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Noah
Noah
Jan 19, 2025, 10:34 AM
Forwarded from another channel:
Forwarded thread from another channel:
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:12 PM
I did an analysis on KW Difficulty Scores that showed they're effectively random. I know a lot of us are already skeptical / don't use KW Difficulty Scores but nice to see some data to support that.
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:14 PM
Each dot represents a keyword
Graphed as:
X-axis: Position
Y-axis: KW Difficulty
Color scale: The semantic similarity score between the keyword and the ranking page's page title.
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Dec 12, 2024, 3:23 PM
I think there's probably too many assumptions hiding inside this graph to come to conclusions...
If this is showing all keywords a domain ranks for, then it's assuming that the domain is trying to rank for all of those keyword (rare).
If this is showing a single 'focus keyword' for each page on a site, it's assuming that all pages are perfectly optimized and equally linked.
Lots of other factors IMO, really hard concept to prove/disprove with just 2 axes.
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Dec 12, 2024, 3:24 PM
All of that said, I am biased and I strongly agree that .
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:36 PM
Yeah, without a doubt there are limitations with this analysis. That said, I do believe it provide strong evidence in an area that's not really been studied -- at least not that I've seen.
> assuming that all pages are perfectly optimized and equally linked
That's the biggest limitation of the analysis conducted.
1. We used the semantic similarity score of the page title to infer if the page was optimized
2. We also make an assumption that each blog post from a given company is equal (consistent) in terms of internal linkage and post quality. Not perfect. But it's evidence to support the claim and from what I've seen not too far off from reality.
The lack of any coherent pattern tells me either those assumptions are absolutely terrible (which you could argue) or more than likely KW Difficulty Scores are inherently bad metrics. I say more than likely because if you look at the signals that go into KW Difficulty scores it doesn't really pass any reasonable sniff test in terms of what you might expect from a predictive, forward looking metric.
> Lots of other factors IMO, really hard concept to prove/disprove with just 2 axes. (edited)
Doesn't take away from your point but it's 3 axes -- we are evaluating page title's relevance to the query as the 3rd axis. I thought the X/Y Graph with a color axis is an easier visualization of the data over a the 3-axis chart (see image below!)
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:36 PM
> All of that said, I am biased and I strongly agree that .
Super great article. Thanks for sharing. Love the approach breaking down the scores by content, link and domain. ????
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:38 PM
> "The primary two sources I trust for my own team are Moz’s newly relaunched link data and Ahrefs. A bunch of SEOs I respect also use Majestic heavily but I’ve never been able to make it work with my workflow."
Super off topic but I've not used Majestic before and want to check them out. What was the reason it didn't fit with your workflow? Want to avoid any landmines if I can
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Dec 12, 2024, 3:39 PM
> Doesn't take away from your point but it's 3 axes -- we are evaluating page title's relevance to the query as the 3rd axis
I missed this on first glance. Would be good to see bracketed or filtered version of the analysis - eg "does a trend emerge when we only consider page::keyword matches that are in the top X% by relevance?
And then from there... individual analysis by separate KD types - IMO they're not interchangeable by vendor.
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:40 PM
Totally agree with all of that
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:41 PM
Not sure how much deeper I'm going to go on this specific exploration since I honestly just think very little of KW Difficulty Scores & this all but validates my feelings (though you make great points and maybe I should be more open minded). But What you're suggesting would 100% make this a better analysis
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Dec 12, 2024, 3:42 PM
Blended KD scores are like mixing orange juice, milk, and chicken broth into a glass.
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Dec 12, 2024, 3:42 PM
3 great things that are useless when you mix them together
Nicolas Garfinkel
Nicolas Garfinkel
Dec 12, 2024, 3:44 PM
HA just thinking of that mix makes me sick to my stomach. Thanks for that :face_vomiting:
Corey Northcutt
Corey Northcutt
Dec 16, 2024, 1:39 PM
This is fun. I’ve had a hard time finding use in these scores for our teams, too. What did it for me was comparing how there seems to be zero correlation from KD scores in one tool to the next… and then you start qualitatively analyzing the SERP (do current top 10 results attempt to even all target the phrase?), and it gets worse.

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