How to Calculate Kei

Internet marketing is a competitive field. There are dozens of Internet marketing companies promising to enhance search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click campaigns (PPC) by helping you to find the "optimal" keyword strategy. The Keyword Effective Index (KEI) is a way to quantify and compare the use of different keywords based on rank and return on investment (ROI).

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Review the formula for calculating KEI. One formula for KEI is (number of searches per month)^2 / total number of competitors.

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).

3. Calculate the KEI for Keyword A. The equation is 30,000^2 / 5 million = 180.

4. Calculate the KEI for Keyword B. The equation is 50,000^2 / 5 million = 500.

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.

Tips & Warnings

• Low KEIs are generally a better value, but calculating KEIs is a "garbage in, garbage out" exercise, so be sure to validate the source of your information. KEI does not measure the quality of the competition.

Resources

• WordTracker: Keyword Search
• Sample KEI Chart Analysis