This is a typical Google search results page with 3 Google AdWords ads at the top and another 8 ads on the right. Every Google search results page has a maximum of 11 ads.

On a typical Google search page, there is no option to select the country. What you see is dependent on your current location in the world. If you’re searching from the USA, you should see USA ads. I did a search while I was in Singapore, using a Singapore ISP to connect to internet, hence, I see a list of .com.sg Google AdWords ads.

How to Display Country Specific Google Ads in Google

Google has a little known command to allow users to see country specific content on their search engine.

This is a typical search URL for “loans”:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=”loans”&aq=&aqi=g-c10&aql=&oq=”loans”

By adding a 2-letter country code to the URL, we are able to see the results and ads for a specific country even if we are not there.

Let’s say I want to see the results and ads of the UK for the keyword “loans”, I type the following URL into my browser:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=”loans”&aq=&aqi=g-c10&aql=&oq=”loans”&gl=gb

• gb is the country code for the UK. I guess it must refer to “Great Britain”.

This is what I see from Singapore for a Google search results page for the keyword “loans”.  I’m happy I don’t need to fly all the way to the UK to see this information. Neither do I need to find a UK proxy server to simulate searches from the UK.

Why Most Keyword Research Software Don’t Give You an Accurate Number of Google Ads

Most of the keyword research software in the market only allow you to select 1 country in the software settings. Usually, the default country is the USA. When you do a search and see a number of ads returned by these software, you only see the number of ads for the USA.

This is fine if you only intend to create Google AdWords ads for the USA market. What if you are trying to market to multiple countries? Yes, you could switch the country in your software settings and search again and total up the number of ads by yourself but that would still be very time consuming.

In other words, most keyword research software are not designed for getting data from multiple countries in an easy manner.

Why Would I Care About the Number of Google Ads?

For Google AdWords advertisers, the number of ads helps you to estimate the level of competition for your target keywords. The more advertisers, the higher the cost per click (CPC), which means it will cost more to create an ad for your target keywords. You may choose to pay the money or try to find other keywords with less competition.

For Google AdSense publishers, the number of ads helps you to estimate the profitability of display Google AdSense ads on your web site. The more advertisers, the higher the CPC, which means more money in your pocket from Google AdSense.

In general, if you see a lot of ads for a particular keyword, it proves that a lot of people are paying real money to advertise their products and services on Google. Pay attention to these niches because a lot of money can be made since a lot of money is being poured into them.

Counting the Number of Google Ads Manually

Now that you know how to display the Google ads for multiple countries, you can count the ads by totalling up the number of ads you see on the search pages. This is an extremely time consuming task because:

• You need to make sure there aren’t repeated ads, especially the ads at the top.
• You need to look through multiple search pages of multiple countries.

It is bearable if you only have a few keywords but if you’ve got hundreds or thousands of keywords to go through… I wouldn’t even try.

Counting the Number of Google Ads with the Maverick Keyword Researcher

This is how I count the number of Google Ads for my keywords.

Every country will display different ads and a different number of ads. The Maverick Keyword Researcher adds up the number of ads for me so that I don’t have to waste my time doing it manually. I wouldn’t do it any other way.

• Google’s Matt Cutts Talks About Redirected Links & Nofollowed Links
• How to Know if a 301 Redirect Counts

301 Redirect a Domain

The simplest way to create 301 redirects for an entire web site would be to create .htaccess file with the command below and upload it to the public folder of your web site.

The “#” sign is a comment syntax for the .htaccess file. In my example, I was redirecting my old blog, VincentRich.com, to MaverickWebCreations.com. The slash (/) after “redirect 301″ tells the Apache server to redirect all HTTP requests on VincentRich.com to MaverickWebCreations.com. Please note that the slash (/) behind the URL is very important! If you omit this, your redirects are going to be messed up.

301 Redirect Web Pages

Sometimes we want to redirect visitors to the new page on our new web site. If this is what you are trying to achieve, you need to enter 1 commands for every URL you wish to redirect.

