SEO Keyword Difficulty & Competitor Analysis

Given a target keyword (or a list of candidates), this Skill runs an automated research pipeline that produces a Keyword Decision Report: search volume, difficulty score, Top-10 competitor TDK breakdown, trend direction, and a final recommendation on whether to write for this keyword or pivot to a better variant.

This is Step 0 of the SEO automation pipeline — before any page or blog content is written, you must know whether the keyword is worth targeting.

MCP Dependency

seo-web-cafe (Keyword Difficulty Estimation MCP) is the primary data source for this Skill. It provides real KD scores, search volume, Top-10 competitor analysis, link budgets, and trend signals — far more accurate than WebSearch estimates.

MCP endpoint: mcp__seo-web-cafe__estimate_keyword_difficulty

• Parameters: {keyword: string (required), gl: string (optional, default "us"), hl: string (optional, default "en"), force: string (optional, "1" to skip cache)}
• Returns: score, level, keywordType, keywordVolume, keywordTrend, linkBudget, details (Top-10), reasons
• Rate limit: 10 calls/minute, ≥6 second interval between calls
• Auth: via URL token (?token=wc_mcp_...) embedded in MCP config

If MCP is not connected: Fall back to WebSearch for KD/Volume estimates. This is less accurate but still usable. Clearly label all fallback data with source ("WebSearch estimate" vs "seo-web-cafe MCP").