Which Google keyword tool is to be trusted?

12 replies
I am doing some keyword research after reading a very interesting report from Charles Montgomery. He suggests using the Search-based keyword tool while I have always used the https://adwords.google.com/. So, I was just checking both of them to see why Charles used the sktool, and what differences I would see.

Well, I was more than shocked. I was looking up 'loan consolidation' and in the sktool I got 440 monthly searches with a CPC of $8.97. In the AdWords tool I got 14,800 - 22,200 with a CPC of $20.51.

So, what am I to think? I know the keyword tools are not to be relied on for total accuracy. But, wouldn't you think that Google could keep the same data across theier platforms? How is anyone supposed to make intelligent decisions with this type of information?

Anyone have any feedback on why to use one tool over the other? I am interested to know what folks think. You know, inquiring minds want to know. But, bottom line, I am just a bit confused as to how to proceed.
#google #keyword #tool #trusted
  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    Does that mean that neither of them is to be trusted?
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author Tron2k
    Sometimes I find it hard to trust GKT, I like to start there though, then I check wordtracker, treands, insights and and last but not least some manual looking at the front page for said keyword, I'd like to mention other good programs market samurai and micro niche finder are good also. Goodluck!
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  • Profile picture of the author tecHead
    I would go dig into the docs of both and compare their explanations of how the data is compiled against each other.

    Reading comprehension is relative to the person doing the reading; which is why newspapers have always been written on a 5th grade reading level. Meaning, you'd probably get a better understanding (for yourself) by doing your own research.

    HTH
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    tecHead
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    • Profile picture of the author BryanJoseph
      Keyword research a big part of Internet marketing and to me it's the most time consuming and stressful. It would be great if someone developed an automated method for how to get the keywords you need but I think you would need to have a program to be able to go by your criteria.
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      • Profile picture of the author timpears
        Originally Posted by BryanJoseph View Post

        It would be great if someone developed an automated method for how to get the keywords you need but I think you would need to have a program to be able to go by your criteria.
        Well it is not exactly automatic, but Richard lays out a real good process to do keyword research, especially if you are going after AdSense income. Check out his WSO in his signature a couple of posts below yours. That was the report that lead me to post this thread. I got to say it is a hell of a report and opened up my eyes to keyword research. And as you can tell from his response to my questiion, he has done his research. His report is worth probably ten times what he is asking for it in his WSO.
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        Tim Pears

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  • Hey Tim,

    I have a problem with the old keyword tool when it comes to traffic estimates.

    It isnt accurate at all! I was once building automated amazon sites at a rate of 5-6 a day. I was doing research on exact keywords to create exact keyword domains.

    I noticed that a lot of two word phrases that google showed getting 15,000-25,000 exact searches per month. I would build sites around those keywords, SEO the site and get on the first page of google.

    One example is Kindergarten Toys. The external keyword tool shows 14,800 exact searches. I created a site www.kindergartentoys.org. It was on the 1st page of google. I believe it is no longer there.

    Here is the deal. It has never got more than 4-5 unique visits per day. A keyword that gets 14,000 searches only gets me 4-5 visits per day for a 1st page site?

    Something had to be up. So I checked the keyword in the sktool.

    According to the sktool, the phrase gets 42 searches per month. How is that for a discrepency? 42 searches per month is more in line with what I know to probably be the real search volume.

    But...When it comes to CPC's, I like the average CPC that the adword tool gives. The SKtool's CPC's are way high in most cases. I find that the adwords tool represents a true average CPC for a keyword phrase, therefore it is lower than the SKtool

    Both have their uses.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
      Originally Posted by Charles Montgomery View Post

      One example is Kindergarten Toys. The external keyword tool shows 14,800 exact searches. I created a site www.kindergartentoys.org. It was on the 1st page of google. I believe it is no longer there.

      Here is the deal. It has never got more than 4-5 unique visits per day. A keyword that gets 14,000 searches only gets me 4-5 visits per day for a 1st page site?
      I just had a look at your example and there is an obvious peak at Novemeber through December. If you look at Google Trends you can see it in more detail. There is pretty much no traffc for that term until the end of the year. Did you have it ranking on Page 1 before Novemeber?

      You also must always confirm the traffic for your local region (where you are targeting or where you are ranked) AND look at the trends. The data will always be out of whack with a seasonal product.

      The SKTool I believe uses the previous month's data. I maybe wrong there but that would explain Kindergarten Toys.

      This here explains the difference between the tools - http://www.google.com/support/sktool...&answer=114875
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    @edhardy123

    I have no idea what you said. Was there a point to it?
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author RLT
    Originally Posted by timpears View Post

    I am doing some keyword research after reading a very interesting report from Charles Montgomery. He suggests using the Search-based keyword tool while I have always used the https://adwords.google.com/. So, I was just checking both of them to see why Charles used the sktool, and what differences I would see.

    Well, I was more than shocked. I was looking up 'loan consolidation' and in the sktool I got 440 monthly searches with a CPC of $8.97. In the AdWords tool I got 14,800 - 22,200 with a CPC of $20.51.
    Tim,

    I also found big discrepancy on the CPC vs. Sugg. bid:

    The old Adwords Keyword External Tool gave $0.05 for a three-word keyphrase while the new sktool gave $90.66 :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author mr2monster
    How does the Search-based Keyword Tool differ from the Keyword Tool in AdWords? - Search-based Keyword Tool Help

    Not horribly detailed, but essentially the adwords version takes into account keywords that are relevant to your sites that currently ARENT being used in your campaigns (keep this in mind if you're logged into your gmail, or google account)

    The sktool is based on actual search queries.


    In laymans terms, this tells me that the SKTOOL is for finding keywords that are actually being searched for, while the adwords version is an expansion tool to find other RELATED keywords.

    Something tells me the sktool is more accurate.


    This is all speculation btw... no one really knows the answer except Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author adamcm
      I an going to try this again tonight but I'm quite sure I gave up on the sktool because the search Seattle mariners gave me 0 searches. To me that seemed unrealistic, but will confirm later.
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  • Profile picture of the author Long Beach Nathan
    Well, I wish I had realized how different the two really were! All this time I've been using the external. There's a keyword I'm building a site around right now that has over 27,000 exact phrase monthly searches according to the external tool. I just looked it up on sktool, and it says it has about 1,000!

    But how about this. I just typed in Jessica Alba into the sktool. Guess how many searches it says that phrase has? Just a few hundred! Something tells me that number is WAY higher. Anyways, maybe now I'll just assume that the answer must lie somewhere in the middle....
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