12 Important Keyword Research Metrics that Define Best Keyword

Search engine optimization is a very fast growing and ever changing sector. Every day there is a new method or new regulation is released by Google or other search engines. And we all try to ace those methods. For example, nowadays, everyone in SEO world is talking about the quality of a content or social signals. By doing so we are forgetting the importance of keyword research and Important Keyword Research Metrics.

Without keyword, there is no existing of SEO. And keyword research helps us to select the best keyword for our content or website. There are a lot of keyword research metrics out there. But not all of them are important. In this article, I will discuss 12 important keyword research metrics that define best keyword.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword Research is a method of selecting or identifying popular words and phrases that people will use at Google or other search engines to find a topic, product or content. This process helps the marketers to come up with a broad list of keywords that they want to rank in search engine result page.

Keyword research or analysis gives the marketer a chance to understand the keywords they are working for, the demand of the keyword as well as the competition of the keyword in organic search results. With all the information gathered from keyword research, a marketer can create a targeted content to drive the right traffic to his site.

Importance of Keyword Research

A successful keyword research campaign is very hard to do. And sometimes people find it very difficult mastering keyword research. So there is a tendency among the SEO executives or SEO learners to neglect it.

But there is no denying the fact that keyword research is the foundation of SEO. Some of the importances of keyword research are:

• A websites foundation is constructed with keywords. So it is very important to use right keywords or the site will collapse. Keyword Research helps you to find the right keywords.
• Keyword analysis helps an SEO optimizer to find the most relevant keywords. And it is very important to create Backlinks for the relevant keywords.
• Low competition keywords with a high number of searches are idle for quick SEO ranking. With the help of Important Keyword Research Metrics, we can easily make a list of these kinds of keywords.
• Using Long Tail Keywords instead of single keywords is a latest but very effective method of SEO ranking. These kinds of keywords are more precise and less common. Keyword research is the best way to find long tail keywords.
• Optimizing for words that people don’t use is a waste of time and effort. Moreover, it makes no sense. Keyword research ensures that the words we are using is used by our target audience and by doing so it makes our effort of website optimizing successful.
• Keyword analysis helps a marketer to understand the behaviour of his target audience, identify their interest and finally convert them into customers or brand followers.
• The main goal of SEO is to collect organic traffic from search engine. Because organic traffic is the soul of a website. With the help of proper keyword research, one can effortlessly increase the number of organic traffic for his website.
• Performing keyword research to its fullest extent, considering every important keyword research metrics will improve a website’s user experience. Thus the ranking of the site in the search engine will also improve.

12 Important Keyword Research Metrics  

There are a lot of keyword research metrics to analysis a keyword. But it is very difficult to use every metrics and its standard value to pick a keyword. Here I will discuss 12 Important Keyword Research Metrics that will help you to select the best keyword for your content or website. Moreover, you can make a keyword research report for your client or organization using these Important Keyword Research Metrics. They are:

1. Monthly Search Volume
2. Domain Authority (DA)
3. Page Authority (PA)
4. Cost Per Click (CPC)
5. Exact Match Domain (EMD)
6. Keyword in URLs
7. Backlinks
8. Allintitle
9. Competition
10. Keyword Efficiency Index
11. Keyword Difficulty Score
12. Relevancy

Monthly Search Volume

This is one of the most important keyword research metrics and it is universally used for keyword research. Monthly search volume refers to the number of searches for a particular keyword. This data allows SEO expert and marketers to understand the demand of the keyword and how many numbers of traffic it can bring to a website.

Search engine is one of the key sources of organic traffic.  So it’s very decisive to have keywords in content that actually have real search volume. But using keywords that have extremely high search volume is a bad SEO practice. Because this will make you compete with bigger sites and it will be difficult to get high rank in SERPs.

There are a lot of keyword research tools available, which will help you to find the monthly search volume of a keyword. Some popular keyword research tools are Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, SEM Rush, Moz Keyword Explorer etc.

Domain Authority (DA)

Domain Authority is one of the main metrics that play a vital role on how well a website will rank in search engines. It is a score that is developed by Moz. Domain authority is calculated on a scale of 0-100. You can use MozBar to measure the DA of a website.

There are more than 40 metrics that influence the domain authority score of a website. Some important metrics are:

• MozRank
• MozTrust
• Spam Score
• Domain Age
• Quality of the Content
• Number of Links Pointing to the Site
• Number of Root Domains Linking to the Site

Page Authority (PA)

Page Authority is also developed by Moz. It determines the value of a page and how well a page will rank on search engine result pages (SERP). Page authority is calculated on a scale of 0-100. Same as domain authority you can use MozBar to measure the Page Authority.

