Improbable trafic results or I don't get it!

[MikEdwards]

I have been reading this forum for a while and implementing IM strategies for about 4 months. I am really thankfull for the information I get here. Let's just say I am learning for now.

Something strange is happening to me now. I have put some energy lately on building a well optimised site around a long tail keyword, for which my site ranks 3rd in Google. When looked up in G's Adwords keyword generator, my longtail keyword is said to be searched around 30,000 times per month. Very great would you say. Well the thing is, I am getting less than 5 visits per day and they are comming from links in blog comments that I have written. Zero from G.

How can I rank 3rd for a keyword searched 1000 times per day and not getting any visits from G?

My guess is Adwords keyword tool screwed up... Or is there something I don't get?

[James Spinosa]

Originally Posted by MikEdwards

I have been reading this forum for a while and implementing IM strategies for about 4 months. I am really thankfull for the information I get here. Let's just say I am learning for now.

Something strange is happening to me now. I have put some energy lately on building a well optimised site around a long tail keyword, for which my site ranks 3rd in Google. When looked up in G's Adwords keyword generator, my longtail keyword is said to be searched around 30,000 times per month. Very great would you say. Well the thing is, I am getting less than 5 visits per day and they are comming from links in blog comments that I have written. Zero from G.

How can I rank 3rd for a keyword searched 1000 times per day and not getting any visits from G?

My guess is Adwords keyword tool screwed up... Or is there something I don't get?

Hey Mike,

The AdWords keyword estimator is not searching for "insert your long tail keyword here" it is searching for insert your long tail keyword here.

For instance if I was searching for "Ways to make money online by carving desks" I would get 0 results, but if I searched for Ways to make money online by carving desks, I would get thousands of results.

It is searching for terms within your long tail phrase rather than the phrase itself.

[chrisaplin]

That's my new domain.

waystomakemoneyonlinecarvingdesks.com

Talk about targeted traffic.

[MikEdwards]

Hey James,
Thanks for your answer.

I don't know if we are talking about the same tool. I am refering to adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

I know Google's regular search is also searching for individual terms in a long tail keyword, which gives out more results than the same expression in " ". But it does not seem to be the case with Adwords keyword tool.

For example, google adwords keyword tool is said to be searched 9900 times per month and adwords keyword tool (which contains less terms) is said to be searched 27100 per month.

[Lucid]

James is telling you to specify phrase match instead of broad match.

Your question has come up before, even in the short time I've been on this forum. There's even a recent and interesting thread about the percentage of clicks coming from each serp position. But the short answer is, even though you are in first position, it don't mean they'll click on your listing.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the keyword tool are estimates and numbers from the past. It doesn't mean these are the same numbers you'll get this month. It is also a tool more useful for those doing pay-per-click. There are many variables for SERPs which can make your listing appear just about anywhere.

[MikEdwards]

Sorry to tell you that guys, but I don't think we are talking about the same thing here.

Unlike Google's regular search (google.com) Google Adwords Keyword Tool (adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) does not seem to care about " " and renders the same numbers with or without " ".

Lucid, I realize the results are based on past searches, still I am pretty confident my long tail keyword is searched around 1000 times per day and it is a growing trend. Still, I am getting that info from Adwords Keyword Tool and I now have some doubts about it's reliability since I do not get visits from google and I rank 3rd. Even though it doesn't mean I would get 1000 visits per day from google, I still think I should get more than zero!

So there must be something wrong somewhere. Either I messed something up or Adwords Keyword Tool did Maybe I should just not use that tool for evaluating searches made for a specific keyword? What else then?

[johnx60115]

Well, for those of you that have picked keywords using the keyword tool, you might notice that it sometimes says "It will cost you only $0.05 per click for this keyword!" so you add it to your list, and once your campaign is up and running, Google wants $1.25 per click for that keyword.

This just shows that the keyword tool is an estimate and likely never accurate. If you're showing up in Google in 3rd position, you should definitely be getting clicks from Google. I think you should look at the number of competing pages for your keyword term instead to get an idea of how popular your keyword actually is.

In the third position, if it's a term that's search somewhat frequent, you should be seeing clicks. How are you tracking clicks?

[Lucid]

Mik, we are talking about the same tool. It doesn't care about quotes when entering your keyword. But after you get the results, check the headings. The last one, after Search Volume, there's a drop-down where you can select broad, phrase and exact match data.

As for its accuracy, the CPC numbers are estimates based on all advertisers. Your actual CPC will be determined by your quality score. In my experience, low CPC estimates such as $0.05 are unrealistic. But high CPC estimates, I beat every time. This doesn't apply to Mik since he doesn't mention using PPC.

As for volume estimates, they are very accurate when using exact match. I just checked a few against actual numbers in Adwords accounts and the exact match volumes reported are almost spot on. Also, use the Local Search Volume column, NOT the Global Search Volume. Of course, make sure too that you choose the correct region.

All kinds of things will determine where your listing will show in the SERPs, the main one being the search term used. You cannot assume that because you see it in a certain position that everyone in the world sees it in the same position. Therefore, you have no idea how many times your listing appeared and where. You also can't assume that people will click on it.

The tool at google.com/adpreview will tell you where your listing will show in different regions for different keywords. But remember that 1000 people will come up with 800 different search terms and ways to do their search on the same thing, all of which will affect where you show up.

[MikEdwards]

Thanks Lucid for your explanation, You found my problem. I used the keyword tool a lot, but I never noticed the drop-down on the right. I guess I was too excited while using it!

So now I get the famous "not enough data" for my long tail with "exact" selected. Pretty self explanatory...

Time to get back up and go back to work!

[jkgulick]

yeah, that messed me up once, too. I built a site around a keyword that had 5000 hits broad, but when it came down to it, I had no traffic, I discovered that the exact traffic was very low.