kei on wordtracker

[megler]

when researching potential keywords, especially main keywords, do you use KEI on Wordtracker as an indicator of if the keyword/niche is oversaturated?

for instance, "Leonardo Dicaprio" has a KEI of 6 - which wordtracker says sucks. Assuming you had an affiliate offering for Leo, would you consider other niches instead based on this KEI?

 

[twifire]

It's a decent indicator for skimming through lots of keyword data, especially if looking for keyword phrases with little to no competition.

But any phrase that you take an interest in with any competing sites, you want to go a step further and type it into the search engines and analyze the top 10 sites listed for that term.

It's these sites in the top 10 your really up against because that's where the real traffic is.

Say there are just 10 sites only, competing for the keyword you want, taking up the top 10 spots, and they are old domains, heavily optimised with loads of quality backlinks, high pr, etc., you are never gonna get there without one heck of a long hard battle regardless of the KEI.

 

[angelo]

can you give more info about KEi. id like to use that aswell. what is kei???

 

[megler]

here's the link directly to wordtracker where it explains KEI. The short of it is that Wordtracker uses a formula called KEI to determine if a keyword is considered competitive or oversaturated. it's based partly on how many sites are using that keyword and how many searches are predicted for that keyword.

Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) Explained

there are varying theories if this is useful or outdated. twifire had a good point of noting if there are only 10 sites competing for a keyword, but they've all been around forever and are all optimized - wordtracker may give that keyword a GREAT kei because there appears to be little competition - but in reality, you'll have a bugger of a time cracking the top ten.

Hope this helps answer your question. Twifire, thanks for the input. I found it very helpful!
http://wordtracker.com/database_help/keihelp.html