Google Keyword Tool Numbers Changed DRASTICALLY?!

103 replies
  • SEO
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A few weeks ago, I had some keywords in the google keyword tool that were getting massive numbers in search volume. I advised a client of my to by the dead-on .com domain names for a couple of these.

For example:
---On keyword 1 it was 800,000+ global searches/month.
---On keyword 2 it was 600,000+ global searches/month.
---On keyword 3 it was 250,000+ global searches/month.

Granted, these were broad search results (not "exact" or "phrase").

Now, out of nowhere, the numbers are (still "broad", still "global"):

---Keyword 1 has dropped to 2,400/month.
---Keyword 2 has dropped to 880/month
---Keyword 3 has dropped to 27,100/month

The numbers on keyword 1 and 3 even changed from this morning to this afternoon.

The kicker? When you check the past months search volume, google ALSO has changed their historical search numbers. I have excel spread sheets with the old numbers from just a few weeks ago. The 'new' numbers the keyword tool is putting out are down by a RIDICULOUS amount.

Does anyone have ANY idea what is going on with this?

Is google figuring out how to filter out non-human search volume and these new numbers are real human searches only?

Has anybody else ever seen this happen with a keyword? I'm not talking about seasonal fluctuations. I'm saying it's like the old numbers never even existed!

PLEASE HELP.

Josh
#changed #drastically #google #keyword #numbers #tool
  • Profile picture of the author amasters
    are you sure there was no misspelling? sure that no other filters had been inadvertently selected?
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    • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
      I'm absolutely positive. I've checked this from every angle I can. I've involved my business partner.

      I'm at a total loss, frankly.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoextent
    i seen some time
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
      Originally Posted by seoextent View Post

      i seen some time
      Glad to hear at least I'm not alone in having this happen.

      Any other input out there?
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  • Profile picture of the author adam westrop
    OMG this is great news!

    It seems the numbers are finally accurate!!!

    GO GOOGLE!

    I have verified some search numbers against sites top for positions and it does work out, it never did before!!!

    E.G. Before 'mp3 player accessories' was down as like 300k monthly EXACT searches, I got a site top and nothing!!! Hardly any traffic, check the figures now and the term gets barely 2k searches a month. This ties up to what I experienced being at no.2 for a while!

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

    Finally Google may be publishing deadly accurate numbers!!

    Way to go Google!!!!!!!!!!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
      Originally Posted by adam westrop View Post

      OMG this is great news!

      It seems the numbers are finally accurate!!!

      GO GOOGLE!

      I have verified some search numbers against sites top for positions and it does work out, it never did before!!!

      E.G. Before 'mp3 player accessories' was down as like 300k monthly EXACT searches, I got a site top and nothing!!! Hardly any traffic, check the figures now and the term gets barely 2k searches a month. This ties up to what I experienced being at no.2 for a while!

      Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

      Finally Google may be publishing deadly accurate numbers!!

      Way to go Google!!!!!!!!!!!!
      Thanks for your reply, Adam.

      I was wondering if this actually represented a shift in google to more accurate, reliable data. Perhaps they have learned to filter out automated queries that inflate their search volume?

      I also think this might have serious implications for their PPC revenue, causing it to drop significantly for a lot of terms.

      Also, what does this say about Google's market share in search? Does this mean Bing and Yahoo, etc are doing better than we thought?
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      • Profile picture of the author affly101
        This also have implications about developing websites around certain keyword phrases. If there is not enough volume, then why bother.
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        • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
          Originally Posted by affly101 View Post

          This also have implications about developing websites around certain keyword phrases. If there is not enough volume, then why bother.
          EXACTLY!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author clansullivan
      Originally Posted by adam westrop View Post

      OMG this is great news!

      It seems the numbers are finally accurate!!!

      GO GOOGLE!

      I have verified some search numbers against sites top for positions and it does work out, it never did before!!!

      E.G. Before 'mp3 player accessories' was down as like 300k monthly EXACT searches, I got a site top and nothing!!! Hardly any traffic, check the figures now and the term gets barely 2k searches a month. This ties up to what I experienced being at no.2 for a while!

      Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

      Finally Google may be publishing deadly accurate numbers!!

      Way to go Google!!!!!!!!!!!!
      ????? Why would you give kudos to Google for putting out GROSSLY INACCURATE BS information for so long - information that many people have trusted and placed good hard eanred $$ on???

      Take in to account all of the other shenanigans like disabled PPC accounts and now this?

      Google sucks. I hope they are eventually buried and gone.
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      • Profile picture of the author Natlex
        Originally Posted by clansullivan View Post

        ????? Why would you give kudos to Google for putting out GROSSLY INACCURATE BS information for so long - information that many people have trusted and placed good hard eanred $$ on???

