Conflicting figures in number of results found for competing sites on Google

[toodlepipfornow]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on this please?

The keyword Small Kitchen Appliances brings up approx. 38,000,000 results in Google. In quotes, this reduces to approx 9,300,000.

I have my settings at 100 results per page and there are only 10 pages of results, which, I guess, means that there are actually only 1000 results? (I hope I've explained that clearly!)

I've noticed this a few times in the past, although this is the first time the disparity has been so huge.

Why should that be? I don't get it.

Does anyone have any advice please?

Thanks,

Sherrie

[FreelanceScribe]

The reason in the difference is this:
When you enter Small Kitchen Appliances without the quotes, the results returned INCLUDES the individual results for "Small", "Kitchen" and "Appliances" as if each of these words were entered separately.

By enclosing the search phrase in quotes, you only get results for the entire phrase.

[Linda_C]

Originally Posted by toodlepipfornow

I have my settings at 100 results per page and there are only 10 pages of results, which, I guess, means that there are actually only 1000 results? (I hope I've explained that clearly!)

I've noticed this a few times in the past, although this is the first time the disparity has been so huge. Why should that be? I don't get it.

The number of sites "found" in Google (ie; # shown under search bar) and number of pages "ranked" in Google are not the same.

Almost every SEO "tool" out there uses the number "found" in Google, which is why every single one of them give inaccurate results. The number of "actual" competition (sites ranked, not sites found) is always under 1000. The rest of the results are in supplemental and are not true competitors.

Side note: Don't waste time checking the # of competing sites. It's not how many are competing that matters, it's who's on page 1 that matters.

[toodlepipfornow]

asweb - Thanks for your reply, although I know why there's a difference between the keyword without quotes and with quotes. What was confusing me was why the number of competing sites that Google say there are, and the number of results I was actually getting were so vastly different. I probably didn't explain clearly enough!

Linda C - Thank you too. I didn't know that! Very useful info. And yes, I completely agree, who's on page 1 is what's important. I was just curious as to why the figures should differ so much. And now I know!

Thanks again to you both,

Sherrie

[amreen]

Originally Posted by Linda_C

The number of "actual" competition (sites ranked, not sites found) is always under 1000.

How to find out "actual" competition number?

[BloggingPro]

I'm sure its already been stated, but your competition only exists on page one.

For example you could get all kinds of wild numbers when using quotes, no quotes, allintitle, etc. You could even have a keyword with less than 10,000 in quotes results but that page one can be filled to the brim with high PR, aged, and well optimized sites. You'll have a hard time ranking.

[Linda_C]

Originally Posted by amreen

How to find out "actual" competition number?

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click through to the last page of results, you'll see the actual number posted at the bottom