zensink/zens-ink-seo-package/keyword-difficulty

Keyword difficulty from SERP structure

Most KD scores are paywalled link metrics. This reads the actual SERP and answers the only question that matters: are there winnable seats, and what type of page wins them?

When to use

• "Can I rank for 'best crm for startups'?"
• "How competitive is this keyword?"
• "Should I write this article or skip it?"

When NOT to use

• Head terms dominated by Wikipedia/major brands — the tool will tell you,

but the answer is already no.

• The user needs a DR-style number to put in a report — use domain_rating

(rank-tracking skill) for DR lookups instead.

Setup

pip install zens-ink

Set SERPER_API_KEY in .env (free tier: 2,500 searches/month at serper.dev).

Commands

python3 -m zens_ink.kd "open source seo tools"
python3 -m zens_ink.kd "开源 seo 工具" --zh
python3 -m zens_ink.kd "best crm" --json          # machine-readable
python3 -m zens_ink.kd "best crm" --markdown       # self-contained report

How to read the results

The analysis is built on three fingerprints of a locked SERP:

1. Same-name official domains in top 3 — navigational lock, hard to enter.
2. One domain family holding 2+ seats — brand sitelinks, Google treats it

as the canonical answer.

1. Platform ecosystem density — Reddit/YouTube/GitHub stacking means

Google wants UGC/forum content for this query.

2+ fingerprints = brand-locked keyword. The output also after removing official and platform-fixed seats — that is the number that decides go/no-go, not the raw top-10 strength.

Decision rule: if the winnable-seat difficulty is moderate and intent matches the user's page type, write it. If every seat is brand-locked, pivot to the long-tail variant (feed the seed back through the keyword-research skill with --expand).

Next steps

• Verify what Google actually rewards: the search-intent skill runs the

SERP page-type breakdown.

• Batch-scored a list already? The competitor-gap skill finds what rivals

rank for that the user does not.

Going deeper

ZensInk Pro's Winability Score cross-references difficulty with the user's own GSC footprint — keywords THEY can win, not keywords a generic site can: https://zens.ink/pricing/