How to Understand SEO Keyword Reports: Key Insights for Effective Campaigns

For over 10 years, we’ve been providing SEO services to our clients, and we’ve found that one of the key success factors in an SEO campaign is selecting the right keywords. This article provides an overview of how you can easily understand the SEO keyword reports provided by our SEO research team.

Key Characteristics of the Right Keywords

For us, the right keywords have the following characteristics:

1. Contain Specific Intent
   For example, if you run a Muslim fashion store, optimizing for keywords like “online Muslim clothing store” or “latest hijab collection” is more meaningful than simply optimizing for “Muslim clothing.” There are two advantages to optimizing for more specific, intent-based keywords:
   • Transactional intent: This means the searcher already knows what they want and is ready to make a transaction.
   • Less competition: Generally, SEO competition for longer, more specific keywords is lower, which means the SEO process is quicker.
2. There are searches
   This means the work you’re doing in SEO is targeting something people are actively searching for.
3. Low competition
   The less competition there is, the faster your site will rank in the TOP 10 on Google.

The challenge for SEO teams is to find the ideal keywords that meet these three elements. To help with this, we have developed a keyword research report system to make analysis easier.

Click here to download a sample report (PDF)

Key Metrics to Understand in SEO Keyword Reports

Here are some key metrics to understand in an SEO keyword report:

1. SEO Keywords Difficulty

This metric measures the difficulty of ranking for a keyword based on the SEO metrics of the top 10 ranking sites. These metrics include domain age, total backlinks (links pointing to the site), and social media signals (from Facebook and Twitter). A score from 1 to 100 is given. Here’s how to read the keyword difficulty score:

• 1-20: Easy competition, TOP 10 ranking achievable in under 6 months
• 21-40: Medium competition, TOP 10 ranking achievable in 6-10 months
• 41-60: Difficult competition, TOP 10 ranking achievable in 10-12 months
• 61-100: Very difficult competition, TOP 10 ranking achievable in more than 12 months

Note: These numbers are only estimates and not guarantees. In some cases, we may achieve optimization faster or it may take longer.

2. Number of Searches (SEO # of Searches)

This is the estimated number of searches for a keyword on Google. While not 100% accurate, this is the only data officially provided by Google through the Google Keyword Planner module.

Note: This is the number of searches performed, not the number of individual searchers. In many cases, one person may perform multiple searches, and this could also include searches you perform when checking keywords.

3. Adwords Competition

This number reflects the level of competition in paid advertising. Logically, if a keyword is frequently used in advertising, it indicates a high commercial value. The competition is rated as: Low, Medium, or High.

4. Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI)

This number is calculated from a formula that compares the commercial value of a keyword with its search volume. It indicates whether a keyword is commercially viable based on its demand for advertising (data from Google Adwords competition). A highly commercial keyword will have more advertisers bidding for it, while a keyword with low search volume may not be as efficient.

The KEI values are interpreted as follows:

• > 1: Good
• 0.5: Medium
• 0: Poor

Read Also: Measuring the Success of Your Google Ads Campaign: Key Metrics You Should Know

How to Prioritize Keywords in SEO Reports

We recommend contacting our Account Executive Team for a further discussion on this matter, as beyond the technical factors in the report, there are strategic considerations that need to be addressed, such as the priority of your campaign (sales or awareness), ongoing marketing programs, and other elements. Once we have a full understanding of your business plan, our SEO team will recommend the appropriate priorities.

Fact: There are times when we target keywords with low KEI based on brand awareness considerations, as they have been proven to generate high conversion rates.

Confused about the right SEO strategy for your business? Contact us and let’s discuss. We’re excited to be part of our clients’ success!

admindoxa