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Keyword research - what figures should I believe?

by izzymay
8 replies
Hi warriors,

We all know that getting keyword research right is one of the core keys to success online - and to be frank I'm having real problems with this area because I don't know what figures to believe.

For example, I currently have a site that targets the keywords "gas bbq grill" and "gas bbq grills", and I have managed to get my site to rank around position 5 on the first page of google for "gas bbq grill" and position 22 for "gas bbq grills".

According to both Microniche Finder and Market Samurai the keyword "gas bbq grill" gets 5,400 exact local searches per month and the keyword "gas bbq grills" gets 49,500 exact local (US market) searches per month.

It was bacause of these figures and relatively low competition that I decided to build my site and now having achieved the rankings that I have, I expected to be getting more than the 140 unique visits a month that I actually am getting.


However, according to the Google KW tool tool "gas bbq grill" gets only 480 local (US market) searches a month and "gas bbq grills" gets only 720 local searches.

These figures are vastly different to the figures given by the other 2 kw tools.

I have continued to do more keyword research on other keywords and this huge discrepancy between the figures that the google kw tool returns and what the other kw tools return continues.

I can't understand this! I have been careful to make sure that all the tools are targetting the U.S market.

These huge discrepancies are making it very difficult for me to make any informed decisions regarding keywords for future projects.

I would really appreciate your take on all this. Have any of you experienced these huge discrepancies?

Kind regards

Chris
#figures #keyword #research
  • Profile picture of the author Thomas De
    Both, Market Samurai and Micro Niche Finder are getting their results from the google keyword tool. I`m wondering why you got different amounts of traffic volume. Could it be that you did´nt filtered to exact match in MNF and MS?
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  • Profile picture of the author Samuel Baker
    I think this type of thing may be fairly common as I have run into a lot of discrepancies with search volumes whether it be local or other. I to use the Google Keyword Tool for most of my research & on the odd occasion used Market Samurai, saying that when I used both tools above to find my keywords and their respective search volumes numbers were different but the gap wasn't large as you have described in your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author dansevigny
    You should use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool adwords dot google dot com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

    Really too bad they discontinued the legacy version... was so much better.

    Just remember to use "Exact" search when estimating traffic for specific keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author peakperformer
    Hey Chris,

    stick to the google keyword tool. But change the search format to exact search results.

    google also tend to overshow results, so for example is the exact search volume for the KW "make money" is 5000, then i usually treat it that it's around "3500-4000".

    So far by using google, i have created numerous "sniper sites" (micro-niche sites that target specifc KWs) and they are all pretty successful all thanks to the statistic that google KW tool has provided me with.

    Just remember to minus off some search volume numbers as i stated above.

    Hope this helps

    YS
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    • Profile picture of the author darksky
      Chris,

      I just ran gas bbq grill in Google's Keyword Tool as an "exact match" and it shows "1000" Global Monthly Searches. (I'm in the US).

      As you're probably aware, until a few days ago Market Samurai was still pulling their numbers from Google Legacy Keyword Tool. These numbers compared against numbers from Google's current tool vary considerably. I personally have seen up to a 4x difference in Global Monthly Search counts - but I've read on Warriors some have seen up to a 10x difference (depending on keywords).

      Assuming you're running the latest version of Market Samurai - try rechecking the results for your two keyword phrases in MS, and compare them now against Google's Keyword Tool. (I haven't updated mine yet as I'm still running comparisons between the old legacy data and the new Google data).

      Google's legacy data I think showed results not just from Google Searches - but also searches made in their partner network. The new Google Keyword data reflects actual searches on Google only.

      Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author phpnetpro
    The Google numbers, no matter where you get them from or what time period they are from, will be distorted to a certain extent. They are right saying you should use the "exact" keyword search to estimate the traffic.

    When Google shows that a keyword phrase like gas bbq grill is getting 50k searches monthly, it's a combination of two things really. #1, it's some kind of an average/estimation. #2, it's a pretty broad generalization.

    I can explain #2 briefly. Consider how Google strips stop words from content when it is dealing with keywords. I am under the impression that gas bbq grill could really be a search for "gas for bbq grill" or "bbq grill gas" or "where to buy a gas tank for my bbq grill". Even if you rank #1 for "gas bbq grill", you will not necessarily even be in the top 10 for every single related keyword search. This can lead you to think you will get a lot more search traffic than you end up getting. The good news is that you're on the right track.

    I also deal with local searching and trend searching a lot. Your keyword phrase is likely a bit of a trending keyword seasonally (ie, more searches in summer than winter). Some of the stuff I target are keywords that will bring me a few hundred (or thousand) hits in a single day or two, then it plummets to almost nothing. Sometimes, you just have to take a best guess at what people will search for. With many of the keywords I deal with, they will never show up on a keyword tool anywhere/ever.

    I just thought my somewhat different keyword experience might be a good perspective for you.

    Best of luck to you.

    p.s. - to answer the question in the subject of your post: "Believe NONE OF THEM!" They are great guides and indicators, but the actual numbers will almost never ring true.
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  • Profile picture of the author ianbong
    Traffic values will fluctuate anyway. There's no way to determine an exact figure. The best shot is to estimate a rough value and take it from there.
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    • Profile picture of the author leclaims
      I've always used Google Keyword Tool when checking search statistics for specific keywords. Seems to be pretty accurate for the most part.

      Not sure how much this affects the numbers or not, but the keyword statistics that you find in the KW tool for a particular keyword or phrase could also be the result of other IMers searching for their own sites in search results for the same keywords that you are targeting. The statistics may not necessarily reflect actual customers searching for product. Might be a small percentage, but it's just a thought anyway.
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