For my case, I decided that I wanted to redirect all my old blog posts to a specific blog post on MaverickWebCreations.com. The command for this is as follows:

redirect 301 /filename.html http://www.newdomain.com/filename.html

This would be a lot of work if you have a lot of URLs to redirect but it would be worth the trouble in the long run as you do not want to lose traffic.

301 Redirect HTTP Codes on HTML Pages

You may also do a 301 redirect on a HTML page as long as you include the HTTP status codes.

Wikipedia has a great article on how to do this. In fact, I created a file titled “index.html” for my old blog and included the 301 redirect status code at the top of the page to let the search engines know that my site has moved. However, this HTML page does not redirect visitors automatically.

The problem is Google did not give me any specific example of how I violated their rules. I find that extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact violation of their rules. To make it easier for myself, I decided to delete the blog and move some of the posts to this web site.

The reply I got from Google was simply:

We received a request from a site owner to reconsider how we index the following site: http://www.vincentrich.com/.

We’ve now reviewed your site. When we review a site, we check to see if it’s in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines. If we don’t find any problems, we’ll reconsider our indexing of your site. If your site still doesn’t appear in our search results, check our Help Center for steps you can take.

I have checked Google’s webmaster guidelines and made sure my site complies to their rules. I think I may have accidentally linked to a “bad neighbourhood” or “web spammer” according to Google’s Link schemes guidelines. I have removed 10 links from my links directory just to be safe. Now I am looking through all my blog comments to see if there are any weird web sites in them.

Technically speaking, I do not think my site has violated any of Google’s rules. If you read Google’s article, My site isn’t doing well in search, there are 4 things to check before submitting a Google reconsideration request:

1. Check your site is in the Google index – Done!
2. Make sure Google can find and crawl your site – Done!
3. Make sure that Google can index your site – Done!
4. Make sure your content is useful and relevant – Done!

I may have digressed a bit on my blog by blogging about my personal experiences instead of internet marketing related content but I do not think that is enough to remove my site from Google.com.

Google has a very interesting video on their reconsideration process and how to keep your site in their index. Not much information in the video but it looks like an entertaining video to me.

I just submitted another reconsideration request. Let’s see what Google has to say…

I have submitted a request to Google to reconsider my web site via Google Webmaster Tools. I hope they do the right thing by restoring my site to their search engine.

I wonder if someone tried to sabotage my web site. I once read that it is very easy to get someone’s web site de-indexed. Alice Seba once had one of her sites de-indexed like mine. I wrote and posted all of my blog posts since 2004.

I hope Google will let me know why my site has been de-indexed. I have a feeling they may never give me a straight answer.

I am implementing the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) into the Maverick Keyword Researcher. However, the original formula does not work with Google keyword statistics unless I make some tweaks to it.

First up, let’s take a look at the official explanation of the KEI by its creator, Sumantra Roy:

The KEI is a measure of how effective a keyword is for your web site. The derivation of the formula for KEI is based on three axioms:

1. The KEI for a keyword should increase if its popularity increases. Popularity is defined as the number present in the “Count” column of WordTracker. This axiom is self-explanatory.
2. The KEI for a keyword should decrease if it becomes more competitive. Competitiveness is defined as the number of sites which AltaVista displays when you search for that keyword using exact match search (i.e. you should use quotes around the keyword). This axiom is also self-explanatory.
3. If a keyword becomes more popular and more competitive at the same time such that the ratio between its popularity and competitiveness remains the same, its KEI should increase. The rationale behind this axiom requires a more detailed explanation. The best way to do this is to take an example:

Suppose the popularity of a keyword is 4 and AltaVista displays 100 sites for that keyword. Then the ratio between popularity and competitiveness for that keyword is 4/100 = 0.04.

Suppose that both the popularity and the competitiveness of the keyword increases. Assume that the popularity increases to 40 and AltaVista now displays 1000 sites for that keyword. Then the ratio between popularity and competitiveness for that keyword is 40/1000 = 0.04.

