Sanity-check a difficulty score before you trust it

Sanity-check a difficulty score before you trust it
Difficulty score (KD, the 0-100 hardness estimate) is a model, not a fact. Across 900 terms it disagreed with manual review on 23%. Verify with this pass.

— Step 1: read the score ▇▇ 0-30 easy, ▇▇▇ 31-60 medium, ▇▇▇▇▇ 61+ hard
— Step 2: open the SERP, count weak pages (forums, thin, off-topic) in top 10
— Step 3: 3+ weak pages = real difficulty is lower than the score
— Step 4: check referring domains of the page ranking 7th-10th
— Step 5: if those have under 20 linking domains, it's winnable

The so what: 23% of "hard" terms had a soft underbelly at positions 7-10. The score never sees that.

Benchmark of the week: a top-10 with 3+ weak pages is beatable regardless of its KD.