Greetings All,
I am a long time user of Wordtracker and thought that I knew how to use it quite effectively. I have always used Google (within Wordtracker) exclusively, as my barometer. When I have done competition analysis I have NOT used quotation marks, on the premise that this would provide a more realistic (if pessimistic) view. Now, I'm finding that the standard measure for competing pages (# of search results) is not a very effective one. I am also hearing that using quotation marks is better, since it does address the exact phrase, though this still seems to provide a less than ideal measure of the competitiveness of a key term.

Anchor text analysis is prominently recommended as a valid means of measuring key term competitiveness. Is it realistic to use anchor text analysis to filter long lists (thousands) of key terms?

The true question, in my long-winded way, is what is the best (time-efficient) tool or combination of tools for finding the optimal key terms, meaning that they have competition that isn't mountainously high and enough searches to make a difference?

Thanks!

Mel

Well if you want the super-simple answer, you already have such a tool within Wordtracker. Whenever you're doing your keyword research, there's a value associated with each keyword called the KEI. KEI stands for Keyword Effectiveness Index, and is a fancy way of telling you how good a keyword is in terms of competition. Essentially it compares the search count for that keyword with the number of available competitors and tells you whether that particular keyword is highly competitive and how easily you can move up the rankings for that term. Put simply, the higher the KEI for a keyword, the more popular the term is, and the lower its competition is, making it a valid choice for a target keyword. Assuming it's relevant to your site, of course. ;)

It also helps to look and see *who* is competing for terms and get a feel for those sites.

There was a time there were only around 250K pages returned - without quotes - for some of the highest $ value pharm phrases, but numbers would have meant nothing because they were still killer competitive.

Hi MM, (Cool name :-)
Thanks for your reply. I am well versed in KEI. I have modified the standard KEI formula by using the 24 hour predict figure for Google, instead of the "Count" figure, on the premise that the Count is apparently a term that is derived from the sum of the queries to all engines, while the 24 hour predict, is specific to Google, whose numbers I want to use as my basis. Since the Google 24 hour predict figures seem to be roughly 75% of the count (at least currently), this also results in a more conservative/pessimistic "KEI.

I would welcome any feedback on my adaptation.

Thanks.

Mel

Hi Marcia,
Thanks for your response. I totally agree with you. My dilemma is that I am a niche seeker, and therefore deal with volume key terms. I wish there were some way to factor the "who factor" into a formula, such as the one Wordtracker provides.

If you or anyone have any thoughts, I would welcome them.

Thanks!

Mel

Well if the KEI isn't enough for you (and I don't blame you, I just wasn't sure how deep you'd gotten into WT), your next step might be to do some more in-depth competitive analysis to take care of the "who factor." There are some free tools like Alexa.com and SEO for Firefox (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html) that you can start with. Or if you wanna get more serious comparison data, you can upgrade directly to one of the big boys like SpyFu (http://www.spyfu.com) or HitWise (http://www.hitwise.com) (but you'll have to fork over some cash).

Either way, doing this kind of research is a little more hands-on and takes you beyond the numbers. Using indeces like KEI and "count" for your competitors is really more of a benchmarking practice in relativity. The fact of the matter is, if there are keywords that you KNOW are relevant to your site and will help drive traffic, you should optimize for them regardless of competition. It may take more time & effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Take a look at the sites that are listing high for your target keywords and try to figure out why the SE's are ranking them so high. It's more work than using a simple reporting tool, but that's what makes our SEO jobs more fun.

there is another major competitor analytics company that could be what you are looking for but are high end and cost a bit
syntryx - their tool for comparing competitors etc is high end and good

Well said and appreciated!

Best,
Mel

Thanks, will check it out.

Mel