-magic-tool
- https://www.semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/
Figures come from each vendor's own pricing pages and documentation. We have not tested these tools hands-on, and no ranking here is paid for.