A Keyword Research Tool For Search Engine Optimisation

The Keyword Efficiency Index

by Sohal Khatwani

Sohal Khatwani has recently qualified as a Bruce Clay certified Search Engine Optimisation Expert. This certification is a leading SEO qualification worldwide and Sohal is one of only four certified search engine optimization consultants in Australia. In this the first of a series of articles and blogs on Search engine optimization and how it can deliver returns to your business, Sohal talks about the importance of keyword research in any SEO campaign and introduces a simple yet effective search engine optimization keyword research tool and methods for choosing the right keywords.

The Importance of Keyword Research

If you're reading this I'll assume you want to optimise your website because you've seen the statistics that prove  getting visibility on Google and other search engines pays (Read more here).  Whether you are working on a large corporate website or a small business website, keyword research is a critical success factor in any search engine optimisation campaign. Not to put too fine a point on it, if you don’t use the right methods and choose the right keywords for your website your campaign will not succeed. On the positive side however, if you do choose the right keywords you can generate massive increases in web visitors and as a result revenue in your business.

As a result, the first step in any successful search engine optimization project is to conduct a thorough keyword research to generate a list of keyword ideas and keyword phrases that relate to your business. There are many tools out there to help you with your keyword research such as Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool, Overture’s Suggestion Tool, Wordtracker and the SEOToolset Keyword Selection Tool.

Using these tools will generate a huge number of keywords that relate to your business. Clients often say to us ‘here is my extended keyword list. I want to optimize my site for all these keywords!”

Is this good practice? The short answer is no, not at all! The cost and time involved simply cannot be justified in ROI terms for the vast majority of businesses.

Pages Rank, Not Websites

More importantly, businesses fail to realize that search engines do not actually rank websites; instead, they rank individual web pages. Therefore, in order to succeed with search engine optimization it is best to choose a few pages you wish to optimize and assign a maximum of 5- 10 relevant keywords that you may have research to each chosen page. For example, if your company sells car and bike accessories online, you are better off assigning unique keywords for the different types of accessories available within your site. Think about it, would you want potential customers to type ‘car accessories’ into Google’s search box and land on your ‘bike accessories’ page? Wouldn’t they just hit the back button assuming that they are on the wrong website? Remember, internet studies have shown that a business has only 6 seconds to capture visitor's attention on the web before they leave and never return! If you have the wrong keywords assigned to your site, your business will lose many potential customers.

Narrow Your Keywords

The best way to start an SEO campaign is to narrow the list down to the 5 or 10 most important keywords for each page you wish to optimize on your site.  So, I hear you ask, how can I easily choose the right keywords for each of my chosen pages?

A simple formula called the Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) developed by Dan Richmond, author of the SEO in Practice series, makes this process of choosing keywords much easier.

To get you started with your search engine optimization campaign Bua Consulting have developed a simple keyword research spreadsheet using this formula. The purpose of the keyword spreadsheet is to assist you in choosing the most beneficial keywords for pages on your website.

Download the spreadsheet below.

Keyword Efficiency Index Spreadsheet (578 KB)

Using the Keyword Efficiency Index to Choose the Right Keywords

Instructions:

Step 1. To start the KEI process open Google’s Adwords keywords tool and type a handful of word or phrases that relate to your business in the "Find Keyword" area. If you have an existing website, enter the address in the website field.  Press "search".  Google will generate a substantial list of keywords.

Step 2. Use the download button to export this list into a separate excel sheet so that you have a record of the keywords that relate to your site.

Step 3. Choose one of the webpages on your site that you wish to optimize (For example the homepage or one of your key product or services pages). Think about the different words people would type in search engines to land on that page. With this in mind, open the list you exported from Adwords and choose the top 15 keywords that relate to your chosen page.

Step 4. Open Bua Consulting's KEI Spreadsheet (download here if you haven't already done so). Type in the top 15 keywords or keywords phrases that you have chosen in the 'keyword or keyword phrase' column (Column B). Remember: It is important to choose keywords that relate specifically to your chosen page and not your entire website.

Step 5. Review your chosen webpage and rate each keyword or keyword phrase you have chosen according to its relevance on a scale of 1 - 3 (1=Excellent; 2 = Good; 3 = Poor). Enter this into the relevance column (Column C).

Step 6. Open your exported keyword list (or go back to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool) and determine how many queries are made for a keyword per month. Enter this figure next to each keyword in the spreadsheet in the search size column (Column D). Refer to Figure 1 in the excel sheet for graphical representation.

Hint: For Businesses Targetting A Local Audience: For a more accurate KEI use the local search volume as opposed to the global search volume.

Step 7. Take a look at the competition for each keyword or keyword phrase. You can find this figure on the top left hand side of a Google search results page once you type in the keyword (Put this figure in Column E). Refer to Figure 2 in the excel sheet for visual instructions.

Hint: If there are fewer competitors and you have done your keyword research correctly, then that is a good indication that optimizing for that keyword will deliver good results.

Step 8. Review Your Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) which is automatically calculated in Column F.

What's a good KEI? KEI numbers will vary hugely from industry to industry. However the higher the KEI the better it is for your business. The key is to choose the keyword(s) or keyword phrases that return the highest KEI number in your analysis. As a general rule a positive KEI usually indicates that if you optimise for that keyword it will provide a significant number of relevant visits to your website and as a result increased revenues.

Step 9. Choose the 5 keywords with the highest KEI. You now have a list of 5 quality keyword(s) or keyword phrases for your site that are likely to bring in more visitors with a higher likelihood of conversion to customers.

Step 10. Repeat the exercise for your top 5 webpages. Once completed you will have conducted some excellent keyword research for your site and can progress to the next stage of optimisation, analyzing and researching your competition.

Sohal's next article will provide some insights into how you can analyze your competition and develop a strategy to rank higher than them in search engines for your chosen keywords.

If you would like to know more about search engine optimization and how it can benefit your business contact Bua Consulting at 03 9016 0510 or visit our search engine optimization page at www.buaconsulting.com/seo.