So how does this equation work?
Well, first of all, for this equation there are two numbers that we need to calculate, the number of people who are directly competing for it and the number of monthly searches. From these two numbers, we can begin to build our keyword opportunity index (KOI) equation and determine which keywords are likely to be successful.
competing directly
We can solve this by going to Google and typing in allinanchor: keyword example. This will tell us in the top right hand corner how many people have links anchoring the phrase we are optimizing for.
Monthly Searches
This is the number of people searching for the keyword per month; you can find out by using the Google AdWords keyword tool. This will give you the number of times the phrase is searched on average per month.
the koi equation
Number of monthly searches x Number of monthly searches / Number of direct competition = KOI
So, for example, if the monthly search number were 201,000 and the direct competitor number were 40,500,000, we would square the monthly search number (201,000 x 201,000), giving us 40,401,000,000 , then we need to divide this by the amount of direct competition so 40,401,000,000 / 40,500,000 which gives us our KOI which is 997.555556.
The idea behind this is that the higher the KOI, the better the keyword.
Why use KOI?
KOI offers a measurable scale, which takes into account the popularity of the keywords and the competition that surrounds them. Considering these figures, you can choose keywords, which are very popular but have little competition. It offers you the opportunity that a successful keyword has.
