Wordtracker Giving Keyword Research a Facelift

Who out there researches keywords? If you ran away from the computer when I asked that question my sympathies are with you.


When Sumantra Roy first introduced the Keyword Efficiency Index and showed us how we could really determine which words to optimize our sites for in an effort to gain targeted traffic, he opened the door for massive crowds of people to work their way up the search engine ladder; I know because I was one of them (and so were my clients).



KEI compares the Count result (number of times a keyword is searched on) with the number of competing web pages and then assigns it a number (1-400) which pinpoints exactly which keywords are most effective for a campaign.

Companies like Wordtracker and WebPostion jumped on the bandwagon and saught to grab up the marketplace by offering tools to help with your search engine ladder climb.


But when the Internet took off (millions of websites rather than thousands), I saw a drop off in organic search engine optimzation. It seemed like competition had became so fierce that even if you would find the words you wanted to use, chances were that the KEI for that word was so low (less than 100) that you'd be trying forever to get your site noticed. It just became too tough to try and sit for hours sifting through keywords to help people searching Yahoo and Google find your site.


So the trend went from Organic SEO to Google's Pay-Per-Click program (Adwords) and was then followed up by the now popular Web 2.0. Latelly it seems all we talk about is the Web 2.0 craze. If you're familiar with it then you know how powerful it is to spread the wealth around - how working multiple networking sites can really help you bring in targeted traffic. If you're not familiar with it, check out this video by Mike Klinger, it tells you everything you need to know in less time than it takes to each lunch.


Last month I wrote to my ezine readers that they should consider returning a portion of their focus to Search Engine Optimization - that keyword research is still valid and we should do it. You might be thinking I'm crazy after just having told you how tough it is to actually do the research but trust me...the winds of change are blowing.


Wordtracker recently announced that they have redone their search tool. Although only select few of their customer base currently have access to the tool, we can expect to see it available to us within the next few weeks.Whereas the old tool focused specifically on KEI, the new tool will allow you to look at keywords through three important metrics:


1. frequency
2. competitiveness
3. commerciality

But the work isn't done yet! On their blog they've announced that with the new tool we will see as many as 9 times the keywords formerly available to us, a better measure of competition and commercial intent.

They are also asking us question such as:

• What metrics do you really need?
• Do you need prediction of the daily traffic a keyword may attract or do you just want to know the frequencies in our own database?
• How useful and accurate is the keyword effectiveness index (KEI)?
• What alternative ways to rank keywords would you like to see?
• How can we best report the competitiveness of a keyword?
• How do you uncover commercial intent?

What makes Wordtracker a standout product in my opinion is they are all about US, the person doing the research and they endeavor to make our lives easier. If you are a keyword research junky, I urge you to participate in the discussion they are hosting through their blog.

They key to gainig targeted traffic is to combine Web 2.0 with returned power of keyword research for a campaign that lets you take advantage of all the good things the Internet has to offer.

For more information on the Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) see this post: http://www.wordtracker.com/database_help/keihelp.html