undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
  4. Keyword difficulty and time to rank

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Keyword difficulty and time to rank

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
8
13
2.3k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • seoanalytics
    seoanalytics last edited by Feb 12, 2018, 10:50 AM

    Hello,

    Is there a correlation between the keyword difficult and the time it takes to rank ?

    In other words let's say I try to rank for  the keyword "seo" and it is going to take 2 years to rank 1 st whereas if I go for "best seo tools in 2018" and it takes just 2 weeks ?

    Thank you,

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • sseopack.org
      sseopack.org last edited by Feb 9, 2021, 3:09 PM Feb 9, 2021, 3:09 PM

      There is no any Specific but you can use my personal formula!

      If Allintitle: = Less then 50 then can rank in 1 month

      Allinurl: = Less then 50 then can rank in 1 month

      If greater then it then you can increase days according to this!

      Thanks

      Regard: James John

      Website: Bows Guide

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • SaeedKhosravi
        SaeedKhosravi last edited by Sep 22, 2019, 2:42 AM Sep 22, 2019, 2:41 AM

        Yes, there is a direct correlation between the keyword difficulty and the time it takes to rank for it. There is also a concept/formula that can predict how difficult it would be to rank for a particular keyword. It is called Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) and is developed by Doug Cunnington. KGR is calculated by dividing the number of allintitle Google results for a specific keyword by its search volume. If the KGR for a keyword is less than 0.25, it's a low-competitive keyword that you can rank for easily and quickly. Please note that 0.25 is just a rule of thumb and you can select any threshold you think is right for you.

        There is also a nifty tool built for this, called Allintitle Bulk Search tool that calculates the KGR score for many keywords at once: https://allintitle.co
        Hope this helps.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • seoanalytics
          seoanalytics last edited by Feb 13, 2018, 12:53 PM Feb 13, 2018, 12:53 PM

          Thank you,

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • JackSaville
            JackSaville last edited by Feb 13, 2018, 12:50 PM Feb 13, 2018, 12:50 PM

            Hi there,

            Sure thing - skip down to page 8 here https://email.semrush.com/acton/attachment/13557/f-0e30/1/-/-/-/-/SEMrush_Ranking_Factors_Study_2_0.pdf

            thanks

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • seoanalytics
              seoanalytics last edited by Feb 13, 2018, 12:44 PM Feb 13, 2018, 12:44 PM

              Hi Espres SEO,

              Thank you for the your reply.

              Can you send me a link that say that traffic is an important ranking factor, I never heard about that.

              Thank you,

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • JackSaville
                JackSaville last edited by Feb 13, 2018, 11:25 AM Feb 13, 2018, 11:25 AM

                Hi seoanalytics,

                In that situation I would try and share the content on social media and in slack communities as much as possible to get the word out. By doing so you increase direct traffic (an important ranking factor) and increase the chances of someone linking to the content externally.

                thanks

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • seoanalytics
                  seoanalytics last edited by Feb 13, 2018, 5:57 AM Feb 13, 2018, 5:57 AM

                  My question:

                  When you have written good content and have a good internal linking structure, what else can you do to rank on high competition keywords (those that have a difficulty of around 50 for example). Just be patient and wait or is there anything else that can be done ?

                  Thank you,

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • seoanalytics
                    seoanalytics last edited by Feb 12, 2018, 2:29 PM Feb 12, 2018, 2:29 PM

                    It means in some way that big companies with strong PA and DA have an advantage on high volume keyword ?

                    Length of content does it mean that you need long content to compete ? or can you compete with better content even though it isn't long ?

                    Thank you,

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • NickW816
                      NickW816 last edited by Feb 26, 2018, 3:46 AM Feb 12, 2018, 1:23 PM

                      EGOL is correct above, keep in mind there are a ton of other factors and your competition online (those ranking highly currently) are more than likely not standing still in an SEO sense (so it is a moving target usually).

                      The lower the competition, the "easier" and supposed "less time" it will take to rank on page 1 of Google is a good rule of thumb. It is also incredibly important to do competitive research on those in the top 3 positions on page 1 to see how long their content is, the quality of it, and the number of quality links it has pointing to it.

                      Nick White
                      SEO Services KC
                      https://seo-kansas-city.com/

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • seoanalytics
                        seoanalytics last edited by Feb 12, 2018, 11:44 AM Feb 12, 2018, 11:44 AM

                        Coud it be that content of the same quality takes less time to rank when there is a less competition ?