Hence, the keyword has the same ratio between popularity and competitiveness as before. However, as is obvious, the keyword would be far more attractive in the second case. If the popularity is only 4, there’s hardly any point in spending time trying to optimize your site for it even though you have a bigger chance of ending up in the top 30 since there are only 100 sites which are competing for a top 30 position. Each hit is no doubt important, but from a cost-benefit angle, the keyword is hardly a good choice. However, when the popularity increases to 40, the keyword becomes more attractive even though its competitiveness increases. Although it is now that much more difficult to get a top 30 ranking, spending time in trying to do so is worthwhile from the cost benefit viewpoint.

A good KEI must satisfy all the 3 axioms. Let P denote the popularity of the keyword and C the competitiveness.

The formula that I have chosen is KEI = P2/C*1000, i.e. KEI is the square of the popularity of the keyword multiplied by 1000 and divided by its competitiveness. This formula satisfies all the 3 axioms:

1. If P increases, P2 increases and hence KEI increases. Hence, Axiom 1 is satisfied.
2. If C increases, KEI decreases and hence, Axiom 2 is satisfied.
3. If P and C both increase such that P/C is the same as before, KEI increases since KEI can be written as

KEI = P2/C*1000 = P/C * P * 1000. Since P/C remains the same, and P increases, KEI must increase. Hence, Axiom 3 is satisfied.

You may be wondering why I am multiplying the figure by 1000. The reason is that since the popularity will be very small compared to the competitiveness, the KEI for most of the keywords will be in decimals. This makes it slightly difficult to use. However, introducing the 1000 makes it easy to compare the KEI between different keywords.

Note that the formula for KEI is not unique. In fact, this is one of the nice things about the KEI. If, instead of using 2, you use any power of P greater than 1, the resultant formula will also satisfy the 3 axioms. For example, P1.5/C*1000 and P3/C*1000 both satisfy the 3 axioms. The exact power of P that you choose depends on how much emphasis you want to give to the popularity of a keyword viz-a-viz its competitiveness. Higher the power of P in the formula, higher will be the emphasis on popularity. If you are very confident about your search engine positioning skills, choose a higher value for the power of P.

If you are not that confident about your search engine positioning skills, choose a lower value for the power of P (but the power should still be more than 1). Thus, the KEI can be adapted to your skill level! Feeling confused as to which power you should choose? Stick to 2. It maintains a nice balance between both popularity and competitiveness.

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You can use the concept of KEI or any derivation of it in your own articles as long as you display the following resource box at the end of the article:

The Keyword Effectiveness Index was invented by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected and recognized search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. For more articles on search engine placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by sending a blank email to 1stSearchRanking-subscribe@listbot.com or by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com.

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Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) with Google Keyword Data

I hope that wasn’t too much math for you to understand. The KEI was created quite a few years ago while Altavista was still some kind of big shot in the search engine industry. Today, Google is the king of the search engines so we need to use Google’s data instead of Altavista and Wordtracker.

I tried using the original KEI formula with Google keyword date and the numbers looked unbelievably good. So good that is must be false.

Let’s replace all the Competion and Popularity jargons with something easier to read and remember. So here’s the KEI adapted to Google’s keyword data:

KEI = Google Search Count² / Google Search Results x 1000

Let’s use the keyword phrase “internet marketing” as an example. I shall use the exact match to search for internet marketing at Google.com. Please note that exact matching on Google.com refers to the use of quotes around the keywords wheareas brackets [] are used for exact matching on Google AdWords. Please refer to the Google Web Search’s search basics and Google AdWords’ keyword matching options for more information on the differences between Google’s matching options on Google.com and Google AdWords.

My search settings are as follows:

• Country: USA
• Language: English
• Google.com exact matching
• Google AdWords exact matching

I get my keyword data from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Google.com. I shall use the Global Monthly Search Volume divided by 30 for my Google Search Count and the number of results I see in the top right hand corner of Google.com’s search pages for my Google Search Results. The original formula uses daily search counts from Wordtracker so it is best that I use a daily search count from Google to get the formula right.