        Take in to account all of the other shenanigans like disabled PPC accounts and now this?

        Google sucks. I hope they are eventually buried and gone.
        Because they put some work in updating their keyword tool? It was free btw... Google is awesome, I don't like some of their hardcore monitoring of PPC accounts and high CPC but if you don't like it go somewhere else...
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris-
      I agree with your observation that the numbers are now more accurate, which is great news indeed!

      Chris-


      Originally Posted by adam westrop View Post

      OMG this is great news!

      It seems the numbers are finally accurate!!!

      GO GOOGLE!

      I have verified some search numbers against sites top for positions and it does work out, it never did before!!!

      E.G. Before 'mp3 player accessories' was down as like 300k monthly EXACT searches, I got a site top and nothing!!! Hardly any traffic, check the figures now and the term gets barely 2k searches a month. This ties up to what I experienced being at no.2 for a while!

      Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

      Finally Google may be publishing deadly accurate numbers!!

      Way to go Google!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Doubleup
    I've just noticed the exact same thing, and created a thread at http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...t-samurai.html before noticing this thread that you created.

    I've only checked a couple of my sites, but the keyword estimate for them has now slumped DRASTICALLY. Maybe this is a good thing after all, as although it seems i've been wasting my time on these sites, as they hardly had much traffic when i finally got them into the top 3 on google, and the new data in google's tool seems to back this up, at least in going forward i'll be able to rely on accurate data from google for new sites in the future
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  • Profile picture of the author miranon
    This sucks!!! I'm developing a website with 600k exact keyword searches ( this was in adwords 2 weeks ago ) and now its like 3000. How can this be???
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  • Profile picture of the author terryd
    There certainly seems to be a major shift in the amount of traffic that they are reporting now which is good.
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    I've had a competitor's backlinks go from 2 to 650 this week.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
      Originally Posted by rmolina88 View Post

      I've had a competitor's backlinks go from 2 to 650 this week.
      This is a thread about the Google Keyword Tool, right?:rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
        Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin View Post

        This is a thread about the Google Keyword Tool, right?:rolleyes:
        Well, Market Samurai is awesome too.
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  • Profile picture of the author ultimatewar
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Lighterbandit
      This could be a good thing. But it also makes you wonder whats going on behind Google.... I dunno this is defiantly a wave we must ride out!
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  • Profile picture of the author mooble
    I think this is that thing having to do with whether or not you are signed in to google for some reason. I think when you are signed in the numbers are way lower because it's based off adwords stats or soomething. this is just what' iv'e heard
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesM
    I noticed yesterday that the numbers shown were about 10-20% what was being reported before. I checked against KW where I rank in the top 3 and the new data looks far more realistic.

    I wonder how this change will affect those following KW research methods that recommend particular search volumes (xfactor comes to mind)?
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  • Profile picture of the author Google.me
    lol yeah saw all those funny statistics...
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    • Profile picture of the author ellush
      I've seen this too, but is it not because you're logged in to Google Adwords? That's the real downer - uncovering what you think are killer keywords in the Keyword Tool and then logging in to Adwords and seeing the same keyword numbers drop by 90%. I'm now basing my keyword research on these logged in numbers.

      EDIT: There you go, just checked the Keyword Tool (haven't been there for a week or so) and the numbers now match the Adwords logged in numbers. Looks like G has been making some big updates over the last few days...but at least the numbers are more realistic. Although my hot fave keyword dropped from 12000 searches to 590...
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbookmark
    I think previous information was for July and current information you get on Google adwords, are for August and its the reason of difference on the amount of searches.
    Its my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author bermuda
    I really do not know about the changes in numbers but the numbers displayed are not 100% accurate in most cases. They would tell you generally how popular some terms are over the net. I have examined some terms which were told to be used more than 15 thousand times a month by people but the No.1 site received only 50 clicks a day. The important thing is to know what words are to be chosen and forgetting about those digits shown.
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  • Profile picture of the author nouseforaname
    From 100K to 260 only broad match
    From 50K to 36 only [exact match]

    I noticed it yesterday but my site is just jumped to #4th place on 1st page and got
    almost 500 hits yesterday. It's odd, this not seems to be VERY accurate, what happened
    to GAKT????
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    • Profile picture of the author FredJones
      Good to see you notice this. This is something I noticed 3 days back. Not only that, if you go to the older API interface you would still see the older data (that is what I had seen yesterday). And these newer numbers look much more practical than the older ones.
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      • Profile picture of the author miranon
        Originally Posted by FredJones View Post

        Good to see you notice this. This is something I noticed 3 days back. Not only that, if you go to the older API interface you would still see the older data (that is what I had seen yesterday). And these newer numbers look much more practical than the older ones.
        No, they don't. I think something is wrong with the data. It's impossible that all keywords suddenly dropped to 10-20% of the previous values.
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  • Profile picture of the author Han Fan
    Yup,

    that's why you use other tools to determine the true traffic

    SEOBOOK
    Semrush
    Market Samurai

    Han
    p.s. Google keyword has not been very actual...

