What do Wordtracker's Keywords tool numbers mean?

Below you'll read some explanations about the numbers Wordtracker's Keywords Tool presents. The important thing to remember about these numbers is that they'll serve you best when viewed as relative values – this will give you a much better overview of the picture, particularly when searching inside a niche.

As we currently have two versions of the tool available, we'll look first at the new tool's metrics, and then underneath you'll see the information for the old tool.

Another thing to consider is that if you're working with different datasets (the Wordtracker data and the Google AdWords API data) you'll often get very different KEI results. The reason for this is that the Google search counts tend to be much higher than Wordtracker's. Google is (probably) using a larger search sample to produce its numbers, and it's commonly believed that some sort of extrapolation is applied to the search volume to produce the figures that you see.

There's a useful article by Mark Nunney about using both sets of figures at: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/wordtracker-google-seo-win

On to the metrics themselves:

Search Count (new tool):

For the Wordtracker data, the Search count is the number of times each keyword appears in our database of searches over the past 365 days. This constitutes just under 1% of all US search, and the data is gathered from metacrawler.com and dogpile.com.

The database is updated every day, and new data is between 15 and 30 hours old when it hits the live servers. If you’re searching using the Google data, the information presented is from the Google AdWords API. It’s Exact Match data by default, and the search volumes are from the last available month (in real terms this normally means the last calendar month).

There’s currently no indication from Google about their sample size for this data, or what kind of extrapolation may be applied to the data before it’s presented. There is a limit of 1,000 searches per month on the Google data – this is to ensure we can give an even service to all of our users.

Search Count (old tool):

For the Wordtracker data, the Search count is the number of times each keyword appears in our database of searches over the past 365 days. This constitutes just under 1% of all US search, and the data is gathered from metacrawler.com and dogpile.com.

The database is updated every day, and new data is between 15 and 30 hours old when it hits the live servers. If you’re searching using the Google data, the information presented is from the Google AdWords API. It’s Broad Match data, and the search volumes are from the last available month (in real terms this normally means the last calendar month).

There’s currently no indication from Google about their sample size for this data, or what kind of extrapolation may be applied to the data before it’s presented. There is a limit of 150 searches per day on the Google data – this is to ensure we can give an even service to all of our users.

Competition (new tool)

The competition number gives us an idea of how many web pages already exist that have been optimized for each keyword. A high number is bad, as it means lots of websites will be competing with you.

The competition figures are on a scale from 0-100. A figure of 100 means there is a lot of competition, so it will be difficult to rank on the first page of Google’s results for that keyword.

If you’re new to keyword research, just remember: high competition figures are bad.

Live Competition (new tool)

It’s also possible to collect ‘Live Competition’ data for up to 30 keywords at a time. This gives you a second opinion, using a lot more data, on the competition you’ll face.

While the figures may look simpler, the aim of the changes isn't to ‘dumb down’. In fact, the results are now ‘cleverer’ than before as they're compiled live from a number of numerical data points from sources including Alexa, MajesticSEO and the pages that already rank for the keywords you're examining.

We wanted to create a competition metric that would be able to assess the results from a given query and get quantitative data about them. Using this we would be able to understand how strong these sites were and therefore how difficult it would be to beat them.

As a live metric, the numbers you see will change over time, which will reflect changes in Google’s search results. The figures are unlikely to change dramatically and should do so gradually over time.

Competition (In Anchor and Title) (old tool)

Competition, or 'In Anchor And Title' as it says, measures competition. It tells you the number of web pages that are directly optimized and competing for a particular keyword. 'Competition' is a count of the number of pages for which the keyword appears in both the title tag of a page and the anchor text of an external link to that page.

These are two of the most important metrics that search engines use to help determine which sites should come top of their results pages. The higher the number here, the more pages there are that have been directly optimized for SEO, and therefore the more competition there is.

KEI - Keyword Effectiveness Index (new tool)

KEI is one of the quickest ways to find keywords with good potential - that is, those keywords which are likely to help your site attract more traffic.

It's a banded metric, so you'll never see a KEI of more than 100. That doesn't mean that we can go back to the old method of thinking that a KEI of X or Y is good, or that a KEI of Z is bad - it's still important to look at the numbers as relative values inside a niche - what might be a good KEI for one niche may prove not to be so useful inside another niche - so do look at the relationships between the figures in this column rather than just relying on pure numbers.

So how do we use KEI? Simple! There are two ways that we can find helpful figures - we're looking for a high KEI as these are the keywords that show potential. The first thing to do is to sort the column by KEI just by clicking the column header. We can see the highest ones at the top of the list instantly, so look for the keywords that are relevant to your business.

The second way you can narrow down your list according to KEI (if you're familiar with the market you're targeting and have a rough idea around search behaviour in that niche) is to use the filters on the right to exclude keywords with a KEI below a certain figure - you'll probably get more of a feel of what to exclude the more you work with a niche.

KEI - Keyword Effectiveness Index (old tool)

The Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) compares the number of times a keyword has been searched for with competition (the number of pages that contain the exact keyword phrase within at least one of its incoming links, known as 'All in Anchor'). So:

  1. The KEI figure will go up when the keyword's popularity increases. 

  2. The KEI figure will go down when there is more competition for a keyword.

Here's the formula: KEI = (Searches ^ 2) / In Anchor

When KEI was first developed, it was easy to say that a KEI figure of over X or Y made the keyword a good one but because the SEO industry has grown, and because there is an enormous amount of content now published on the internet, all jostling for space in the SERPS (search engine ranking pages), it's better to view KEI as a relative figure, particularly when looking inside a niche.

In some niches a KEI of 10 might be the highest number you see. In others (particularly when working with Google data with higher search counts), you might see a KEI figure in the millions. Remember, it's all relative.

KEI3 (old tool only)

Both KEI metrics can help you spot niches with high popularity and low competition. The KEI and the KEI3 columns each use a different formula. KEI3 combines a keyword's popularity (the number of searches) with its level of competition (In Anchor and Title) to help you find the keywords with the most potential.

It's helpful to sort in turn by both KEI and KEI3. Consider both KEIs' suggested keywords and choose those that are most suitable for your website. The formula for KEI3 is: KEI3 = Searches / In Anchor And Title

Do approach KEI3 with a healthy dose of common sense. This metric can show up keywords that look like they're fantastic, but it's important to look at the whole picture - KEI3 can show up keywords with fairly low search volume, so it's worth a second look if you see great looking keywords when you sort by this metric to establish how much work it might be worth putting into those keywords.

There's more information about the Competition (In Anchor And Title) metric and the respective KEI figures in Mike Mindel's article http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/finding-profitable-keywords-just-got-easier

Google Count (old tool only)

Google Count is the number of results Google states it contains for a given keyword in one of their US datacenters. You can get the Google Count for up to 25,000 keywords per day. Google has many datacenters and not all of them are synchronized. Searches from one location or IP address may be directed to different datacenters and, as a result, the number of pages Google reports can vary from search to search, in some cases significantly. So, while the information provided is often useful, Wordtracker cannot guarantee that it will necessarily match the figures obtained from a web search.

Drop us a line at support@wordtracker.com if you have any other questions about the numbers or either of the keywords tools.