Why I prefer supply and demand to keyword KEI - page 2

by Dr. Andy Williams, 2/17/2007

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 Keywords Results Analyzer, 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 don't like KEI. It just doesn't show you the full picture. Its like watching a 3d movie with an eye patch on.

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Andy Williams offers a free 8 day Keyword research video tutorial course , plus a weekly Internet Marketing newsletter.

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