There are more than 12 metrics that influence the page authority score of a website. Some important metrics are:

• Domain Authority
• MozRank
• MozTrust
• Quality of the Content

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click is also known as pay per click is a paid internet advertising method where the advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked. If you are doing keyword research for a website, which has paid search campaigns than CPC is a very Important Keyword Research Metrics. Because the CPC value of a keyword will determine, how much AdWords will cost you for your campaign.

“Keyword Planner” from Google AdWords is a very popular keyword research tool to make pay-per-click keyword list.

Exact Match Domain (EMD)

Exact Match Domain is a domain that contains the same keyword or keyword phrase visitor searches in a search engine. For that reason, it is also called as keyword domain. After the Google’s EMD update the influence of such keywords on ranking has decreased.

You can easily find the EMD value of a keyword. Just put the keyword in Google search box and find out if there is any domain that has the keyword.

Keyword in URLs

Keyword in URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) means there is a keyword or keyword phrase in the structure of URLs. Using a keyword in URLs is an important ranking factor for SEO. Because having a keyword in a URL can improve a site’s search visibility.

The method for finding the value of this Important Keyword Research Metrics is same as EMD. You just have to put the keyword in Google search box and when the result appears, find out if there is any keyword or keyword phrase in the URLs.

Backlinks

Backlinks are incoming hyperlinks that are directed towards a website from other websites. It is also known as Inbound Link. In modern SEO, Backlinks have become so important that it is impossible to get higher ranking in SERPs without high-quality Backlinks.

MozBar is a very user-friendly tool to find the Backlinks of a website. Put the keyword in Google search box and when the search result appears you will see the websites with their backlinks number.

Allintitle

It is a Google search operator. When people use the “Allintitle” operator, they get a restricted/specific search result for their keyword. The result only shows those pages that have a keyword in their page title tag. This result will help you understand that how many numbers of pages are also optimized for that keyword.

This is a very Important Keyword Research Metrics because it will help you to understand the competition level of a keyword. A general rule to determine the competition level of a keyword is given below:

• Under 1,000 – Non-competitive
• 1,000 – 4,000 – Mildly competitive
• 4,000 – 6,000 – Competitive
• 6,000+ – Highly Competitive

The process of allintitle is very simple. In Google search box you just have to type “allintitle: your key words” and run the search. When the result comes you will see a number under the search box. That is the volume for “Allintitle” metrics.

Competition

This metric will help you to measure how difficult it will be to rank a particular keyword. It is a very complex keyword research metrics because there are many factors to take into consideration.

Google’s Keyword Planner is a very popular tool that will help you to find out the competition level of a keyword. It shows 3 categories for a keyword competition level. They are:

• High – Competitiveness Number > 0.67
• Medium – Competitiveness Number between 0.33 and 0.66
• Low – Competitiveness Number < 0.33

Keyword Efficiency Index

Keyword Efficiency Index also is known as KEI is a very Important Keyword Research Metrics in the field of SEO. It is a mathematical comparison between the numbers of search volume for a keyword and the number of pages in the index of a search engine (also known as competition).

The main goal of KEI is to find the best keywords that have the greatest positive impact on a website’s ranking in SERPs. The formula that is used to measure the KEI value is: 

Keywords with a high KEI are best for SEO. If the KEI of a keyword is between 10 – 100 then it is considered as a good keyword. Keywords that have KEI of 100 or higher are considered as excellent keywords.

 

Keyword Difficulty Score

Keyword Difficulty Score is an Important Keyword Research Metrics that is used by SEOMoz Research Tool. Same as “Competition” metrics this metrics will help you to realize how difficult it will be to rank a particular keyword than existing competitors on the first page of a search engine. A score from 0 – 100 estimates the difficulty score of a keyword.

• 0 – 20 = No Difficulty
• 21 – 35 = Low Difficulty
• 36 – 50 = Medium Difficulty
• 51 – 65 = Quite High Difficulty
• 66 – 80 = High Difficulty
• 81 – 100 = Very High Difficulty

Relevancy

The term Relevancy refers to a relationship between keyword/keywords and a content of a web page. It defines how closely a keyword is related to content or service that you are offering to your customer. The Relevancy value of a website’s content is very important. Because it affects a website’s ranking in the SERPs for a keyword or keyword phrase.

Most SEO Experts use 3-grade scales to measure the relevancy of a keyword. They are:

• 1 for Excellent
• 2 for Good
• 3 for Poor

The process of finding out the Relevancy of a keyword is very easy. You have to make a separate column for Relevancy in your spreadsheet, where you are doing your keyword research. Then, analysis the keyword and put 1, 2 or 3 next to each keyword or keyword phrase.

The closure

Keyword research is a time-consuming but most important part of SEO. There are a lot of elements that play a vital role in keyword research. But these 12 Important Keyword Research Metrics will help you to make a list of best keywords. With those keywords, you can create a strategically plan for your website and also optimize its structure for the search engine.

Should Read: 5 Important SEO Keyword Terms that Affects SERPs Ranking