                        I understand about all the other variable but see that you aren't suppose to ask for links but you content is suppose to attract links it means that once you publish your content you need to wait and for some keyword you might need to wait less and for some more for your content to start being visible.

                        Does strength of a domain really matter because I have seen webpages with almost no PA and DA outrank page with strong PA and DA.

                        It is on long tail queries but still, it seems that content matter a lot those days. Link helps but only make a difference if you are trying to rank on SEO for longer queries it seems to matter less.

                        Thank you,

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Alick300
                          Alick300 last edited by Feb 26, 2018, 3:46 AM Feb 12, 2018, 11:32 AM

                          Hi,

                          It all depends on competition. In order to rank competitive keywords huge effort and time required specially in case of single word keyword.

                          If you search 'SEO' in Google ,42,90,00,000 results showing while searching 'best seo tools in 2018', 39,70,000 results showing.You can see difference is huge that is why 'best seo tools' easy to rank and get less time and efforts.

                          In short competition is directly proportional to time & effort*

                          Thanks

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • EGOL
                            EGOL last edited by Feb 26, 2018, 3:46 AM Feb 12, 2018, 11:27 AM

                            The amount of time that it takes to rank has a lot of variables...  the variables that you have some control over area....

                            A)  the quality of your content

                            B)  the strength of your website

                            C)  your ability to get links into the new page

                            The actions of your visitors are also important.  They can share, they can engage, or they can do one of these or neither.

                            The actions of your competitors are also important.  They can be working on content for similar keywords, they can be working on links to their competing page, or working on links to their entire website.

                            All of this is why SEOs can't guarantee rankings or "time to rank".  But mainly, they don't have control over their competitors.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • 1 / 1
                            1 out of 13
                            • First post
                              1/13
                              Last post

                            Got a burning SEO question?

                            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                            Start my free trial


                            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.

                            • See all categories

                            Related Questions

                            • Iuj873g

                              Is Moz Premium Show Authenticate Keyword Difficulty States???

                              Hi, I am a regular user of Moz premium. I was advised some of my friends about Moz benefits. 4 months ago I found a low competition micro niche longtail keyword and made a website on it. The keyword difficulty was 16 and I was confident that I will rank on the top page. but now after posting 15 articles of that micro niche, I am still ranking on 129 position on Google search results. Can anybody advise me what is the problem with my site. Was the keyword difficulty had manupulated states on authenticative. My site name and https://www.vixpr.com/. Please guide me how I can take further benefits of Moz Premium.

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 6, 2021, 4:33 PM | Iuj873g
                              0
                            • JFA

                              What to do with PDFs that rank well?

                              Looking at some reports, I found that a client's site has PDFs that are ranking well for niche terms and getting some traffic. What can I do to get more out of them from a marketing standpoint? The obvious issue is that a PDF doesn't have the interactivity of a site visit, where we have analytics and CTAs. Someone has to follow a link back from the PDF to the site for us to even register a visit, let alone try to get their email or have them otherwise convert. My first guess is to make landing page summaries of the PDF content that link to the PDF, and canonical the PDF to the respective landing page. Has anyone tried this, or done something else that they would recommend again in this situation?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jun 24, 2020, 5:46 AM | JFA
                              0
                            • Spotler

                              Brand name not ranking in Google

                              Hi Moz'ers, Could you help me with something I cannot seem to figure out by myself. In June 2017 my company started a rebranding campaign. We've changed our brand name and launched a new website: https://spotler.com. Everything is going fine, but if you Google our brand name "Spotler" our website doesn't show up. How can it be? Our domain authority is 38. It would be wonderful if you could help me. Let me know if you need more information. Best, Simone

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 13, 2017, 8:19 AM | Spotler
                              0
                            • lcourse

                              Replacing keywords by synonyms. Will it increase risk of google keyword stuffing penalization?

