Judge real difficulty by reading the actual SERP and assessing how beatable it is, because the live results tell you what the score only estimates. Open the page of results for the keyword and study the pages that rank, rather than trusting a difficulty figure built from backlink proxies. The real question is not “what number did the tool return” but “can I produce something that deserves to outrank what is there,” and that answer lives in the SERP itself. The method is to evaluate the competition directly and decide whether you can beat it.
Start with the strength and relevance of the ranking pages. Look at how authoritative they are, but more importantly whether they actually satisfy the searcher’s intent or merely rank by inertia. Scan for weak, old, or off-intent results, dated pages, shallow content, results that answer a slightly different question, or big domains coasting on authority with a thin page. Those are the openings, because a SERP full of mediocre or mismatched results is beatable regardless of the difficulty score, while a SERP where every result is genuinely excellent and on-intent is hard no matter what number a tool assigns.
Then read the practical requirements the SERP is telling you about. Note the content type that ranks, whether the winners are long guides, tools, comparison pages, or short answers, because you will need to match or beat that format to compete. And read the link reality: not just the raw backlink counts, but whether the links are earned and relevant or whether the pages rank despite modest links, which tells you how much link-building the keyword actually demands. Together these turn the SERP into a concrete picture of what it would take to win.
To apply this, before committing to a keyword, open its SERP and run through the checklist: are the ranking pages strong and on-intent, are there weak or off-target results to beat, what content type is required, and what does the link reality demand. Decide to pursue the keyword only when you can see a realistic path to a better result than what ranks. Assess the SERP’s beatability first, and let that judgment, not the tool’s number, drive the call.