    Originally Posted by jdwhite View Post

    A few weeks ago, I had some keywords in the google keyword tool that were getting massive numbers in search volume. I advised a client of my to by the dead-on .com domain names for a couple of these.

    For example:
    ---On keyword 1 it was 800,000+ global searches/month.
    ---On keyword 2 it was 600,000+ global searches/month.
    ---On keyword 3 it was 250,000+ global searches/month.

    Granted, these were broad search results (not "exact" or "phrase").

    Now, out of nowhere, the numbers are (still "broad", still "global"):

    ---Keyword 1 has dropped to 2,400/month.
    ---Keyword 2 has dropped to 880/month
    ---Keyword 3 has dropped to 27,100/month

    The numbers on keyword 1 and 3 even changed from this morning to this afternoon.

    The kicker? When you check the past months search volume, google ALSO has changed their historical search numbers. I have excel spread sheets with the old numbers from just a few weeks ago. The 'new' numbers the keyword tool is putting out are down by a RIDICULOUS amount.

    Does anyone have ANY idea what is going on with this?

    Is google figuring out how to filter out non-human search volume and these new numbers are real human searches only?

    Has anybody else ever seen this happen with a keyword? I'm not talking about seasonal fluctuations. I'm saying it's like the old numbers never even existed!

    PLEASE HELP.

    Josh
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    • Profile picture of the author BrenDavis
      maybe its the new kw tool?
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    • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
      Originally Posted by Han Fan View Post

      Yup,

      that's why you use other tools to determine the true traffic

      SEOBOOK
      Semrush
      Market Samurai

      Han
      p.s. Google keyword has not been very actual...
      Ah, I'm glad I found this thread as I was about to start another one because I've found these numbers down and just posted about it on the DP forum - my site is ranked #1 on google but i only get 5 clicks a day from google ? - Page 4 - The funny thing is that, for the keyword example on that thread Market Samurai still comes up with the old search figure so my question is...where does Market Samurai get it's data from?




      1 month ago exact [Bathroom Supplies] was 9900 global and 2900 local - MS today still says 91 local per day. Who is right?
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      • Profile picture of the author bluefoot
        Originally Posted by L41db4ck View Post

        The funny thing is that, for the keyword example on that thread Market Samurai still comes up with the old search figure so my question is...where does Market Samurai get it's data from?
        I also noticed a while back GKWT returned different results when logged in and when logged out. I also see the logged in and logged out numbers are now the same....when using the new interface.

        When you use the old interface when logged out, the numbers are the old higher results. Market Samurai is probably hooked into the old interface API.

        Until things settle out, it seems the source of the results will be very important to consider. Also, if the new lower results become the "norm", we'll probably need to change our personal thresholds when doing keyword research.

        Phil B
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        • Profile picture of the author adamcm
          I personally think the numbers are much more accurate now. I had a post that received about 144 targeted keyword hits in the month of June. The old keyword tool told me that 3600 exact matches were performed that month. The new one told me that only 590 exact searches were performed on that term. Since I was in position #3, I am more inclined to believe the newer totals being displayed.
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          • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
            Originally Posted by adamcm View Post

            I personally think the numbers are much more accurate now. I had a post that received about 144 targeted keyword hits in the month of June. The old keyword tool told me that 3600 exact matches were performed that month. The new one told me that only 590 exact searches were performed on that term. Since I was in position #3, I am more inclined to believe the newer totals being displayed.
            I've noticed lately more and more people saying that the hits they receive from Google don't reflect the amount of searches listed in the (old)keyword tool, so I'm wondering if it's more accurate too.
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            • Profile picture of the author efex
              Well, just to let you know that I've done a test on all my sites' kw's and every one of them are now with poor numbers and they were supposed to have searches around 6k+
              Now I know the reason for the low traffic I was receiving on my high ranking sites

              My question now is what happens with the tools we have been using until now? Cause I've checked and all of them are still reporting the old data.
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              • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
                Originally Posted by efex View Post

                Well, just to let you know that I've done a test on all my sites' kw's and every one of them are now with poor numbers and they were supposed to have searches around 6k+
                Now I know the reason for the low traffic I was receiving on my high ranking sites

                My question now is what happens with the tools we have been using until now? Cause I've checked and all of them are still reporting the old data.
                Well you guys with the high ranking sites are in the best position to tell us whether the traffic relates to the higher or lower number of searches.
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  • Profile picture of the author clorets01
    They are changing thei algos it seems. This kind of things makes me less confident about google products.
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    • Profile picture of the author IntoTheAbyss
      I was about to post a similar thread.

