How is the keyword difficulty score calculated in SEOMoz?

[BenHuntLtd]

The SEOMoz PRO tools provide a keyword difficulty score. How is this calculated? And is it a score for organic search competition or for PPC competition?

[bronxpad]

Straight from SEOMOZ

Where does your tool get its search volume data from?
For this tool, we get our search volume data from Google's AdWords API.

http://www.seomoz.org/help/keyword-analysis

I hope this helps.

[DougRoberts]

Ben, it's search competition based on the Domain Authority and Page Authority for the top 20 search results on Google. The score doesn't come from adwords, that's used for the search volumes.

The links on this page explain how Domain and Page authority is defined:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo

Joel's link provides a full run-down of the keyword analysis tool.

[belasco]

Hi Doug,

Is there any deeper information available other than "based on Domain and Page Authority"? How is it calculated? You may not know but how about any Mozzers?

Thanks

Mike

[jhinchcliffe]

Thanks Joel, that helped

[groovykarma]

Greetings Doug, I echo Mike's request.  It would be wonderfully supportive of you or another staff member to give one (or more) examples on how "Domain Authority and Page Authority for the top 20 search results on Google".

I cannot simply present to my boss and say, "SEOMoz shows this keyword as 62% highly competitive."  My boss is wise enough to ask, "Explain what 62% means. Show me how this applies."

Fair question.

One  example from you in layperson terms would be highly appreciated.  Then, I may replicate myself and thereby explain the value and origin of the measure.

Please "teach a person to fish ..."

Cheers, Loren

[DonnieCooper]

I'd like to chime in and request a formula too. maybe it's a secret because moz doesn't want competitors using this number... but then, it wouldn't take much (i assume) for someone to reverse engineer the score based on data inputs from moz.... so maybe it's not secret? if not, i'd reallllllllyyyy like to know.

interesting sidenote: i've noticed a range of about +/- 10 points on the difficulty score from a given domain authority with a domain's ability to rank for that keyword