So here’s what I’ve got…

KEI = (201000/30)² / 44400000 x 1000
KEI = 1011.04

1000 is a really good KEI index. In fact, it is too good to be true. It should not be that easy to rank for the term “internet marketing”. The problem with this formula is the x1000 part at the end. If you remove that, the formula seems to make more sense. Google is a monster compared to Altavista and I believe there is no reason to multiply the results by 1000.

What if we don’t multiply it by 1000? Here’s what the KEI index will be:

KEI = (201000/30)² / 44400000
KEI = 1.01

I prefer the tweaked formula because the number returned makes more sense to me.

Updated Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) Formula for Google

If you are planning on using the KEI for your web site’s SEO research, here’s my updated KEI formula for your quick reference.

KEI = Google Search Count² / Google Search Results

There could be a better way of calculating the KEI. Some people use the “allintitle” search parameter to get different results. If you know a better tweak for Google keyword data, please let me know.

The problem with a lot of keyword software is they grab data from Google.com “illegally”, which means they do not use the legitimate way of getting data from Google through APIs. You may get a lot of Google stats from the Google AdWords API but it isn’t free.

What happens when you program a software to simulate searches? You’re getting results from your country and you will eventually hit a “Google block” on your IP address for making too many searches. Google isn’t stupid. They know it is virtually impossible for a human being to search a few thousand times in a short period of time.

I thought the software could simulate USA searches if I selected USA as the source but it does not work. The main problem for me while I was trying out the Keyword Research Pro was the number of ads and results returned in the software. I searched from a Thailand-based internet connection and the number of Google AdWords ads was close to zero for most keywords. The only way I could get around this was to use a good USA proxy server to simulate a search from a USA-based internet connection. This may not me an issue for Americans but it is for everyone else who isn’t living in the USA.

The Keyword Research Pro resembles Niche Inspector in many ways. It is simple and elegant without any fancy terms that isn’t already known in the SEO industry. I like the KEI, R/S, searches, results, number of Google ads and average CPC costs. You may even get stats from Yahoo and MSN.

Keyword Research Pro should not have copied Niche Inspector’s terrible customer support. Niche Inspector has been abandoned. The web site is up but users of the software cannot use the software because of the licensing problem. The author seems to have disappeared from the planet and isn’t answering any support emails.

Sebastian Kohl, the author of the software, ignored most of my emails but one. I sent him about 5 emails and only received 1 reply to him and nothing about the bugs that I discovered. The weirdest thing was the email address on his web site seems to be useless since he does not seem to reply to that email. Instead, try replying to the free trial email he sent you.

Since I had a bad experience with Niche Inspector, I am not willing to take a risk with the Keyword Research Pro because the author does not seem interested in keeping the software up to date. If the issues I raised were fixed, I would rate this software above anything I have reviewed so far.

Here’s why…

Market Samurai has a lot of formulas and new jargons that you have to get used to. Almost everyone who is remotely familiar with SEO would know what search counts and search results mean. The search counts are daily numbers and not the usual monthly figures. Market Samurai calls search results “Search Engine Competition” or SEOC. There is this “Phrase to Broad Match Ration” or PBR, which is the ration of the number of phrase matches of your keyword to the broad matches of your keyword. I am not sure how they decided that was a good indicator.

I find these new jargons extremely confusing and I have no idea how they decided that the value of a niche can be calculated by the estimated Google AdWords CPC and Google AdWords daily traffic. You cannot believe all the stats you get from this software.

One of the things that bug me the most is I cannot see how many advertisers are bidding on a certain keyword on Google AdWords. Market Samurai does not call this field the number of advertisers. Instead, it has a fancy name of “AdWords Competition”. Here’s the big problem – The number of advertisers is given in percentage and not a hard number! How many advertisers are bidding on a keyword if you see 50% in this field?

