What is KEI?

What is KEI?

KEI stand for Keyword Effectiveness Index, invented by Sumantra Roy, which measures how effective a keyword is for your web site.

KEI compare the number of search for a keyword (popularity) with the number of search results (competitiveness) to identify which keywords are the most effective for your campaign. The higher the KEI value the more popular the keywords are and the less emulation they have. So the better chance they can get into the top position.

The formula of KEI is calculated by: ( popularity ^ 2 ) / competitiveness .
i.e. the square of popularity divided by the competitiveness

Consider the following example:

Popularity
Competitiveness
KEI

web ranking
10,110
44,000,000
2.3233

web ranking solution
9,800
10,600,000
9.0604



As you can see from the above example, keyword "web ranking" is trying get to the top position amongst 44,000,000 web site. While "web ranking solution" only competing with 10,600,000 web site. So "web ranking solution" is getting more chance to be on the top 10 position which is indicated by the higher KEI value.