• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, February 12, 2026

Findings from a study analyzing 36 high-intent business search terms identified the industries facing the highest barriers to organic search visibility on Google in 2026.

The study from Social Market Way, a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO and lead generation, identify where competition is most intense and where years of authority-building to reach page one was required.

The research used Ahrefs keyword explorer data from January 2026 to evaluate U.S. search volume, keyword difficulty, cost-per-click (CPC), median referring domains, and average domain rating for each term. 

Keywords were grouped into four archetypes based on search intent: High-intent service searches, professional and agency searches, trust-led and regulated service searches, and high-ticket problem searches.

The analysis focused on non-branded terms in traditional search where businesses actively compete for visibility.

With artificial intelligence (AI) search engines, however, the barrier to entry is higher. Companies still need authority, but now they also need proof of expertise for an AI engine to include the website or citation in the answer as a source.

The data shows that it is nearly impossible for a new or small website to serve up on the first page of Google for a search query related to “logistics company.” This has a keyword difficulty rating of 89 and pages ranking on average with 156 median referring domains and a 64 domain rating, according to the research.

Despite a relatively modest search volume of 5,100 monthly searches, the competitive intensity reflects how established logistics providers have built substantial online authority.

“Payroll services” has the highest commercial pressure with a $7.00 cost-per-click (CPC), which means advertisers are willing to pay substantially for each visitor. This set of keywords is rated with a difficulty score of 83 and requires competing against sites with 125 median referring domains and an average 72 domain rating.

“A payroll company starting today faces pages with 125 referring domains,” Yassin Aberra, CEO of Social Market Way notes. “That's not a six-month SEO project. It requires a multi-year authority-building strategy.”

In the legal sector, searches on “lawyer” see 137,000 monthly queries with a difficulty rating of 88. Pages ranking for this term average 105 referring domains and a 74 domain rating.

The term “attorney” has an even higher authority requirement, with ranking pages averaging 387 referring domains and an 86 domain rating.

The term “marketing agency” shows how professional services searches have become saturated, with pages requiring 395.5 median referring domains -- the highest link-building threshold in the dataset, alongside a difficulty score of 83 and a $3.00 CPC.

Trust-Led and Regulated Service Searches represent the most competitive archetype with an average keyword difficulty of 79.18 and the highest average Domain Rating requirement at 79.64. 

Searches related to consumers ready to buy a service average a 75.00 keyword difficulty rating, with a domain authority requirements of 59.83, but with a higher search demand at 69,550 searches per month. 

Terms like “physical therapy” and “logistics company” attract significant search volume but require 107.75 median referring domains -- the middle number of unique websites that link back to pages currently ranking on the first page of Google.

If The Wall Street Journal links to your site, that is one referring domain. If they link to you ten times, it still only counts as one. It's more about how many different sites link.

Professional & Agency Searches show that despite a lower keyword difficulty of 46.00, they require the highest link-building investment at a 129.12 median for referring domains. 

The 26,030.77 average search volume and $1.82 CPC suggest moderate commercial pressure, but requirements for authority suggest saturation in agency and consultancy markets, according to the data.

Finally, searching for luxury items or high-ticket purchases is the easiest way to get discovered on Google.

The sector has the lowest average difficulty rating at 53.00, and only requires a 43.33 median referring domains, which makes ranking for these potentially more accessible to marketers.