      I've noticed that the "new" keyword tool gives different results that are much lower than the "legacy" keyword tool.

      Market Samurai's results match the legacy keyword tool results, so it may be a bug in the new "beta" tool.
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      • Profile picture of the author Doubleup
        Originally Posted by IntoTheAbyss View Post

        I was about to post a similar thread.

        I've noticed that the "new" keyword tool gives different results that are much lower than the "legacy" keyword tool.

        Market Samurai's results match the legacy keyword tool results, so it may be a bug in the new "beta" tool.
        i would have thought it's more of a bug with market samuari accessing the 'old source' for it's data, as a new 'source' has now been created by google, which is why we have the 2 different keyword results from within the different google keyword tools
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        • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
          Originally Posted by daztrouk View Post

          i would have thought it's more of a bug with market samuari accessing the 'old source' for it's data, as a new 'source' has now been created by google, which is why we have the 2 different keyword results from within the different google keyword tools
          yes, is it a 'bug' in the new or is it now more accurate? And will MS have to change?
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  • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
    Now THIS will change aspects of the whole game!
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    • Profile picture of the author DiMcdonald
      Something is weird about the tool right now.
      Yesterday I found keywords with 100,000 exact global searches and today when I checked it has 480 exact global searches!

      Until I checked that keyword phrase today I had decided that it was just a normal monthly fluctuation, however, now I think its BUGGY!!!

      DEcided to take the rest of the day off in Protest!!!

      Di
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      • Profile picture of the author erazer
        I think the legacy tool has better numbers. I rank #1 for a keyword that the new tool says gets 500 searches a month but I get a steady 30 to 50 hits a day. The legacy tool has 2000 approx exact per month which also seems off but closer.
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  • Profile picture of the author amernian
    Well, Google actually has a set of accurate figures. Just that they display an estimated search/month.

    The real numbers can be obtained by exporting the results (from adwords keyword tools) in CSV file.

    Those numbers are the REAL number of searches/month. It's accurate because someone from Google told me
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  • Profile picture of the author itsallwhite
    I thought it was a problem with my keyword tool until I found this thread! I used to check certain terms regually and I was targetting an exact match keyword with 90k, now I find out it only has 27k. The country specific totals don't seem to have changed so much it is the global that seems drastically different

    Do you think this is more or less accruate? has google made a statement about it?
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  • Profile picture of the author nouseforaname
    It's all fixed I think, I can see the figure is just like before.
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    • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
      Originally Posted by nouseforaname View Post

      It's all fixed I think, I can see the figure is just like before.
      I still get the same low figures but now I see that it's the same figures as if you are logged into your adwords account so I think someone has linked to the wrong data or something and it will probably return to normal soon.

      The reason for the lower logged in figures could be explained here - Logged In/Out: Google Keyword Tool Gives Different Results
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      • Profile picture of the author efex
        Ok. I just did a test on 15 keywords trying the different tools.

        Logged in or not the new kw tool is showing the same LOW data everybody is talking about.

        The old kw tool is showing the inflated data every tool is giving and the data we have done our research.

        The question here is: Do we beleive the old kw tool has accurate data or we state that old data is not valid and the NEW low data is the realistic one??

        I guess only the people with ranking sites can answer that.
        On my side, I can say I have two sites on #3 position and they are receiving 9 to 10 visits every day. They were suposed to have 6.6k and 3.6k respectively. So I guess the data was not correct.
        BUT, what about the people that has sites on top positions and is receiving the traffic expected?? IS it because of article directories traffic? twitter traffic? or is it just as the search numbers reflected? I don't know.

        And what about EVERY product out there basing its keyword research methods on this old data that now is supposed to be unrealistic??
        I suppose somebody may have had some success with them right?

        Many things to think about.
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        • Profile picture of the author efex
          Here's another thought.

          I just went to my Webmasters account to see the statistics of the sites.
          There I can see the IMPRESSIONS of my site on the results pages right?
          So a site in the first page would have to have almost the same impressions that the number of searches per month.
          If you are at position #10 you can expect to have the same number of impressions but not any clicks because people don't click those positions right? If you are at higher positions you can expect same impressions but higher clicks to your site.

          So we are talking here not about the VISITS you receive but the impressions you are having at the results pages of Google.

          Well gues what. The impressions I get on the first page for my sites are according to the search counts that the NEW data is showing.

          For example, one keyword that was supposed to have 6k searches and now the new kw tool shows only 1.6k is showing 1k impressions for agust on the first page results, which goes accordingly with the new data.

