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Google's Keyword tool says this 3 word phrase gets 37 MILLION searches. Huh?

by wordofmouthmagic
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I stumbled on this in my Google adwords keyword tool, and I can't understand the results:

Keyword Competition Global Monthly Searches
direct access course 0.05 37200000
"direct access course" - 1300
[direct access course] - 590
course direct access - -
access direct course - -
course access direct - -
direct course access - -

Digging a little deeper it says 1/3 come each from Germany and Brazil, and 550,000 of these searches are US. That's crazy numbers to my mind.

Suggestions for what is going on? Please.
#google #huh #keyword #million #phrase #searches #tool #word
  • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
    Originally Posted by wordofmouthmagic View Post

    I stumbled on this in my Google adwords keyword tool, and I can't understand the results:

    Keyword Competition Global Monthly Searches
    direct access course 0.05 37200000
    "direct access course" - 1300
    [direct access course] - 590
    course direct access - -
    access direct course - -
    course access direct - -
    direct course access - -

    Digging a little deeper it says 1/3 come each from Germany and Brazil, and 550,000 of these searches are US. That's crazy numbers to my mind.

    Suggestions for what is going on? Please.
    You are requesting Broad Match search results, if you revert to "Exact match" your results will change dramatically.

    When you request Broad match results, you are asking Google to render any and all websites that contain the words you are searching for. And here is where it gets dicey; those results include your keyword phrase in any order and in any distribution.

    In your case you searched for direct access course and the 37200000 results included any number and combination of these types of possibilities:
    • direct access course
    • Of course, he got direct access
    • the access to the golf course was direct
    • of course our patrons get direct access to the bartenders
    By using Exact Match you only get exact matches, which on your case would be direct access course.

    Giles, the Crew Chief
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    • Profile picture of the author wordofmouthmagic
      Okay I get that. What you are saying is that phrases with 4 or more words are creating the searches.

      But it doesn't add up to 37 MILLION!

      The ones you suggest are good, but aren't ones I'd pick as high volume.

      Even more importantly, the Adwords keyword tool should show me what those other terms are, shouldn't it? And it shows only 3 longer tail keywords, and they only get 1600 searches each.

      That leaves just 36,995,200 searches left to account for. Hmm.
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      • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
        Originally Posted by wordofmouthmagic View Post

        Okay I get that. What you are saying is that phrases with 4 or more words are creating the searches.
        No, that's not what I'm saying. Those were examples for illustrations purposes only. The point that I was making is that there are a gazillion combinations that pop up when you use Broad match.

        As long as the keywords you are searching for are on that site, it is going to count in the results no matter if the page is referring to access to motorcycle courses, access to a bar, access to a strip club, access to a Lady Gaga concert, access to the NBA finals, access to the Super Bowl, direct access to Kim Kardashian's birthday party, etc., etc., etc.

        Originally Posted by wordofmouthmagic View Post

        But it doesn't add up to 37 MILLION!
        You counted all of them?

        You do realize that Adwords only renders 100 results per session even when you drill down.

        Originally Posted by wordofmouthmagic View Post

        The ones you suggest are good, but aren't ones I'd pick as high volume.
        Just to be clear, get your mind off of the examples I used and focus your attention on how Broad Matches are rendered.

        Giles, the Crew Chief
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        • Profile picture of the author wordofmouthmagic
          Sorry Crew Chief - I'm really slow on this.

          If this was 37 THOUSAND searches a month, I could understand what you are saying.

          But this is a different league all together. I've NEVER seen this pattern of having millions of searches, and no obvious long-tail phrases to go with it.

          Are people really typing in some combination of the words - direct access course - 10 times more often than they type in variations on say, - make money - which gets 3,350,000 searches per month ?

          But what you said about Broad matches made me go back and check:

          Keyword Competition Global Monthly Searches
          direct access course 0.05 37200000
          direct course access - -
          access course direct - -
          access direct course - -
          course access direct - -
          course direct access - -
          course 0.46 20400000
          direct 0.29 37200000
          access 0.13 24900000


          Hey presto it seems that direct access course is getting the same number of searches as the word direct itself, and more than either course or access. Impossible.

          Should I tell Google they have a glitch in their figures somehow?
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  • Profile picture of the author JennSpencerIM
    Google isn't 100% accurate so I'm not sure they'd say anything if you report this "glitch" I've never seen their numbers to be perfect for any of my niches! And it seems like they round up/down to certain numbers since they are exactly the same and I've seen that in almost EVERY search I've done.
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    • Profile picture of the author wordofmouthmagic
      Yes sorry - that last sentence had my tongue very firmly in my cheek.

