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.
MoZ vs SEMRush - Keyword Difficulty and Keyword With Low Competition.
-
Hi,
My question is very focussed regarding these 2 tools.
Is it correct to understand that MoZ tells keyword difficulty and not which keyword is easy to compete. And SEMRush tells which keyword is easy to compete but does not tell which keywords are difficult to compete?
I mean one (Moz) misses the one part and the other (SEMRush) misses the other part.
Hope some will enlighten me to the point.
Best
-
Hey there!
Without knowing the example keywords you're looking at, it's hard to check on these, but I can certainly speak to how Moz calculates the Difficulty score! We look at the Difficulty scores of the top 10 rankings sites in the Google SERP. If you're looking at Keyword Explorer, you can head to the SERP analysis section of a keyword report to see exactly which sites those are. If you're seeing something odd with the scores, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] with a few keyword examples and we can take a closer look!
For more details on how we calculate our metrics, check out this article in our Help Hub.
-
Hi,
When searching the same keywords on semrush and Moz, semrush gives a difficulty score of 80, and moz 20. Meaning semrush says that ranking for that particular word is difficult, yet moz says it's very easy.
I'm confused about which to trust to be accurate?
Thanks
-
Hi Tanveer! Just to make sure I'm understanding your question, are you asking whether our Keyword Difficulty Tool actually suggests low-competition (easy) keywords? It does not, but the difficulty score it returns for the keywords you analyze will also identify easy keywords. They'll just have a lower number.
-
Hi Tanveer,
My name is David Black and I'm the Director of Customer Success here at SEMrush. I can't necessarily speak for Moz but I can tell you that SEMrush offers two variations of Keyword Competition/Difficulty and both are scaled.
In our keyword reports, you'll find a column labeled "Com." (it means competitive density). This is level of competition in AdWords. But, don't be confused because the metric also appears in our Organic Keyword reports. The scale is from 0 to 1. The closer the number is to 1, the higher the difficulty.
Now, if you need some way to measure Organic difficulty, you'll want to use our Keyword Difficulty tool. This is a scale from 0 to 100% with 100% being the most difficult. It's a proprietary formula but it's based on the overall visibility of the domains which rank for that keyword in the top 20 spots.
If you need any further information feel free to write or call into our support team at [email protected].
Have a great weekend!
-
They really are quite similar the two tools.
In my opinion, keyword difficulty bases its results or give more importance to the rank and page rank domain of the page. DIFFICULTY how much has the keyword to climb positions. It lets us know the competition in a keyword internet with just one click.
SEMRush results give more importance to the organic results by keyword or average result within a given time resulting traffic keyword. not showing us so directly against whom we compete.
Both are needed and complement each other to me, but I like to read more reviews.
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.
Related Questions
-
Comparing New vs. Old Keyword Difficulty Scores
We've had a few questions regarding the new Keyword Difficulty score used in Keyword Explorer, and how it compares to the old score in our stand-alone Keyword Difficulty tool. Specifically, people want to know why some scores are much lower using the new tool. There a general discussion of the math behind the tool in this post: Keyword Research in 2016: Going Beyond Guesswork One of the problems we had with the original Keyword Difficulty score is that, because it's based on our Page Authority (PA) score and PA tends toward the middle of the 0-100 range, Difficulty got a bit bunched up. A Difficulty score in the low-to-mid 20s (via the old tool) is actually very low. So, we set out to re-scale the new tool to broaden that score and use more of the 0-100 range. We hoped this would allow more granularity and better comparisons. While the logic is sound, we're concerned that we may have been too aggressive in this re-scaling, given recent feedback. So, we're going to be analyzing a large set of keywords (anonymously, of course) that people have run through the tool to see if too many Difficulty scores seem too low. If they do, we'll make some adjustments to the math. In the meantime, please be aware that low scores may appear lower in the new tool and very high scores may appear higher. We wanted to address some of the limitations in V1 and feedback over the years, and so the old and new scores really can't be compared directly in a meaningful way. We're sorry for any confusion that has caused, and we will re-evaluate if necessary.
