What is Competition (indexed value)

The Competition (indexed value) uses a scale of 0 – 100 (0 is low) and can be seen in the Google Ads Keyword Planner. The value shows how competitive a keyword is for the location and search network you’ve selected.

The value isn’t visible by default in the Google Ads Keyword Planner, you need to enable the column in the modify column section. However, the value does show if you download your keyword ideas.

How is the value calculated?

Google uses the following calculation:
Ad slots filled / total number of ad slots available.

If there isn’t enough data available, you will see a dash.

How is the Competition Indexed value useful?

The value provides a more granular figure than the more well-known Competition value, which is just; Low, Medium and High. It enables you to see if a keyword has really low competition, i.e. 1 or just under medium, i.e. 32.