What percentage of traffic (LSV or MSV) do you actually end up with?

[carlos123]

I have more or less settled on 40% in position 1 page ranking based on some stuff I read at the Keyword Academy but I would like to find out from those who have been doing Adsense here what percentage you think is roughly accurate if 40% isn't it.

I mean as a rough estimate of how many of the LSV/MSV searches for a given month will actually end up on a site.

In your Adsense experience. I am not interested in knowing the likely percentage in a theoretical sense but rather actual percentage that Adsense sites see in traffic relative to what the LSV and/or MSV were indicated to be for a given phrase in the Google Adword Keyword Tool.

LSV being local search volume and MSV being global monthly search volume.

So for example if I am looking at a keyword that has an LSV of 4000 based on 40% I could expect to receive 1600 of those searchers in a given month.

Is the 40% realistic? About right?

If a position one site on the first SERP is properly optimized, titled, etc. would it not be likely to receive more of the traffic than 40%?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Carlos

[dburk]

Hi Carlos,

Your calculation seems a bit high to me. There was some data that that accidently slipped out from AOL a few years back and it showed about 2 million clicks on 9 million searches for #1 position. That's about a 22% CTR. Of course your actual CTR will vary wildly depending the keyword, page title and code snippet.

Keep in mind that on average more than 40 percent of all searches do not result in a click on any of the returned results (abandoned searches).

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Carlos,

Your calculation seems a bit high to me. There was some data that that accidently slipped out from AOL a few years back and it showed about 2 million clicks on 9 million searches for #1 position. That's about a 22% CTR. Of course your actual CTR will vary wildly depending the keyword, page title and code snippet.

Keep in mind that on average more than 40 percent of all searches do not result in a click on any of the returned results (abandoned searches).

Hi Don,

Thanks for following me to this thread. I am working on lesson 2 now...got another 149 to go...sigh

So let me get this straight. 40% of the numbers returned by the Google Keyword Tool will result in incomplete searches where the searcher doesn't even click on a single page returned by Google?

And the percentage of those who do go ahead and search that will stop at a page 1 top position site is only around 22%?

Okay...that's it. Time for me to pack up my bags and go find another line of money making endeavour LOL.

That means on an LSV of 3000 per month...let's see...throw out 40% off the top who won't complete their searches...that leaves 1800. Throw out 78% of those and that leaves...396 searches a month on an LSV of 3000!! That's nuts!

I don't mean you Don. I mean that I am now going to have to completely ignore the 3000 LSV category of keyword phrases and go for nothing less than 10,000 a month LSV in order to have any hope of getting anywhere near 3000 searches a month.

I am all confused now...once again. What LSV should I consider to be a sweet spot in view of all this? Why do people like Mark here (internetmarketer99) take on keyword phrases with 2400, 1500 LSV per month. At those number if all this is accurate they cannot possibly make any money yet...they apparently do.

How is that possible? I just don't get it.

Carlos

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by blueice

You seem to have a lot of posts here Carlos. I think you might be getting overloaded with information.

Forget all the analysis, forget the competition, forget the CPC and just find those phrases with under 1000 or 2000 searched and write some pages, web, blogger or hubpages. Get your links where ever you can, most will fail and you`ll see nothing some might make you 2 or 3 dollars a month.

Go back and do it again. At the end of a year you`ll be getting a lot of $2 and some might have matured in to $10 or $20`s.

Yes...it is getting a bit overwhelming blueice. I think I have it one minute and then the next it's like I don't have anything at all.

I appreciate your suggestion blueice but I am operating a little differently than you suggest and will continue to do so. I don't have the time or the luxury of building $2-3 a day sites. My aim is a bare minimum of $5 a day sites. $10 is even better.

Nor do I have the discretionary income to tie up in lots of domain registrations that don't go anywhere any time soon.

I figure getting real good at keyword selection is my ticket to those higher dollar amounts quicker.

Lots of Adsense newbie's just go for it. I don't think that's a good approach myself. I think it's better to get the basics down real good and then go for it. Better in the long run. Less frustrating and more encouraging with respect to seeing some good results.

Only time will tell if my approach is better than the usual just go for it approach that is generally encouraged around here.