Moz Pro | | Dr-Pete3 -
GWMT / Search Analytics VS OpenSiteExplorer
Just had the experience of using OSE data to show what we call "linkrot" to a client -- only to find that GWMT / Search Analytics shows no such thing. Fortunately the client is an old friend and no face was lost, but it was dicey there for a bit as I have come to rely on and reference OSE again and again and again, OSE showed Domain Authority dropping by about 1/3 in the last 12 months, presumably due to old links getting broken, linking sites changing their architecture etc. And of course, ranking is tanking, as you would expect. But Google shows many more (and much more spammy looking!) backlinks. Has anyone had any experience benchmarking the 2 data sets of backlinks against each other? Dr Pete?
Moz Pro | | seo_plus
Does one update more frequently than another? Do you trust one more than another?? If so, why?? Thanks!0 -
A question on keywords that rank 51+
Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to pose a question to the group about keywords and the "on-page optimization - grade a page tool." I have a list of keywords that I am trying to rank for. Some of them are not ranked in the top 50, so on the keyword ranking tool it gives you the 51+ message in the rank column. For the items that are ranked I can try to improve them by looking at grade a page and typing in the URL and keyword. It will then give me a score and suggestions on how to improve it. With that being said, is there an easy way to find out which pages I should be optimizing those keywords which rank at 51+ for, besides typing the keywords in Google and seeing what URL it associates with the specific keyword? I hope the question above is clear.
Moz Pro | | trumpfinc0 -
Keyword Research and Planning Flow
Hello, First post here. I am a IT infrastructure engineer that does application and deployment work mostly, but new to SEO. That being said, I am a firm believer in demming wheel and defined process/flow charts. I have a website up, built as best practice, its a Magento CE open source Ecommerce store. After some initial research, it seems I really need to define my keywords before I start branding my landing pages and such. So i am going to have to go back and implement the keywords and evaluate. But as I am reading it seems most SEO people try their keywords in google ad words first? Then implement? I am hoping to find some flow or process sheets on how successful Keyword research is done via step by step process and evaluation. And explanations of each. How many keywords to start with per landing page, how many to try and get in the H1 headers, paragraphs, URL. How long to leave keywords in to test? Also, I am a start up company that is competing with the big boys in my market space. I know I cant compete for the big keywords in my market? What is my best strategy for getting any kind of ranking as a small business in a global market? SEO is a mysterious, intriguing thing to me! Very much reminding me of one of my favorite whimsical quotes I will leave you will now, and thanks for reading. -Alex "Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." - Willy Wonka
Moz Pro | | iamgreenminded0 -
Moz is officially demigod-approved!
So, I was reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth tonight, and found a description of a graffiti tag in the Labyrinth that says "MOZ RULZ". What do you think? Is one of the Mozzers a demigod who has explored and survived the Labyrinth? 🙂 (See attachment for book quote.) F1WmT5r
Moz Pro | | AdamThompson4 -
Any Other PAID Keyword Difficulty Tool?
Why is The Keyword Difficulty Tool so unreliable? Anyone know of another PAID Keyword Difficulty Tool? Right now I feel like I am getting ripped off for $99 a month for a tool that I have no confidence in...PLEASE HELP ANYONE
Moz Pro | | Local-Interactive0 -
Keyword Difficulty Score Not Available
What exactly does this mean? That the service is down? Or the score will never be available? It seems like I get that and then the tool gets stuck and I get no other data.
Moz Pro | | endlessrange0 -
Do keywords in drop-down menus count?
In running one of my campaigns in SEOMoz Pro, it was recommended that I reduce the amount of times a keyword is used to 15. On the actual page, there are fewer than 15, but when you include the number of times it is used in drop-downs from the nav bar, the number is 53. I know there is really no hard and fast rule about how many instances of a keyword make for keyword stuffing and the drop-downs only use the term where needed. Without it's use, it would be difficult to navigate the site. Is this a problem or should I focus on more important fixes?
Moz Pro | | rdreich490