I had an email this week from someone who asked me why I chose to use supply and demand, rather than KEI when deciding the best keywords to optimize for. I thought some may be interested in my reply. I am sure it will spark some debate, so I have my flame-proof jacket on :O)
Here it is:
Yes, KEI is a formula built from supply and demand - the exact same parameters I prefer to use individually.
Let me ask you a question.
If you had to write an article on one of the two phrases, which one would you pick and why:
Phrase 1 - eviews eddie bauer elite car seat
Phrase 2 - eddie bauer cosco high back booster 22-859
Both have a KEI of 25, so both should be equally profitable if you trust the KEI figure.
You see, my problem is that I just dont have enough information to answer that question. I want to see how many times each are searched for, and how much competition each phrase has.
As it happens, phrase 1 is searched for 3 times a day, phrase 2 is searched for 12 times a day. Sure, the competition of phrase 2 must be higher to mean they both have the same KEI, but the competition for phrase 2 is still only 16 compared to the phrase 1, single page competition.
To me, 16 pages to compete against, is not that much different to 1 page to compete against (because of the way SEO has evolved). It is no longer good enough to just include your phrase on a page and guarantee a top listing even if there is only one competing page.
Do the optimization right, and get the off-page optimization right, and there really isn't a significant difference in those two competition figures. I would expect to be #1 for both if I tried, and they would both take a similar effort to achieve.
Now which phrase would I prefer to be #1 for? Well, the second one of course, as it gets 4 times as many searches a day as the other one. Without details of supply and demand, I could not have made that decision.
At the lower competition range, KEI just doesn't do it for me.
What about phrases at the higher competition range?
Well, Wordtracker says that any KEI over 10 is a good one to optimize for, over 100 even better, and over 400 excellent.
So would a phrase with a KEI of 37.5 be one you would be interested in optimizing for? Sounds good, but what if I told you there were over 4 million competing pages?
That phrase is free credit report, and despite an apparently good KEI, I would not touch it, would you? Sure there are good rewards if you can get to #1, but there is a 99% chance you wont, no matter how hard you try.
You see, for me, there are two vital pieces of information missing - count and competition. I need to see both before I can decide if a phrase is worth targeting. I'll look at the niche I am working in, and decide on the maximum amount of competition I think I can handle, and filter out just those phrases. I'll then order my phrases with high demand at the top, and work my way down. To me, that is more logical, and KEI becomes unimportant.
Of course, with KRA, you could decide on a maximum competition figure, a minimum daily demand figure, and then order them by KEI if you preferred and work you way down the list then, but that would only be more beneficial if you felt you could not handle the upper competition levels you chose in the first place. If you assumed you could handle the competition, the KEI is irrelevant (since you don't need to factor in competition), and demand becomes the major factor.
OK, long winded, and you may not agree with me, but I have tried to explain why I dont like KEI. It just doesn't show you the full picture. Its like watching a 3d movie with an eye patch on.
Andy Williams offers a free 8 day Keyword research video tutorial course, plus a weekly Internet Marketing newsletter.
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