Carlos

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by blueice

If you havn`t read it and your not too busy this thread is a good idea of what to expect, especially the time frame and returns.

Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

I hope you manage it, but those higher paying ads are very much harder even for some seasoned Internet marketers. Eggs in basket!

Thanks blueice. Yeah I read pretty much that whole thread. He ended up making about $67 per day instead of the $100 he was aiming for. All I personally need is 4 web sites making $10 a day (or 8 making $5 or 2 making $20 or any such combo) and all my needs every month are taken care of and then some.

That's what I am shooting for.

The most frustrating thing is trying to make heads or tails of how to pick keyword phrases to go for. I don't believe in the just go for it mantra.

I've got a few good phrases I think but they are really hard to come by. It's not as easy as them being all over the place or at least it does not seem that way tonight. Yesterday it seemed like they were. Today not so much.

Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to find good phrases. Sometimes they seem to be laying all over the place.

The problem is that the fenceposts keep changing on me. The fenceposts being the criteria that I use to discern good keyword phrases. One day it seems that traffic of only 3000 is enough. The next that my traffic must be up around 10,000 a month.

One day it seems that 50% of traffic is reasonable to expect...the next that only 22% is.

These parameters keep changing on me and cause me to go all over the place with respect to figuring out what a good keyword phrase is until I am left thinking none of them are. Until the next day when it seems that a lot of them are. Until the next day after that when it seems that only half are. Based on continually changing criteria that I am still learning how to use.

So I am sitting here scratching my head wondering how in the world one is supposed to tell what a good phrase is?

One person says this, another says that, an ebook says this, and a web site blogger says something still more different.

I am sometimes left wondering who to believe. Wondering what to use and how to operate with the tools I can access for free.

It's a wonder anyone ever makes any money at all with Adsense given all these variables and ways of looking at things.

LSV, MSV, ECPC, incoming links, PR's, page titles, keyword phrases, CTR, TBPR, quotes or no quotes, top ten analysis. Goodness gracious! And every Adsense expert saying something a little different about how to use these things. My head is about to explode!

I think I am going to take a break and go watch some Stargate. You know...go into that vegetative state where I don't think about anything but some alien Gould's beating up on some Jafa and Terrans. Just plain old bad guys beating on the good guys with the good guys coming out winners. Nothing complicated. I wish Adsense was that way but then again, if it was, none of us would make any money at it because every joe schmoe and susie que would be doing it.

If I don't respond to any further posts tonight I am off in outer space wondering how I can make money from Adsence on the Asguard home world.

LOL.

Carlos

[flobaby]

Carlos, I've enjoyed reading your posts, enough to make this my first post after lurking for a few weeks.

The running theme I've latched onto (especially from XFactor's fabu post) is Just.Do.It. You're obviously a smart guy and your reasoning skills are right up there, so trust in what you've learned so far and start building. Domains are cheap, hosting is cheap, by the time you've figured all the nuances and percentages out, you could have made a handful of new websites, some of which (if not all) would be making a little moolah for you.

Once you start building, some of the answers to the questions you have will unfold. Then you can use that info for your next few sites and then again for the next round.

[dburk]

Hi Carlos,

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is experience. The more you learn without applying, the less you will retain. Apply what you are learning immediately if you want to retain the knowledge and gain wisdom.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Carlos,

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is experience. The more you learn without applying, the less you will retain. Apply what you are learning immediately if you want to retain the knowledge and gain wisdom.

I absolutely agree with you on this one Don. No need for discussion in what you said. Absolutely. It's like you took what you said straight out of the Bible.

I am applying what I learn as quickly as I can. Trouble is that I am not learning the right things about picking good keyword phrases. Questions I have go unanswered and I got nowhere to turn but to try and Google answers or otherwise start threads here....that sometimes just aren't answered.

For example I have one keyword phrase that seems real good but....it's a registered trademark. I am not sure whether to go for this one because using the trademark in the domain will cause my whole effort to hang in the air where any day some lawyer will send me a cease and desist letter and that will be it for that domain.

