What is Competition?

The advertiser competition level from Keywords Everywhere

Competition is a score from 0.00 to 1.00 that measures how many advertisers are bidding on a keyword in Google Ads. It comes from the Keywords Everywhere API, sourced from Google Keyword Planner. A higher number means more advertisers want that traffic.

The scale

Range	Level	What it means
0.00 - 0.33	Low	Few advertisers bidding. Often informational queries or niche topics
0.34 - 0.66	Medium	Moderate advertiser interest. Mix of informational and commercial queries
0.67 - 1.00	High	Many advertisers competing. Strong commercial intent, likely profitable traffic

Competition vs. organic SEO difficulty

Important distinction: Competition measures paid search competition (Google Ads advertisers), not organic ranking difficulty. A keyword with low competition (0.10) could still be very hard to rank for organically if the top results are authoritative sites. Similarly, a keyword with high competition (0.90) might have weaker organic results that you could outrank.

That said, there's often a loose correlation. Keywords with high paid competition tend to be commercially valuable, which means established sites often target them organically too. But don't treat the Competition score as an organic difficulty metric.

How to use competition

Competition is most useful when combined with other metrics:

Example: Reading competition alongside other metrics

Keyword	Volume	CPC	Competition	Takeaway
"free seo checker"	6,000	$2.00	0.85	Lots of advertisers want this traffic, confirming it converts
"seo tips 2026"	4,000	$0.30	0.12	Informational query. Good for traffic, less for conversions
"enterprise seo platform pricing"	200	$25.00	0.95	Low volume but extremely valuable. Every click could mean a big deal

High competition paired with high CPC is a strong signal that the keyword drives real business results. Low competition with low CPC usually means informational intent.

Data source and refresh

Competition data comes from the Keywords Everywhere API (Google Keyword Planner source) and is refreshed every 30 days. Like CPC and volume, it uses your KE API credits and is only fetched for tracked keywords.