          I'm more inclined to think the new data is correct according to this. :rolleyes:
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          • Profile picture of the author Fking
            I spend few hours reading about this and here is what i've understood so far

            - MS uses data from the legacy tool, which seems to be highly optimistic for the most words!
            - the data from the new tool is supposed to be much more accurate, as confirmed by many people holding top spots, including me
            - MS are aware of the issue, but are keen to switch just yet, cause it would be expensive and the old tool's API has some advantages for them ( it was explened in details i think on the challenge forum) but my guess is that they will have to reconsider, seeing the moods around the forums now )
            - people are noticing differences from 0.5 to 10s of times, i've noted 2-3 times bigger numbers of the old tool on average
            - it seems that even if the numbers are off, the order of popularity of the words is alright, which means that if you have 20k and 10k words, they may not get those numbers exactly, but most probably the second one is getting HALF of whatever traffic the first has. Still i need to get more data on this!


            that's for now, please if someone gets info from google, share it!
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            • Profile picture of the author Fking
              Originally Posted by Fking View Post

              - it seems that even if the numbers are off, the order of popularity of the words is alright, which means that if you have 20k and 10k words, they may not get those numbers exactly, but most probably the second one is getting HALF of whatever traffic the first has. Still i need to get more data on this!
              Ok, i just found myself that even the order of popularity might be different between the 2 tools.
              So basicly the traffic data in MS can't be used even for direction now, you have to check everything with the new google tool....

              which is major problem, because before you could at least pick between keywords............ugh
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          • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
            I'm so glad this thread has gotten a ton of action.

            I think Efex really nailed it with the impressions connection. It seems that the google keyword tool numbers are now more accurate. My current theory is that they have figured out how to filter out numbers inflated due to automated search queries (for example, queries sent in by SEO software and domainers trying to raise the value of the domains they are selling).

            This implications are HUGE. PPC costs should begin to drop as bids adjust accordingly. This also means google's search engine market share is possibly not as far ahead of bing/yahoo/ask as previously reported ... meaning ranking in the other search engines is actually more important than we thought.

            And as much as this pisses us all off, it means google is getting BETTER and can actually be relied upon MORE. (in my humble opinion)

            No else seems to have mentioned this, but I also think this is VERY important for everyone to note .... THE DATA HAS BEEN CHANGED RETRO-ACTIVELY.

            That means this is definitely NOT a low month. Google has changed --- not only current numbers --- but also the numbers they are listing for at least the last year.

            I think they are trying to do this under the radar. Telling the world about the caffeine update works in there favor. But telling the world "hey, you've been doing seo and spending your time and money based on bad data" would really generate a ton of bad press.

            MUCH THANKS to all of you who have weighed in on this.
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        • Profile picture of the author Housestacks
          About 3 weeks ago I bought a domain name just based on the numbers - 74,000 global hits.

          Now it is only something like 850
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  • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
    In reply to Fking ...

    Heck yeah! If someone with a google inside connection can help us out with some info, that would be fantastic. Frankly, though, I think we're going to be stuck making the best educated guess we can, and never hearing anything out of google.

    As for the degree of change ... I just want to repeat that I saw my top keyword for a major marketing campaign (one I have been paid 5 figures for) drop from over 800,000 searches to just over 1,000.
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    • Profile picture of the author Boris_yo
      Should i trust Google Keyword Tool Beta or old Google Keyword Tool?
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      • Profile picture of the author WyattTenG
        Some SEO experts have pointed out some useful inside with this update.

        Read it here Google Quietly Updates Keyword Tool Accuracy - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

        Hope it helps some of you.
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        • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
          Originally Posted by WyattTenG View Post

          Some SEO experts have pointed out some useful inside with this update.

          Read it here "Google Quietly Updates Keyword Tool Accuracy - Search Engine Watch"

          Hope it helps some of you.
          I think this article says it all. The game has changed and we need to adapt. Some of the more experienced/savvy already new how to account for potential inaccuracies and market accordingly.

          Again, much thanks to all who have weighed in on this.
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          • Profile picture of the author efex
            Originally Posted by jdwhite View Post

            I think this article says it all. The game has changed and we need to adapt. Some of the more experienced/savvy already new how to account for potential inaccuracies and market accordingly.

            Again, much thanks to all who have weighed in on this.
            You are right. We have to adapt to this new situation and as someone said before, stablish new search ranges we fell good about.
            Now, the only problem is that if we are going to adapt and accept the new data is accurate, then all our tools are useless now because none of them are using the new data.
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            • Profile picture of the author JTV
              Google has responded in one of their forums. This is what they said:

              "If you use both the previous and updated versions of the Keyword Tool to search for keywords, you may notice differences between the tools for statistics on Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. This is because the previous version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only. We've updated these statistics based on user feedback, and hope you find them helpful for keyword selection."