                              I have a page which is ranking already pretty well for a relative competitive keyword. 
                              Google also ranks us on first page for synonym of keyword we optimize the page for (even though synonym does not appear on our page). I am now considering to replace some occurences of the keyword in the page by different synonyms, in the hope that our ranking may further improve for these synonyms. 
                              However I am concerned that google may penalize me for keyword stuffing if I am using a wide range of synonyms of one keyword on our page. My plan is only to replace some occurences of keyword with synonyms. I am a bit nerveous here since page is already ranking quite well in a competitive niche. Any thoughts?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jan 26, 2017, 8:49 PM | lcourse
                              0
                            • CayenneRed89

                              Help! The website ranks fine but one of my web pages simply won't rank on Google!!!

                              One of our web pages will not rank on Google.  The website as a whole ranks fine except just one section...We have tested and it looks fine...Google can crawl the page no problem.   There are no spurious redirects in place. The content is fine.  There is no duplicate page content issue.  The page has a dozen product images (photos) but the load time of the page is absolutely fine.  We have the submitted the page via webmaster and its fine.  It gets listed but then a few hours later disappears!!!  The site has not been penalised as we get good rankings with other pages.  Can anyone help?  Know about this problem?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Apr 9, 2015, 12:14 PM | CayenneRed89
                              0
                            • Kingalan1

                              What Constitutes Keyword Stuffing?

                              Greeting MOZ Community: I have been attempting to add certain keywords phrases to the home page text of our real estate web site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). When I check the keyword density and look at the keyword cloud, the frequency of certain terms appear substantially higher than they should be (see attached keyword cloud and keyword density chart.  Certain terms like "office space" have a 5 or 6% frequency which seems high. Last thing we need is a Panda penalty. When I viewed the code for the home page (see enclosed), I noticed HREF tags, SRE tags and ALT tags repeating certain keyword phrases, driving up their density. I have attached a keyword cloud for the home page of a competitor and the use of language seems more diverse. Does Google take the text in these various tags into account? I know the ALT tag is important for SEO, but how about the others? Does the use of text in the tags for this page make the overall page look spammy? Also, there are text and tags for the carousel in the home page that appear in the code for the home page. If this code were somehow concealed, would we be better off from an SEO perspective? Thanks, Alan pkM7CZG 1DFFMZ0

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 8, 2014, 12:55 AM | Kingalan1
                              0
                            • RickyShockley

                              Ranking for local searches without city specific keywords?

                              Hey guys! I had asked this question a few months ago and now that we are seeing even more implicit information determining search results, I want to ask it again..in two parts. Is is STILL best practice for on-page to add the city name to your titles, h1s, content etc? It seems that this will eventually be an outdated tactic, right? If there is a decent amount of search volume without any city name in the search query (ie. "storefont signs", but no search volume for the phrase when specific cities are added (ie. "storefront signs west palm beach) is it worth trying to rank and optimize for that search term for a company in West Palm Beach? We can assume that if there are 20,000 monthly searches for the non-location specific term that SOME of them would be fairly local, so do we optimize the page without the city name and trust Google to display results with a local intent...therefore showing our client's site in the SERPS when someone searches "sign company" and they are IN West Palm Beach? If there is any confusion, please just ask me to clarify! I think this would be a great WhiteBoard Friday topic for Rand!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Sep 23, 2013, 4:54 PM | RickyShockley
                              0
                            • Cyclone

                              Is it better to use geo-targeted keywords or add the locations as separate keywords?

                              For example... state keyword (nyc real estate) or keyword, state (nyc, real estate) = 2 keywords Thanks in advance!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Sep 20, 2012, 6:12 PM | Cyclone
                              0

                            Get started with Moz Pro!

                            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                            Start my free trial
                            Products
                            • Moz Pro
                            • Moz Local
                            • Moz API
                            • Moz Data
                            • STAT
                            • Product Updates
                            Moz Solutions
                            • SMB Solutions
                            • Agency Solutions
                            • Enterprise Solutions
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • MozBar Extension
                            • MozCast
                            Resources
                            • Blog
                            • SEO Learning Center
                            • Help Hub
                            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                            • How-to Guides
                            • Moz Academy
                            • API Docs
                            About Moz
                            • About
                            • Team
                            • Careers
                            • Contact
                            Why Moz
                            • Case Studies
                            • Testimonials
                            Get Involved
                            • Become an Affiliate
                            • MozCon
                            • Webinars
                            • Practical Marketer Series
                            • MozPod
                            Connect with us

                            Contact the Help team

                            Join our newsletter
                            Moz logo
                            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                            • Accessibility
                            • Terms of Use
                            • Privacy

                            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.