Market Samurai does not seem to be using any Google API. If you’re using an API, you should not see the captcha pop up. What that means is the software is simulating manual Google searches through their software. There is a recommended limit of 150 keywords per search. Other keyword research software I have used allow me to set the number of seconds between a search query to prevent getting a lot of captcha requests but not Market Samurai. If you search too many keywords in a short period of time, you may run the risk of getting a “Google Block”, which would result in a temporary ban on your IP  from searching on Google.com.

There are a lot unfinished modules within Market Samurai. I believe they will raise the price to above $147 when more modules are released. Overall, I do not think the Market Samurai is worth the price with all these fancy jargons, crippling flaws and flashy marketing.

You need a Google AdWords account to retrieve Google.com’s statistics. You would assume that the information you get from the software would be similar to what you would get if you check it out at Google AdWords, right? Unfortunately, there is a bug with Keywords Analyzer 7.68, which is the latest version at the time of this post. This software has been around for quite a few years and it is disappointing that it still has bugs like this.

For this example, I did a search on the keyword “acuvue”, in quotes for Google’s phrase matching. Keywords Analyzer gave me 550000 searches and 791000 search results. This made the KEI extremely high. There is something seriously wrong here.

I did a check for the keyword at the Google AdWords keyword tool. What I found was the monthly search count for the phrase match of “acuvue” was only 301000. Keywords Analyzer‘s stats must be wrong. I sent a support ticket to the author of the software he said, “At this point KA does not keep track where the data was downloaded so it doesn”t know whether it needs to multiply by 30 or not”.

Wow! You don’t know where the data was downloaded from? I thought I selected Google and entered my Google AdWords account information.

Another problem with this software is it does not display the CPC prices of the keywords in the main window. You need to click on another button to get the CPC prices of the keywords. You cannot compare and sort the keywords by CPC and that is frustrating for me.

Keywords Analyzer seems like a great software if you do some PPC arbitrage. You may scan for the CPC prices from some PPC search engines to find potential keywords to bid on. Other than Google.com, you may use a few other keyword sources for your searches.

Conclusion

Save your money. There should be better keyword research software.

The thing about Micro Niche Finder that bugs me the most is it cannot display the search counts for imported keywords from a text file. You only get search counts if you enter a search term in the search field. Other than that, sometimes, the Brainstorm and Hot Trends features do give you the search counts. I keep getting “Dig This” for my search counts. If you click on it, you will see a list of related keywords that may or may not display the search count for that keyword. This is extremely frustrating. What’s worse? Sometimes you see weird ***** in the search count column. Overall, the search count is quite pathetic and there is no reason why it cannot be improved.

Another thing that bugs me about this software is that it does not allow me to select broad, phrase or exact matching options for the keywords. You are forced to use the exact matching options by default and I do not see any option to change that.

Micro Niche Finder was designed to prevent getting blocked by Google.com. It goes slow so that you do not need to keep entering the Google captcha. That is great but it takes more time to check all fields and search them by columns and not by rows. You check the keywords you want and search for the OCI, exact count, ad cost etc. This takes a long long time to complete. You cannot just let it run and have all the stats you want with 1 click. Once 1 column has completed its search, you have to repeat that process on another column.

There is a background downloading service that claims to automate all of this but it does not seem to work correctly on mine. It takes forever to complete and I think it hangs there and does nothing most of the time.

I can verify that the search counts, OCI and CPC are correct. I verified the stats at Google and Live Search as you can see from the screen shots above. I used the keyword “acuvue” for this example. Microsoft says there is a 86% probability that someone searching for this keyword will have the intention to buy something. These stats are correct in Micro Niche Finder. However, I have no idea where the exact phrase matches come from as this data does not seem to come from Google AdWords.

I emailed the author to ask him why he could not give us the search counts. He replied and told me it was to prevent getting “Google blocks”, which could result in a temporary ban on your IP address from accessing Google’s search engine. I do not see why he could not do the same for the search counts like what he did for the OCI, exact matches and the other fields.

Conclusion

The next version that will allow mass search counts will be 3-4 months away! I have no idea why people can say this software is great when I have found so many problems with it. I am not trying to be negative but I cannot find a lot of positives with this keyword software.