Keyword Difficulty Is a Starting Point, Not a Publishing Decision

Difficulty scores are useful for triage. They compress too much context to replace inspection of the actual result set.

What the score is good for

Use it to sort large lists, identify candidates and decide where deeper research may be worthwhile.

What it cannot guarantee

A low score cannot guarantee ranking, and a high score does not make ranking impossible. Different tools use different methods, while search engines evaluate pages in much richer context.

A better sequence

Topical relevance → intent → ranking page types → competitor quality → SERP overlap → page decision.