Key findings
- Across 483 keywords, search volume and keyword difficulty are only moderately related: a rank correlation of 0.42.
- 58% of all the keywords have a difficulty under 30, including 36% of those with 10,000 or more searches a month (69 keywords).
- Median difficulty climbs from 15 for keywords under 1,000 searches a month to 38 in the busiest bands, so bigger keywords are harder on average, but far from all of them.
The data
These are 483 unique keywords we researched in Semrush, U.S. database, October 2026 while planning content for a group of new websites: recipes, local guides, calculators, home improvement, travel, finance and more. For each one we recorded U.S. monthly search volume and Semrush's keyword difficulty score (0 to 100).
One important bias: these keywords were chosen because they looked winnable for new sites. Most very hard head terms never made the list. So this dataset tells you what a realistic target list looks like, not what the whole of search looks like.
Difficulty by search volume
| Monthly searches | Keywords | Median difficulty | Share with difficulty under 30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 | 93 | 15 | 83% |
| 1,000 to 4,999 | 223 | 26 | 60% |
| 5,000 to 19,999 | 128 | 34 | 41% |
| 20,000 to 99,999 | 34 | 38 | 35% |
| 100,000+ | 5 | 27 | 60% |
The busiest band (100,000 or more searches) has only 5 keywords, so read its median with care.
How hard were the keywords?
What this means for you
- Do not filter by volume first. Plenty of keywords with real demand score under 30. Sort by difficulty within your topic, then look at volume.
- Build clusters, not single targets. The easy keywords in our list sit next to each other: a cost guide, its calculator, its regional versions. A site that covers the cluster can win several at once.
- Check the results page, not just the score. Difficulty scores estimate link strength of the current top results. They do not tell you whether those results actually answer the question well.
- Measure. We are tracking how these targets perform in our live case study.
Method and limits
- Source: Semrush, U.S. database, October 2026. Volume is the U.S. monthly average; difficulty is Semrush's 0 to 100 score. Duplicates across sites were counted once.
- Correlation is Spearman rank correlation, which suits search volume's very skewed spread.
- Selection bias: this is a target list for new sites, not a random sample of keywords.
Download: the aggregate tables as CSV. Cite freely with a link to this page.
Frequently asked questions
Do high-volume keywords always have high difficulty?
No. In our 483 keywords the relationship was moderate (rank correlation 0.42), and 36% of keywords with 10,000+ monthly searches had a difficulty under 30.
What keyword difficulty should a new site target?
Most new sites do best under about 30 on Semrush's scale, inside a topic they can cover thoroughly. Our list had plenty of those with real search volume.