What is the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) in SEO?
KEI stands for Keyword Effectiveness Index. The KEI Formula is used to determine how competitive a keyword is (Popularity/searches vs. results).
It is calculated by comparing the number of times a keyword appears in search engine queries with the number of results returned when that keyword is searched for. By using the KEI formula in your keyword analysis you’re able to target the most effective keyword phrases.
The most popular formula for calculating KEI is S^2/R. S indicates the number of searches during a given period, whereas R shows the number of search results. The higher the KEI using this calculation, the more effective the keyword is.
Calculating the KEI is an efficient way to identify potentially successful keywords to use in your SEO strategy. It should be used alongside any other keyword research you perform as part of your SEO analysis.
What is a good KEI score?
What might be a good KEI for one market may not be so useful in another so you’re unable to establish a “perfect” KEI. As a guide keywords with a KEI above 0.5 are typically better than those below 0.5.
KEI helps you determine which keywords could generate the best results for your site. The ideal scenario to look at when selecting your keyword is “high demand and low competition”. Use common sense by looking at monthly search volumes to ensure you are targeting popular keywords.
Avoid high bounce rates by making sure your content is related to the query used in the search engines to find your site! in the first place!
Benefits of using KEI formula calculations
KEI helps you determine which keywords could generate the best results for your site. The ideal scenario to look at when selecting your keyword is “high demand and low competition”.
What information do I need in order to calculate the KEI of a keyword?
First, you need to collect a couple of numbers related to your keyword. Luckily these are easy to extract:
- Popularity (how often is the term searched every day? ie 500)
- Results (how many websites are returned in the search result pages? ie 100,000)
Let’s use another example for the search term “Web design”.
Find how many results are returned when a search for the keyword is performed on Google – 6,340,000,000 a VERY large number!
Then see how often it is actually searched for by using a tool like Google Keyword Planner (https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) – 22,000 per month.
Keyword Popularity = 22,000*22,000 = 484,000,000
KEI = 484,000,000/6,340,000,000 = 0.08
Tip: Keep the calculated answer to just 2 decimal places to maintain consistency when comparing results. Using this example gives us a KEI below 0.5 so therefore it could be considered a poor keyword to target.
The Formula For Calculating KEI
The formula for calculating the Keyword Effectiveness Index is as follows:
KEI = No. of Searches (squared) / No. of Results
For Example
Let’s say there are around 100,000 competing web pages for a particular keyword having around 500 searches a month then KEI would be calculated as follows:-
Square the number of searches: 500*500 = 250,000
KEI Calculation: 250,000/100,000 = 2.50
To summarise: What is KEI in SEO?
The KEI formula is a calculation used by SEO experts and marketers to measure the strength of a keyword phrase. It takes into account both the search volume and the number of competing websites for a given keyword phrase. This formula can be used to help determine which keyword phrases are most likely to yield traffic for an online business or website.
Ideally, you want to be in 1st position to get maximum traffic from the keyword you’re targeting.
If you want to learn more about the keyword effectiveness index, please contact us.
