Wordtracker Counts? Is this really how it works?

[GilOrtegaTV]

I'm using WordTracker for the first time and asked their support if the search number was for daily, weekly, monthly or yearly totals.

I was shocked cause this is what I got back from their support,
"Our dataset for the Keyword Research Tool is collected over 365 days and contains over half a billion searches. So the number shown under the search column is the number of searches for that keyword over the last year."

So I'm looking at some search totals... example
"new york dentist" (searches) 366 for the entire year?
This seems really low.

"Kim Kardashian" got 57,780 for the whole year... really?
WT says kim kardashian has less than 200k searches with her name in it.
How? I think my brother searched that many times for her tape alone.

Any insight would be helpful.

[steven-brandon88]

I am pretty sure it is monthly search volume, but what you can do is to compare the results with google keyword tool (use the phrase results), and this should give you a better idea of what the results really are.

hope this helps

[Promet_MKTG]

monthly for sure.

make sure to click the "google" selection for "find keywords from" when doing a find keywords search.

[GilOrtegaTV]

Good idea, so I tried it.... but know I really don't understand this.

In WordTracker weight loss = 12,563 yearly searches

In Google Keyword Tool weight loss = 82,000 monthly searches

Huh?

Is WordTrack just wack or am I not using it right?

[Promet_MKTG]

when you are on find keywords

blue box that says find keywords that include...

on the right side, make sure you have google selected, not wordtracker

Also, give it a break for a day, clear your caches, change to a new IP, etc you may be getting some error result because youve been searching so much

[AllanCollins]

Wordtracker gets their data from search engines such as Dogpile and MetaCrawler --not Google.

I have heard that their numbers represent less than 1% of the search market.

[GilOrtegaTV]

In WordTracker I made sure to select "Google" for
"general auto insurance" = 27,100 searches it says

In Google's Keyword Tool, monthly searches = 230,000

So WT is not giving me a monthly or a weekly or a daily. And for sure not yearly.

It's not giving me anything.

[Promet_MKTG]

im getting number as well. not a huge surprise. Its not an exact science, google does try to deceive and mask true numbers, you really never know for sure what people are searching with high level of confidence

[GilOrtegaTV]

Is there a better tool or method to find out what the search volume is on a phrase?

[Promet_MKTG]

wordtracker is my favorite. all tools plug into the same groups of search info. ive used IBP, MarketSamurai, google keyword, adwords, they all come around the same or one is way off.

Like i said, not an exact science. I do like wordtracker the best though.

[GilOrtegaTV]

Thanks John, I'll give my some focus then,

[mald]

Hi Gil,

my name's Mal and I work with Wordtracker Customer Support. There's nothing in this thread that's not true - Wordtracker's data consists of just under 1% of US search, and is gathered from the past 365 days.

Now, while that may seem to be a small sample, it's pretty representative of US search. The sample we have isn't necessarily an even split across all keywords or niches, but it's a great insight into the long tail.

I know that some of our customers don't even look at the search count numbers themselves - we do recommend that you look more at the relationship between the keywords rather than the raw figures, as this can give you a better view of the overall picture - especially when you're looking inside a niche.

I'm not entirely sure it's accurate to say that Wordtracker 'isn't giving you anything' - while the search volume may be regarded as low, it's important to remmeber that this is a sample rather than a full picture (any keyword research tool is going to be subject to similar restrictions, no-one has a full set of global search data). It's also generally accepted that Google doesn't necessarily use all of its search data for its keyword tool's results, and looking at the numbers, it's a certainty that there's some sort of extrapolation going on before the numbers are produced - they're often very even, round numbers.

So, with any keyword research tool, it's important to look at the relative values rather than the raw numbers (which can sometimes be a distraction) inside a niche - as well as paying some attention to the competition data.

I hope this is of some help, but do let us know if you have any other questions.

All the best,

Mal