I only use Google. But you still need to determine what appears to be natural phrases. I got tired of WordTracker because NONE of what I got from them ever worked. If they got their research from Google it might be different but they don't.

Just my opinion.

What does the googles keyword tool say?

[DELETED]

If the google keyword tool said 40 000 then I wouldn't worry about what any other piece of software tells you.

When I find results that are hard to believe using MNF or MS I'll double check with Google keywords just to see myself ( I know they are supposed to pull the data from that tool but hey!) and put my mind at ease.

To put your mind at rest PM me the word and I'll check to make sure your not going crazy!!!...................just kidding......

because it's a Global Scope, not just based on .com, but all the search engines combined, and how many do they have? 30+? And how many search partners do they have? Add all those up together, plus any others we haven't thought about, is your total searches. If you take a look you will see that Google has "renamed" one of the columns to "Global Search Results". I think it used to say "total" and the other to the left of it said "Month of" or something.

Personally I wouldn't rely on any of those numbers, although they are accurate, you need to do more research based on location.

Your best bet is to start off doing SEO first. Get as much traffic as you can, ie, 500-1000 a day. once you start pulling in that data from google analytics you'll begin to see where the tragetted traffic is coming from then straight away you'll have a heads up on where to or not to start your PPC Campaigns from.

Better way?

Go to google trends
Google Trends: baby gifts

I typed in Baby Gifts.

Straight away you can tell which country and it's city / state is the most popular for that term with the most searches each month

Now here's one where you can compare differences
Google Trends: baby gifts,baby prams

baby gifts and baby prams.

while baby gifts is hot in US, baby prams are hotter in Australia.


To work out what the 1.0, 2.0 represent, i think it's pretty close to 1,000,000 per 1.0... Use google suggestion tool to get an idea.

Then go from there.

Update: So my site was indexed by Google. It was a brand new site, a WP blog, up for about a day at most and it was already indexed. I have another site, a static HTML site that has been up for almost a week now and it still hasn't been indexed, and I have done articles, pinging, and bookmarking.

Anyway, my bookmarks are in the #2 and #9 position on the first page already for [exact] and broad. Over 8 million competing sites. And #2 and #4 for "phrase" match. The site itself isn't anywhere on the first 10 pages though. Which is weird. And so far the site is showing zero backlinks...even though it should have about 5. I guess some didn't get indexed yet??

You will never get good results from Wordtracker because its searching using lycos or dogpile or some other crap engine.

While Google result are returning . . erm Google?

I always use the free Google keyword tool - then slam keyword elite.

Don, you're reading it wrong... look at the main thing here it is saying to you.

TRIGGER YOUR ADS

Using Phrase, and exact match has absolutely no bearing on how many visitors are hitting google for that search phrase. Broad match does that.

Broad match is a collective set of results from all of their networks and search engines.

Exact match is the same thing, but it's broken down, the number is smaller because less people use Exact match in their campaigns, or don't get visited when a person uses exact match for their ad campaigns.

To use it for SEO purposes to determine how many visitors you could possibly get, is a waste of time because it's the wrong approach.


You take the Broad match number, the divide that by their total network of SE's and network partners, and take that number and divide it again split across the first 3 ads percentage that get clicked on, then the ads 4-6, then 7-11, then the organic results.

So, for instance.

you could have a phrase that has 10,000,000 searches per month.

divided amongst 50 networks, lets just say each receive 2%, that's 200,000 searches per month per search engine and other networks.

Divide 200,000 amongst the ads 1-3 positions that get around 40-50% (example) share of the click throughs, ads 4-6 around 10-20%, ads 7-11 5-10%, while organic results get the rest, approx 20%, which leaves around 40,000 to be shared via the top 10 organic results. (all an example)

So don't use Exact match to work out how many hits you're gonna get via google, cos you've all been given the wrong information. And google tells ya that on that page Don (Trigger Ads), not search hits you will get on your website by being in top spot.

Exact Match is what it is. The number of searches based on that one specific targeted phrase. It's a good way to estimate if a specific phrase is generating traffic exclusive of other keywords.

Exact Match will NOT tell you how much traffic you can get because that is dependent upon your search ranking for a specific INDIVIDUAL.

