KEI compares the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is searched with the number of competing web pages. This helps determine which keywords are most effective.

The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition they have. This means you have a better chance of getting to the top of the search engines.

How is KEI Calculated?

KEI is calculated using two factors.

1. Number of searches made for a particular keyword
2. Number of competitor pages for that keyword

The formula for calculating KEI is = (volume of searches per day)^2/(total number of competitors)

For example, the keyword phrase "real estate", has a daily search volume of 11,039 (as per Wordtracker) and 490,000,000 competing web pages*. Using the KEI formula, the KEI for "real estate" is (11,039)^2/(490,000,000) = 0.25.  Ideally, you want keywords with a KEI greater than 1.00.

A better keyword phrase would be "real estate property listings".  Taking the daily search volume of 3,056 and the number of competing web pages of 305,000, the KEI would be (3,056)^2/(305,000) = 30.62.  Excellent KEI!

* To obtain the number of competing web pages, go to Google.com and search your keyword phrase with quotation marks (i.e., "real estate").