Another keyword phrase I have been thinking of going for is one that has a big, fat Adsense site show up in position 1. I think I can beat that Adsense site but do I want to do that and end up with the possible ire of that Adsense owner clicking on my ads in anger and getting my Adsense account terminated by Google? I don't think so.

So I sit here all frustrated in that I can't seem to make my way through to keyword phrases that are good and doable for me. It's not that I am not willing to go for it.

It's that when I want to go for it I run into obstacles that more or less prevent me from moving forward wisely (i.e. don't want to be using trademarks innapropriately or endangering my Adsense account).

The biggest problem I have is that I don't have anyone to show me the ropes and I don't have any discretionary income to purchase learning materials or entry into membership sites. So it's either rely on free resources, for now, or it's no go for me.

I do have a partner who will pay for domains so that's not a problem at all but at the same time I am not going to go off half-cocked to register domains for keyword phrases that are problematic and will end up duds.

Me and my partner both MUST make this succeed. We both can use the income. We can't afford to play around with this. That is one reason I am being more careful than most.

It MUST work.

Until I feel comfortable with some keyword phrases based on the best available knowledge I have I will not feel comfortable just going off and registering domains and sinking time into building web sites.

I am not there yet Don. Even you told me some things that have undermined my whole approach in that if what you recently told me is really the case (that 40% of searchers don't even get out of the starting gate with respect to actually going to a site) I will have to start looking for keyword phrases that have triple the traffic than what I have been looking for.

It's like I have to revise my keyword analysis to now almost start analyzing them all over again with updated selection criteria.

I want this to succeed. I really do but I am flustered by not knowing how to proceed.

I've even wondered if this whole make money from Adsense is just so much hype and not really doable in the way people on this forum talk about. I mean intellectually I still believe it is but practically I still have a real hard time finding good keyword phrases to focus my efforts on. I am still not seeing them. I mean one's that I can reasonably target and succeed with. Mostly they look too difficult competition or otherwise for me to have any realistic hope of getting a top ranking for.

I've thought of posting a whole spreadsheet to get input from others and to consider those keywords a loss to me just so I can learn. But if previous attempts on my part to get such nuts and bolts input are any indication...I won't get much input and I will have thrown my keywords away for nothing.

Carlos

[mejohn]

Originally Posted by carlos123

Hi Don,

Thanks for following me to this thread. I am working on lesson 2 now...got another 149 to go...sigh

So let me get this straight. 40% of the numbers returned by the Google Keyword Tool will result in incomplete searches where the searcher doesn't even click on a single page returned by Google?

And the percentage of those who do go ahead and search that will stop at a page 1 top position site is only around 22%?

Okay...that's it. Time for me to pack up my bags and go find another line of money making endeavour LOL.

That means on an LSV of 3000 per month...let's see...throw out 40% off the top who won't complete their searches...that leaves 1800. Throw out 78% of those and that leaves...396 searches a month on an LSV of 3000!! That's nuts!

I don't mean you Don. I mean that I am now going to have to completely ignore the 3000 LSV category of keyword phrases and go for nothing less than 10,000 a month LSV in order to have any hope of getting anywhere near 3000 searches a month.

I am all confused now...once again. What LSV should I consider to be a sweet spot in view of all this? Why do people like Mark here (internetmarketer99) take on keyword phrases with 2400, 1500 LSV per month. At those number if all this is accurate they cannot possibly make any money yet...they apparently do.

How is that possible? I just don't get it.

Carlos

10,000 minimum search volume is what I go for on keywords I want to target. Also pay attention to the estimate CPC in the Keyword Tool. You can make more mony on less clicks if your keywords are hot ones.

[carlos123]

Huh? (scratching my thinning hairline).

Now I am REALLY confused. Asgard millions, replicator web sites, and CTR's of 10,000 among 100 web sites? God help me!

LOL

Carlos

[dburk]

Hi blueice,

Your Stargate analogy made me chuckle.

If I understood what you were trying to say is instead of looking for keywords with triple the volume, just get 3 times as many keywords. I agree, there are lots of lower volume keywords and the big guys often ignore them due to the lower volume. 3 different keywords each with 3,500 LSV is just as good as 1 with 10,000 LSV, plus there more of them and they are easier to find.