              Another words most of the volume numbers come from the search network, which consists of websites that are also not search engines, but information sites and portals as well.
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              • Profile picture of the author efex
                Originally Posted by JTV View Post

                Google has responded in one of their forums. This is what they said:

                "If you use both the previous and updated versions of the Keyword Tool to search for keywords, you may notice differences between the tools for statistics on Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. This is because the previous version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only. We've updated these statistics based on user feedback, and hope you find them helpful for keyword selection."

                Another words most of the volume numbers come from the search network, which consists of websites that are also not search engines, but information sites and portals as well.
                I don't understand though. How do they measure the number of searches a specific keyword receives from those "partners"?
                I think it's just BS to not say they had BAD data or intentially misleading data.

                Please somebody explain how they take 8k searches from partners for a specific KW to say that KW has 9k searches per month. And WHY didn't they disclose that to the people that were using that F****ING tool?? Or did they?
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                • Profile picture of the author miranon
                  I personally think the new data is wrong. I have tested some keywords and it's impossible that they get such low searches. For example, a very popular keyword had 700k searches. With the new data, it has only 10k. Theres definitely something wrong with the new data.

                  BTW, has anyone compared the statistics from a adwords campaign with the new data?
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    • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
      Originally Posted by jdwhite View Post

      I just want to repeat that I saw my top keyword for a major marketing campaign (one I have been paid 5 figures for) drop from over 800,000 searches to just over 1,000.
      Oooo, will you rivise your fee by the same amount?
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  • Profile picture of the author bluefoot
    I think most Internet Marketers always understood the GKWT results were not accurate, and we always used them with a degree of relativity. In other words, we looked for a certain range of results. And a lot of us know, based on real world observation, certain results could be translated into a certain number of hits depending on search engine position.

    So now we need to find that new range that will fit into our current personal formula.

    If that search term that we thought was 50,000 local exact is really 5,000, or maybe more accurately stated, is now thought to be 5,000, it shouldn't really matter that much. What does matter is we need to figure out our new personal ranges, then it should be business as usual.
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  • Profile picture of the author butternyk
    Damn this is so terrible. Old Keyword tool shows exact global vol at 8900 , and new keyword tool shows 1600.

    At one instance -- old keyword tool shows 1000 , where as new keyword tool 16000. what to believe. can someone really help
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  • Profile picture of the author Kyle Fox
    Unreal... Its good if the new data is more accurate, but we should all be seriously pissed at google for screwing up so bad and not even fessing up to it. If you think of the time and money invested collectively by all internet marketers, google has cost us hundreds of millions, if not a billions+!!

    I'd almost go as far to say its criminally negligent. The fact their service is free is irrelevant. They capitalize on PPC Ad revenue which has been drastically distorted/manipulated by them.

    Of course they will walk away from this scot free...
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  • Profile picture of the author Fking
    there is some useful input from the MS guys here as well:
    MS Results Vastly Differ From Google KW Tool
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  • Profile picture of the author tjm2788
    I was baffled by this at first! I have a site in position #1 in Google for a keyword that claimed to have 2500 searches per month but the traffic I was getting does not reflect this at all! Has anyone noticed a massive drop in the level of competition on the tool too? There is very low level of competition reported for quite high volume searches!
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    • Profile picture of the author gracetog
      Exactly! In fact, many of the keywords I've searched in the last 7 days have a very low competition, and I haven't seen any keyword that has a full bar of competition; including the ones that had full bars just a couple of days before then! I actually contacted google about this and the drop in the number of searches, and their reply wasn't very helpful. I plan to contact them again and try to get a bit of info. But I think these new figures look much more realistic definitely.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fking
    you mean the bars that indicate the adwords competition? Why would they matter to you anyway? I guess your goal is organic listing, and organic competition should be the factor?
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  • Profile picture of the author eimroda
    I just checked some of my keywords and I am really disappointed to see the numbers to be very low compared when I first made the keyword research. Anyway, as what they say, it is now more accurate so it's time to go back to the drawing board...
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  • Profile picture of the author Fking
    when you rank #1 at google, where do you rank at those search partners if at all?
    How exactly does it work?
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  • Profile picture of the author jeremynet
    OK friend.
    This is my latest finding:

    Keyword A:
    Old Keyword Tool = 2400
    New Keyword Tool = 2400
    SemRush, KW A = 4400
    Market Samurai = 4350

    Actual Data
    keyword A rank #1 and traffic = 50% of 4400 per month

    Keyword B:
    Old Keyword Tool = 5400
    New Keyword Tool = 480
    SemRush = 5400
    MS = 5430

    Actual Data:
    Keyword B Rank #1 = 50% of 480 per month.

    This is just my finding of two keywods listed. I have done a lot of research with more than 20 keywords with actual #1 ranking traffic results and the results is accurate based on NEW GOOGLE KEYWORD TOOL.

