68% of US business keywords on Google score under 30 out of 100 for keyword difficulty, the range SEO tools label easy, and the median keyword scores 18. Mortgage keywords are the hardest, with a median of 37, more than seven times pest control's 5.
Analysis of 9,994 US business keywords across 24 industries · keyword difficulty scores and Google search volume, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.68% of US business keywords on Google score under 30 out of 100 for keyword difficulty, the range SEO tools label easy to rank for.
- 2.The median US business keyword on Google has a keyword difficulty of 18 out of 100, and 4.8% of business keywords score 70 or higher.
- 3.Mortgage keywords are the hardest to rank for on Google, with a median keyword difficulty of 37, more than seven times the median of 5 for pest control keywords.
- 4.82.7% of transactional keywords, searches from people ready to buy or book, score under 30 for keyword difficulty, and their median score is 7.
- 5.Business keywords searched more than 100,000 times a month have a median keyword difficulty of 34, more than twice the median of 14 for keywords searched 10,000 times a month or fewer.
Summary
A roofing company owner opens an SEO tool to see which searches are worth a page. Roofing keywords come back with a median difficulty score of 6 out of 100, and the tool labels most of them easy. The owner's accountant, checking keywords for her own firm, sees a median of 32. It is the same score on the same scale, and it tells them very different things about how much work page one will take.
Keyword difficulty is the score SEO tools give each search term to estimate how hard it is to reach Google's top 10 results, on a scale from 0 to 100. It is built mostly from the links pointing at the pages that already rank: the stronger those pages' backlinks, the higher the score. Business owners and marketers use it to decide which searches to write pages for, and which to leave to larger competitors.
For most businesses, the answer is encouraging. 68% of US business keywords score under 30, the band SEO tools call easy, and the median keyword scores 18. Fewer than one in twenty score 70 or more. The lowest scores sit in local trades and in buying searches, the keywords small businesses care about most.
What we measured
In September 2026 we took 10,000 US keywords from 24 industry keyword sets, from plumbing and roofing to mortgage and insurance, each searched at least 9,900 times a month on Google. For the 9,994 keywords with a difficulty score, we recorded the score, the keyword's search intent and its monthly search volume, then grouped the scores into bands and calculated the median for each industry and each type of intent.
The bands follow the labels SEO tools use: very easy (0 to 14), easy (15 to 29), possible (30 to 49), difficult (50 to 69), hard (70 to 84) and very hard (85 to 100). Search intent describes what the searcher wants: transactional searches are ready to buy or book ("emergency plumber"), commercial searches compare options ("best mortgage lender"), informational searches want an answer, and navigational searches look for a specific brand or website. The median is the middle keyword: half score higher, half lower.
Two thirds of business keywords score under 30
The scores pile up at the low end. 4,407 keywords sit in the very easy band and 2,384 in the easy band, together 68% of the total. The median is 18 and the average is 23.2, pulled up by a small group of very hard terms. Only 4.8% of keywords score 70 or higher, and 197 score 85 or above.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 9,994 US business keywords across 24 industries · keyword difficulty scores and Google search volume, September 2026
The very top of the scale belongs to searches dominated by national brands and big retailers. "auto parts store", "tax filing services" and "discover it secured credit card" all score the maximum of 100: page one for those searches is held by companies with enormous link profiles, and a small business would struggle to break in. They are the exception. For two thirds of business keywords, the pages ranking today don't have the kind of link strength that would lock a new competitor out.
Local trades are easiest, finance is hardest
Industry changes the picture more than anything else. Pest control keywords have a median difficulty of 5, roofing 6, plumbing 8, and plastic surgery and weddings 9. At the other end, mortgage keywords have a median of 37, accounting 32, SaaS 31 and insurance 27.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 9,994 US business keywords across 24 industries · keyword difficulty scores and Google search volume, September 2026
The split follows who competes for the search. Local trades are served by thousands of small, local companies, and few of them invest heavily in links, so the pages ranking for "pest control" or "roof repair" are beatable. Finance and software searches are fought over nationally by lenders, insurers, software companies and comparison websites with large content and link budgets, which pushes the scores up.
Buying searches are the easiest of all
Transactional keywords have a median difficulty of 7, well below every other type of search. Navigational keywords follow at 18, then commercial keywords at 21 and informational keywords at 22.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 9,994 US business keywords across 24 industries · keyword difficulty scores and Google search volume, September 2026
This is the most useful result for a small business. The searches that turn into calls and bookings are the easiest to rank for, while the "how to" and "best of" searches that publishers and big brands chase with long articles are harder. A service page built for the exact thing a customer is ready to buy competes on friendlier ground than a blog post.
The most searched keywords are the hardest
Search volume pushes difficulty up. Keywords searched more than 100,000 times a month have a median difficulty of 34, and only 43.3% of them score under 30. For keywords searched 10,000 times a month or fewer, the median is 14 and 73.8% score under 30.
The biggest searches attract the most competitors, and the websites that win them earn links simply by being seen. Smaller searches, often a service plus a city or a specific problem, stay open to any business that builds a page answering them well.
What this means for small business owners
Check the difficulty of every keyword you plan to target before you write, and start with the low scorers that match what you sell: transactional searches and service-plus-city searches. In local trades the median keyword scores under 10, so one well-built service page per service, with your location, prices, photos and reviews, has a real chance of reaching page one.
Then pair the score with a look at the live results. Search the keyword yourself and note who holds page one, whether a map pack appears and what the top pages cover, so you know what your page has to beat. If you work in finance, insurance or software, plan for a longer climb and a link-building budget, because the median keyword in those industries scores three to five times a plumber's. Our affordable seo services start with exactly this: the low-difficulty buying searches a small business can win first.
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Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 68% of Business Keywords on Google Score as Easy to Rank For. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/keyword-difficulty-distribution
68% of Business Keywords on Google Score as Easy to Rank For - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/keyword-difficulty-distribution