Spyfu daily search numbers vs Google adwords numbers

[clickbump]

I've been burned at least on one occasion with adwords & mnf stating a high search count that did not pan out in reality. I'm finding that Spyfu's daily search numbers seem to be more accurate.

However, on many occassions, spyfu's numbers are wildy divergent from adwords/mnf.

Anyone else have historical data or experience to lean one way or another in terms of which tool is more accurate?

[clickbump]

Ironically, in the case above, MNF and Adwords were and are still reporting 18k exact searches per month. I'm getting about 3 visits a day from a #5 google ranking for a solid month.

Spyfu does not even recognize the keyword in this case!

[dknyrob]

That's a good question I would also like to know that. As I'm always cross checking my daily traffic reports between traffic Travis,SpyFu, and each giving different results MNF. I have one site ranked #1 so should be getting roughly about 200 searches a day not seeing any of it. Hummmm what should stat should we go with?

[dburk]

Hi clickbump,

Your numbers don't seem that far off from what you might expect.

18,000 searches a month equals 600 searches per day. On average about half of all searches are abandoned without any click at all, so that would bring the total clicks to about 300 per day for all the results on that SERP. Of those clicks the #5 position will typically get about 4.9% of all clicks, or about 15 clicks a day. While that is an average number, some keywords will have substantial competition from sponsored listings that could shave as much as two thirds of the total clicks. Bringing the clicks for a position #5 listind down to 4-5 a day.

Now a really effective title and description could improve your CTR, conversely a less effective title and description could cause your total clicks to drop to 1 or 2 per day, within the range of your reported numbers.

[dknyrob]

Thanks makes perfect sense Dburk.

[Michael Nguyen]

this is the nature of the seo game. go for as many keywords as possible

[clickbump]

I try to make intelligent decisions in terms of keyword research. A scattergun approach, in my opinion is just cause for a ton of extra work. I've been fairly accurate on my selections, but I'm looking to improve my analysis to as close to perfection as possible.

Does anyone here know where spyfu gets its daily search numbers? Since they are so much different from adwords, I'm expecting that they are pulling a different data set altogether.

[clickbump]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi clickbump,

Your numbers don't seem that far off from what you might expect.

Thanks Dburk, you make a good argument. I'm really just comparing this site's performance to others I have where adwords reportsa much lower search count. The sites with the lower search counts are all doing remarkably better than this one outlyer in terms of daily visits.

Now, the search term could have something to do with it, but I'm thinking that adwords just has this one flat wrong.

[man_xtz]

My first keyword for the first site I'm going to build gave almost exact numbers on both google keyword tool and spyfu

[Andrew O]

I use the adwords tool almost exclusively. But how would you know that the adwords tool was wrong? Just because you're ranked for the term doesn't mean you'll necessarily get x% of clicks from X # of searches.

To me, keyword research is more of a comparison/ratio game. Not so much direct numbers but rather how many searches are there for each result? If that ratio is good (and it has more than 10K searches, for example) then it's perfect.

[clickbump]

Originally Posted by MarketingTide

But how would you know that the adwords tool was wrong? Just because you're ranked for the term doesn't mean you'll necessarily get x% of clicks from X # of searches.

Well said Mark, and you make a good point. I think the point I'm making is that my basis of comparison is my entire collection of sites. I'm just saying that I have had predictable results from ALL my sites except this one. I follow a formula and I can predict with reasonable accuracy based on my formula, how a site will do. Until this site. (calling it a "formula" is perhaps a stretch, there is a fair amount of intuition involved in this game, but to the extent you have available data and a system/formula for evaluating that data, then you need to be able to trust that the data is reliable or your efforts are just going to be wildly unpredictable)

The numbers are so skewed from my other sites to make it clear to me that something is amiss in adwords reporting search numbers for this site. That's really all I'm saying and I'm beginning to track spyfu's daily search as perhaps a more accurate and consistent indicator.

Again, its way too little data to say adwords gets it wrong consistently, that's definitely not what I'm saying, since I've been able to predict with some accuracy, based on adwords results, my other site's performance.

So what I'm really seeking to do with this topic is to engage a conversation on how to effectively use spyfu's daily search results (either in conjuction with or exclusive of adwords keyword tool) to get a reasonable understanding of how much traffic a KWP might attract.

And it further interests me that spyfu's daily search numbers are wildly different on several KWP from adwords results on the same KWP.... and that's something I want to dive further into to see which plays out to be amore accurate predictor of reality.

[Papillon]

i belive spyfu search volume is pretty similar to Adword KTE broad mach type, global monthly search volume (just x30 days of course)..its the only way their stats relativly coincide, and if so, KTE exact search volume is much more reliable information to go for.