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 keyword research tools of the Maverick Keyword Researcher come in 3 general categories. The first bunch of tools are for generating ideas for a niche/topic. The second group of tools are for getting as many alternative keywords of a niche. The last group is for analyzing the real-world statistics of the keywords.

Saved Searches

Every keyword search you make will be automatically saved into text files. I am working on a project module that assigns keywords to a project. The screen shots above do not have that at the moment. I added a lot jquery effects to make the interface more user-friendly. You may check out the list of keywords, download the keyword files and mass delete them with a few clicks of the mouse. The table design was inspired by WordPress.

Non-Google Search Engines

There are a lot of top searches and buzz lists from some non-Google search engines. I won’t reveal these search engines because I don’t want to receive another letter from them. The keywords from this tool generates the most popular keywords that are being searched on the internet through non-Google search engines.

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions

Did you know that you get a different set of keywords if you select a different country from the Google AdWords Tool? That was what I discovered. I created a custom tool to import as many keywords from Google AdWords by selecting multiple countries. You may select up to 233 countries but it would take a long time. Most of the keywords are repeated but you may find a couple of gems in there. Usually, I simply click on the “popular countries” link to get keywords from the most popular countries.

Here’s a preview of the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool:

You need to be gentle with this tool because Google does not like it when you use their free tools too frequently. I created a random search timer that spaces out the import queries every 15 to 30 seconds.

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.

Some of the information includes:

• improving title and description meta tags
• URL structure
• site navigation
• content creation
• anchor text

This PDF guide confirms some of the SEO principles we already know and helps us to optimize for Google without the fear of running foul of their rules.

My previous post was inspired by Google webmaster blog’s post on meta descriptions. Today, I no longer use the Another WordPress Meta plugin because the All in One SEO Pack plugin is so much better.

Examples of Terrible Meta Descriptions

I forgot to add the meta descriptions when I posted the content above. This is how ugly it looks in Google.com at the moment. I hope Google will clear their cache and retrieve my latest meta descriptions for these pages soon.

Examples of Good Meta Descriptions

I remembered to enter the meta description for the posts above and see how different they look in the search engines. A tiny bit of effort really makes a lot of difference in the search engines. A good meta description encourages searchers to click through to your web site if your description is enticing enough.

Finally! Google has decided to reveal the monthly and yearly searches for every keyword phrase searched on Google.com. I hope there is an API for this so that all the keyword software makers can integrate this into their software as soon as possible.

According to Google AdWords Help Center:

The Approx Search Volume [Previous Month] column shows search volume statistics for the last calendar month. The Approx Avg Search Volume column shows average monthly search volume over a recent 12-month period.

Since Yahoo’s Overture keyword tool is officially dead, this tool is the next best thing at the moment. Google should have done this earlier.