If an Exact Match says there were (in the past) 10,000 searches last month then you can roughly estimate (After comparing to Google Trends to see if Traffic is Stable) there will continue to be 10,000 searches.

Your ability to Generate Traffic will vary widely. For example: If 44% of Internet Users click on the #1 listing after performing a search... then if you were 100% all the time across the board for every searcher on the planet... you could expect about 4,400 clickthroughs for your #1 spot. And from stats published form various sources the top 6 spots are in the range of 70% of the traffic. People search look at first page results, then click or research.

Your ability to offer a compelling Title and Description plays a huge part in those click throughs.

Now back to reality for Noobies.

You will not be #1 or any other position for every exact phrase search across the world for competitive search phrases. Google is constantly updating results across their network. And they use GEO TARGETING, and they use COOKIES, and a whole host of other criteria. Yes if you are a huge company with reputation and history and tons of backlinks you will rank high for specific phrases over and over. If you target really specific phrases and work to get links with those phrases and have a history and reputation you can consistently rank high. But that's not how you gauge traffic.

Back to the Exact vs. Broad. Do you want to rank for Exact or Broad? I want to Rank for BROAD... it's more volume! It's that simple.

So use Exact to see if there is specifically targeted niches you can exploit, but don't expect a high ranking to translate into numbers that match your targeted phrase... too many variables.

And even if you have a high ranking you still need to convert!

Search>Rank>Decide to Click Through>Your Site>Stay or Leave>Click Through to Offer>Stay or Leave>Click Through To purchase>Stay or Leave.... Buy...>Did offer get tracked>wait>commission.

CONVERSION!

I've been at this a very long time. It's not just about a single phrase. It's about TRAFFIC And CONVERSION. Search Engines matter... but so do any incoming link sources that are targeted.

Good luck!

IMIQ:

You are right. Use EXACT to find a volume for that exact phrase but ultimately your goal would be to rank as high as possible for the BROAD variations of your keyword phrase.

I get what you guys are saying (the last couple of posts) but it still doesn't explain why there is a 40,000 difference. I understand the difference between broad and exact match. And because of this I make sure I use the same criteria when using keyword tools.

So that is not why there is a difference. It's not like I used broad in Google but exact somewhere else.

Don:

Maybe I'm reading his post incorrectly, but what I thought he was getting at is that he wishes to rank as highly in Google as possible for an array of broad search terms on his keyword phrase (which, in reality, would mean more traffic).

So for instance, if your keyword phrase you've checked exact volume for is "buy blue widgets" and you target that, you'd love to rank for:

buy blue widgets online
where can I buy blue widgets
best places to buy blue widgets on the web

and so on. Perhaps I mis-read his post, but that's what I got out of it.

I just read this on Micro Niche Finder site. Maybe it will help this exact vs phrase vs broad argument.



Question: Why should I put so much emphasis on Exact Match numbers? Wouldn't real world results dictate broad phrase match? The average person searching online wouldn't use quotes around his search.

Solution: The Exact Match Paradox! (By the way, we get asked this question at least once a day!)

Consider the following paragraph...

"I was walking to the bus stop yesterday and a big black dog was following me. So I took off my shoes and threw them at him to scare him away. "

With broad match, that paragraph would show up in a search for: black walking shoes... even though it has nothing to do with black walking shoes.

Now consider a website that has this paragraph:

"We have many different styles of black walking shoes."

That matches the broad match of keywords black and walking and shoes, but it also matches the exact phrase of black walking shoes.

Everything else being equal, Google will rank the page with the exact match to be more relevant for that particular search and therefore it will be higher in the results list WITHOUT the searcher enclosing the phrase in quotes.

You probably already know how obsessed Google is with showing relevant results. (And it should be! That's what keeps searchers coming back to Google for their search needs.) Knowing that, which of the following is more relevant to a search for: black walking shoes (no quotes)

1) I was walking to the bus stop yesterday and a big black dog was following me. So I took off my shoes and threw them at him to scare him away.

2) We have many different styles of black walking shoes.

Obviously #2 is more relevant and will get higher priority in the search engine ranking (all else being equal).

Showing Exact Match Counts in Micro Niche Finder is simply an easy way to show how much REAL competition there is for a specific term. It has nothing to do with the searcher using quotes around the phrase.