    *Market Samurai is based on OLD GKWT (*with latest MS updates)
    *Semrush is using OLD GKWT as well

    OMG.. It means.. I have lost more than 15 domains based on OLD GKWT searched. How about your finding?
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    • Profile picture of the author Fking
      Originally Posted by jeremynet View Post

      OK friend.
      This is my latest finding:

      Keyword A:
      Old Keyword Tool = 2400
      New Keyword Tool = 2400
      SemRush, KW A = 4400
      Market Samurai = 4350
      Thanks, that's great data you are sharing
      Only one thing here, prolly a mistake, Since MS is based on the old GKT how yu've got it to show 4350 when the old tool shows 2400?


      Based on my personal observations and lots of reading around the forums, also the new tool seems to be much more accurate.
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      • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
        Originally Posted by Fking View Post

        Thanks, that's great data you are sharing
        Only one thing here, prolly a mistake, Since MS is based on the old GKT how yu've got it to show 4350 when the old tool shows 2400?


        Based on my personal observations and lots of reading around the forums, also the new tool seems to be much more accurate.
        Not only that he states - Actual Data
        keyword A rank #1 and traffic = 50% of 4400 per month

        Which means that the old data was correct for that keyword
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      • Profile picture of the author dariuszszyc
        Originally Posted by Fking View Post

        Thanks, that's great data you are sharing
        Only one thing here, prolly a mistake, Since MS is based on the old GKT how yu've got it to show 4350 when the old tool shows 2400?


        Based on my personal observations and lots of reading around the forums, also the new tool seems to be much more accurate.

        Market Samurai shows data from a logged in acount. You'll see different data from logged out.

        Btw.
        I had the same issue. I bought a domain for a KW which had 18 000 exact searches (old interface).

        According to the new interface - 16 exact searches / month !!

        HOLY F**K.



        better thing... according to MS - my website has #1 place. according to "Free Monitor for Google" and by manually checking in internet explorer - #6.

        Checked via hidemyass (google.com) - #3.

        Is there any source we can trust now???
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        • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
          Originally Posted by dariuszszyc View Post

          Market Samurai shows data from a logged in acount. You'll see different data from logged out.
          No it doesn't
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          • Profile picture of the author dariuszszyc
            Originally Posted by L41db4ck View Post

            No it doesn't
            well... not sure in 100% but that's what I see from MS source:

            function loginProcess() {
            var process = new top.ns.StateMachineProcess('login', function() {
            loader.load("https://adwords.google.com/select/Login?aw3=true&dst=%2Fo%2FTargeting%2FExplorer");
            process.addProcessWithTransition(loadWaitProcess() );
            });

            process.add('login', function() {
            $('#Email', loader.document).val('joshuathales@gmail.com');
            $('#Passwd', loader.document).val('metagross');
            $('#PersistentCookie', loader.document).attr("checked", true);
            $('#signIn', loader.document).click();

            process.state = 'done';
            process.addProcessWithTransition(loadWaitProcess() );
            });
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            • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
              Originally Posted by dariuszszyc View Post

              well... not sure in 100% but that's what I see from MS source:
              Interesting, Is this your login? - joshuathales@gmail.com - I presume not.

              Hmm, so the function(loginProcess()) is there but is it ever run? I don't think so as the numbers you get from MS tally with the old KW tool not logged in.

              Not much in that Gmail account.
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  • Profile picture of the author sukky
    The Google Keyword Suggestion Tool is a free tool that gives you keyword suggestions. For instance, if you type in "widgets" it gives you other suggestions that contain the word widgets, based on searches people have done, such as dashboard widgets, weather widgets, free widgets, etc.
    I've always assumed that the suggestions are a full list taken from things people searched for in Google. So Google would show you every widgets keyword, up to a max number.
    But I just discovered that it's only a partial list even if the max number has not been reached.



    Don't assume the keyword tool is showing you everything that was searched for.

    It makes sense, sort of that the google keyword Tool numbers may changed drastically , But the might not be all the Time
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    • Profile picture of the author miranon
      Originally Posted by sukky View Post

      ...
      We all know what Google Keyword Suggestion Tool is. The question is, why it's data has changed so drastically.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marcoose
    I think this comment taken from another site says it perfectly

    "Class action, anyone? How many of us have wasted our time and money trying to capture traffic that never actually existed? What is the opportunity cost of projects that have failed because Google intentionally mislead us? Ever wonder why some of your projects have failed? Perhaps it's because your audience was much lower than you thought, meanwhile, another similiar site gained the lead because Google made you waste your time. You could have been multi-millionaires if Google hadn't tricked you into advertising to people who never even existed."

    I have to say, Google really do deserve to be punished for what they've done.

