Keyword Research Quandary - Someone clarify this for me plz!

[JonathanBoettcher]

Hi guys, I'm thinking of creating a mini review site based around a small family of products (I recently bought one and it gave me the idea).

So I go to the Google keyword tool, and it tells me there are 60,500 monthly searches for my exact targeted model name. Awesome. There is also solid traffic on related keywords.

Now I go to the free wordtracker tool, type in the same keyword, and they're telling me there are only 7 searches for that keyword!!!!

Now, if I've got my facts straight, Google has monthly data and Wordtracker shows daily data, and from different sources.

But what gives with the "awesome market" versus "pathetic market" outlook given by these two tools??

Can someone clarify this for me, or even point me in a different direction that might help resolve this?

Cheers!

[Lisa Gergets]

So, when you used Google's tool (no laughing) (okay, go ahead and laugh...it was funny)...you searched using "exact" and it showed 60,500 searches?

[JonathanBoettcher]

Actually I don't know if you can use the GKT that way - when I said exact I meant my keyword (full make and model). Guess I could have been more clear on that =).

But yeah - the GKT shows the same result for my keyword either in or out of quotes.

[Lisa Gergets]

Okay, the GKT is not where you use quotes. When you put your keyword in, below it and just to the right is a box that says "Match Type" with a pulldown menu. The default setting is broad, meaning that the search results that show up will contain all of the works in your keyword phrase, but in any order as well as separated by other words. When you choose the phrase setting, the results you see will be based on the usage of your exact phrase but with additional words added to the beginning or end. When you choose the exact match type, your results will be based on ONLY that exact phrase, no additional words, as-is.

[JayXtreme]

Hi Jonathan

Forget the keyword tool for now.. you have it as a baseline to assess things, but the BEST thing you can do is get some pages and content out into the ocean and get your own numbers for each keyword..

My favourite keyword tool, is my brain, and then after that.. my own vital stats dashboard

Peace

Jay

[Lisa Gergets]

As an aside, the quotes come into play when you're checking your competition... you can think of simply Googling your phrase as the "broad" - meaning it will show results containing all of the words in your keyword phrase, but in any order as well as separated by other words, Googling within quotes as the "phrase", and Googling in brackets as the "exact".

It's also extremely helpful to Google your keyword phrase intitle like this...if my keyword phrase was "make money online", I'd Google:

intitle:"make money online"

and the results that come up are based on sites that have the exact phrase "make money online" in their title (and it seems Google prefers sites that have their main keywords in their title).

[JonathanBoettcher]

Originally Posted by TinkerAndPo

When you put your keyword in, below it and just to the right is a box that says "Match Type" with a pulldown menu.

Oh man... I KNEW that!! LOL thanks.

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

the BEST thing you can do is get some pages and content out into the ocean and get your own numbers for each keyword..

Thanks Jay - that's what I've done. Since a domain costs $7 and a simple site about an hour, I've got one up now since I originated this post.

Originally Posted by TinkerAndPo

As an aside, the quotes come into play when you're checking your competition...

Yeah - I've got somewhat of a handle on that end of things. Checking for who's optimized for what. Cheers.

FYI - I still come up with a good 5000 monthly searches on the make/model keyword, even after using exact search in the GKT. Looks promising.

PLUS, I was able to get the .com domain for the full keyword, which is somewhat rare. Should be an interesting little project.

I'm still confused though - how come the massive discrepancy between the two tools?