      Apologies oh mighty Google for even contemplating thinking of the idea of mentioning that sometime you do might ever get something wrong
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      • Profile picture of the author scott g
        You understand that "broad" searches mean that those keywords can show up in any order, anywhere on a site or title... So "Get free access to direct deposit banking and a free e-course for saving."

        Phrase means that "direct access course" has to show up in that order - the words in have to show up in that order somewhere on a page.

        I really don't pay attention to exact personally. I use phrase competition.
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        • Profile picture of the author wordofmouthmagic
          Thanks Scott - yes I do get broad v phrase v exact.

          I quoted all 3 at the start ie
          direct access course 0.05 37200000
          "direct access course" - 1300
          [direct access course] - 590

          So it is certainly only a broad match issue - somehow.
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          • Profile picture of the author mad.hat
            Originally Posted by wordofmouthmagic View Post

            Thanks Scott - yes I do get broad v phrase v exact.

            I quoted all 3 at the start ie
            direct access course 0.05 37200000
            "direct access course" - 1300
            [direct access course] - 590

            So it is certainly only a broad match issue - somehow.
            With broad it can be ANY ONE of those words. All the sites that have direct, all the sites that have access and all the sites that have course. When it comes to phrase then you need to have them all in some order but long-tailed searches count toward it. I'm not so sure you understand exact what broad match means.
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            • Profile picture of the author wordofmouthmagic
              Eduardo2 - nice suggestion. A cap on daily spend might be needed too at 1 million+ searches a day.

              dburk - Googling "extended broad match" helped me a lot. It's a few years since I did PPC so this is news to me. That's really tough for advertisers for sure, but I didn't realize it would be an issue on the adwords tool. But good to know as an advertiser that I'm in a much bigger universe if I try broad match on this term.

              mad.hat - You're right I didn't get what broad match really means. I thought it meant +direct +access +course - and these were the examples Crew Chief gave. But broad match does not add words like you say "With broad it can be ANY ONE of those words. " If that were true then - direct access course sex - would have 10 times again the number of searches, but it has none.

              Now I look at the general keyword list again I find this term

              das 0.05 37200000

              Which is the German word for 'the', and means something in Brazil in Portugese too it seems, and probably many other languages. So if Google extended broad match somehow sees this as the same then it explains the numbers.

              Thanks all.
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            • Profile picture of the author scott g
              Originally Posted by mad.hat View Post

              With broad it can be ANY ONE of those words. All the sites that have direct, all the sites that have access and all the sites that have course. When it comes to phrase then you need to have them all in some order but long-tailed searches count toward it. I'm not so sure you understand exact what broad match means.

              Thank you for clarifying that. I didn't know any other way simply to put it!! :p
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              • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
                Originally Posted by FredJones View Post

                In a way, this thread is a classic showcase of how wrong someone new to the whole game can possibly go wrong while everything seemed "right" at one level. 37,000,000 versus 590 searches are not exactly comparable, and that's the two numbers (broad search count and exact search count) discussed in this thread. So in my mind, this is a classical classic!
                Fred, I concur! It's a seemingly little mistake such as this, [actually it's a huge error] that has propelled IMers to invest in thousands of EMDs only to find out that they were pining for low traffic Exact Match Domains that will only net a smidgen of traffic.

                I'm glad the OP caught the issue before he stepped off that plank!

                Giles, the Crew Chief
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                • Profile picture of the author FredJones
                  Exactly. The the bigger tragedy is that they go away, out of the business, often enough because of mistkaes like this with the impression that "Internet Marketing is a bigtime scam/mystery/whatever". Yes, it was great that the OP asked this question rather than trying to maintain the secrecy of the golden keyword and thus for saved just in time.

                  Originally Posted by Crew Chief View Post

                  Fred, I concur! It's a seemingly little mistake such as this, [actually it's a huge error] that has propelled IMers to invest in thousands of EMDs only to find out that they were pining for low traffic Exact Match Domains that will only net a smidgen of traffic.

                  I'm glad the OP caught the issue before he stepped off that plank!

                  Giles, the Crew Chief
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  • Profile picture of the author Eduardo2
    It's true, Google's result can be a bit dent sometimes...
    If you really want to dig deeper and get more accurate on search volume
    you can open up a PPC account on these keywords with a very high bid with an irrelevant ad (to not get clicks) and you can write off how many impressions you got.

    Do this only if you're die hard on finding out on exact search volume, although it is not that necessary.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi wordofmouthmagic,

    The Broad match option not only includes every variation of those three words, as indicated by Crew Chief, it also includes what Google calls "extended broad match" which pulls in other words that may have similar meanings.

    The reason the tool does this is because your AdWords ad could be triggered by any of those extended broad match keywords. The tool is designed for AdWords advertisers so it is configured to provide data based on how an advertiser would use it.

    You can still get useful data, but exact match data is the only data that applies to the analysis you seem to be trying to perform.
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