    This, coupled with instant search, makes you think that they really, really want to mess up a lot of people's lives.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by Marcoose View Post


      This, coupled with instant search, makes you think that they really, really want to mess up a lot of people's lives.
      While, I don't like Instant search much and I did see a slight decline in traffic, it did go somewhere, so it's not like Google took that traffic away. Sure, some of it probably went to Adwords and others went to different search terms. However, that traffic still went somewhere, so there are some people winning through all of this.

      They aren't out to ruin lives. They are out to make a profit and as much of a profit as they can. Just like me and you.
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  • Profile picture of the author jdwhite
    I met personally with an SEO stud the other day who thinks this might also have to do with the way impressions are counted --- now that Google is doing the "google instant" results thing.

    I mean --- would you really want the keyword tool to count all those split second impressions as people type in their real search term?

    Obviously this doesn't explain it all. But it adds another piece to the puzzle...
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    • Profile picture of the author Fking
      Originally Posted by jdwhite View Post

      I met personally with an SEO stud the other day who thinks this might also have to do with the way impressions are counted --- now that Google is doing the "google instant" results thing.

      I mean --- would you really want the keyword tool to count all those split second impressions as people type in their real search term?

      Obviously this doesn't explain it all. But it adds another piece to the puzzle...
      that's not tha case for 2 reasons
      1. we have this issue from before google instant was announced, not to mention we have a year back of data
      2. google instant counts impression if the user stopped for more than 3 seconds, hit enter, or navigated via link
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    Sometimes the Google Keyword tools are not exact, they may be getting an update as many of the things in Google currently are
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    • Profile picture of the author bcmwp
      I've been going through some of the keywords I've been targeting, and I noticed something interesting.

      The commercial keywords seem to have dropped substantially, but more informational ones haven't dropped as much.

      Perhaps this has something to do with the "search partners" and how they were working on product pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author giseo
    this is confusing. where can you set exact matches in the new tool?
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  • Profile picture of the author BarryOnline
    Just built my first site around keyword that was getting 60,500 ( local & extact ) according to the old interface.

    I check the new google keyword tool & it says 880 - Seriously what's happening here?

    I've spent alot of time & money on the site. I'm not happy.

    So what do we believe, old or new?
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  • Profile picture of the author delosense
    Have built over 200 sites...and you all are cranky over 1 ....DEAR GOD! I really hope somebody will come up with the right answers to this mistery.
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    • Profile picture of the author miranon
      Originally Posted by delosense View Post

      Have built over 200 sites...and you all are cranky over 1 ....DEAR GOD! I really hope somebody will come up with the right answers to this mistery.
      I bought 40 domains relying on the data from old Google Keyword Tool, they were all like 30-40k per month. Now they are all like 800-1500.
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    • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
      Originally Posted by delosense View Post

      Have built over 200 sites...and you all are cranky over 1 ....DEAR GOD! I really hope somebody will come up with the right answers to this mistery.
      There's a mystery?
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  • Profile picture of the author Domenic Carlson
    Yeah, I completely agree - it's very unnerving to see these numbers bounce around like this. I think what's important is the relative numbers. That is, what keywords are higher than others. Then bid and test yourself with those keywords and adjust from there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon G
    I just want to say thank god that someone else is experiencing this as well, because I have put up a few sites based on Google's external keyword tool and the data has been flat out wrong.

    My business partner and I put up a site based around a group of highly targeted keywords that were supposedly pulling upwards of 80,000 a month. We quickly ranked out site #1 naturally on Google (US and Canada) only to find out that the traffic volume was more like maybe a 150 a day. Totally ridiculous.

    Anyways, great post and great comments by everyone, I'm so glad that the numbers are now adjusted! Now I can get back to work and have confidence in the data!
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    • Profile picture of the author 4dtvman
      Why does everyone on this thread keep referring to exact matches? I thought most searchers search on broad matches (without the quotes or brackets). Therefore, I generally only look at the local broad matches. Is this is a mistake?
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    Maybe there's an update on some kind of a keyword tool that changed drastically or an update version of this method that reflects the google keyword tool.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fking
      One thing i dont understand is why the Market Samurai folks keep insisting this is affecting only small number of keywords, and they are still using data from the old API.
      It's obvious thsi data is flat out wrong, i'm hardly finding any keywords that even remotely match their data.
      Even google admitted it was affected by partners....

      Too bad for the otherwise wonderful tool.
      Please if someone is using it, send them a ticket as well, about this.
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  • Profile picture of the author paternosterg
    Thanks for the info.

    Great food for thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author motoaavtar
    I just checked a couple of my sites, but the key word now is an estimate of the fallen dramatically. Maybe this is a good thing, after all, because even if it seems I have wasted time on these sites, so just had a lot of traffic, when I finally got the top 3 in Google, and new information shows up on Google tool to support this
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