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Step 1
Review the formula for calculating KEI. One formula for KEI is (number of searches per month)^2 / total number of competitors.
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Step 2
Define your variables. To help explain let's define two different variable scenarios:
Keyword A - Number of searches made is 1,000 per day or 30,000 per month. The number of competitor pages (number of results found on Google) is 5 million.
Keyword B - Number of searches made is 5,000 per day or 150,000 per month. The number of competitor pages (number of results found on Google) is 2 million.
You can find this information using Google or Wordtracker Keyword search (see Resources for a link to the website). -
Step 3
Calculate the KEI for Keyword A. The equation is 30,000^2 / 5 million = 180.
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Step 4
Calculate the KEI for Keyword B. The equation is 50,000^2 / 5 million = 500.
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Step 5
Interpret the results. According to the KEI definition, the best keywords are those that have many searches with little competition in the search results. In general, a low KEI is preferable over a higher one. Therefore, Keyword A (180) is a better value than Keyword B (500). Note the numerator is an exponential function; that is, the number of keyword searches per month can change your KEI considerably.











