Google Keyword tool untrustworthy

by Jacob Martus

Posted: 14 years ago 11 replies

Hi everyone. I am finally venturing into a new niche that I hope to build an authority type site on. I have one authority type site in the works and it grows in backlinks and content every week.

I have a good niche in mind for my new website...however I found in my first couple of websites that the google keyword tool can be very inaccurate especially with physical product niches on Amazon. For example I have found a few keywords with 4000+ exact match searches but its something like a 4 or 5 word longtail...and I know for a fact that it doesn't get anywhere near that amount of searches.

I have the #1 spot on a keyword which supposedly gets 4000+ exact match searches per month and I get maybe 2 or 3 hits a day from that term. Pretty far stretch from the 4000 suggested.

This does however make doing niche research a little bit more difficult with my new website because I'm afraid that I may target a keyword which appears like a good pick...and then spent a bunch of time backlinking and such...just to find out that it's not getting anywhere near the projected search volume.

Does anyone have a keyword tool they've found more accurate or anyway to judge a keywords strength before getting into a niche?

I've only found this with amazon keywords that are 3 or 4 letter long keyword string.

Help me figure this out so I can jump into my next niche!

#google #keyword #tool #untrustworthy

McBrett 14 years ago

Hi Jacob, What's up?

From my experience, the Google keyword tool is the most accurate. I use Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery tools as well, but they are also pretty hit or miss. I think Google is the most accurate out there.

I hate to say this, but sometimes I think you just have to use your best judgement when targetting a keyword. Does it make sense that many people would be searching this term? Not very scientific, but I think it holds true in some instances.

Although, if you're position 1 for an exact search term that gets 4K a month. That does seem pretty low.
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- Jacob Martus 14 years ago
  
  yeah I definately agree with the common sense part of the things. But I know a few of the products in the niche I'm gonna get in definitely sell...however I dont think the name of the product as the keyword in the keyword tool from Google are accurate. For example a 6 word product keyword in Google almost always doesn't accurately depict the amount of traffic that I'll get from the keyword.
  
  Just makes it kind of hard to find the actual keywords that someone is using to target that product when they are buying.
  
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Morpheo 14 years ago

Firstly, if you're going to use any keyword tool at all, make sure it's Google. Google's keyword tool ain't perfect, but it's FAR FAR FAR (FAR) more accurate than any of the others in my experience.

Secondly, don't assume you can use the Google Keyword tool to find "hidden" niches. Sure, you CAN do that, but a lot of times Google might say a counter-intuitive long-tail keyword gets 5,000 exact searches per month when it actually gets close to zero. I've ranked #3 for keyword that Google said gets 20,000+ searches, and I got less than 1 click per day. But this sort of thing only happens about 5% of the time. Most times Google is pretty accurate. Take their suggestions with a grain of salt. Use common sense to determine if your keyword should be getting such high search numbers. If it seems suspicious, it probably is. Be very suspicious of high search volume phrases that have more than 3 keywords.
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tjcocker

14 years ago

I like to divide what the Google KWT says by 10 before I even consider anything. It's been pretty accurate so far.

I have spot #1 for a keyword that says it gets 3000/month. I get maybe 10/day. Which, 10*30=300 not 3000. A lot of people skip the first spot, however I've read that the top spot should get at least 50-65% of the traffic. I should be seeing around 50/day, not barely 10 on a good day.

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medway

14 years ago

You have to remember that the volume is searches, not organic clicks. So out of say 3000 searches some will click adwords and some won't click at all. Plus that number includes some of their search partners.

So out of the 3k searches maybe only 70% or so of those actually click an organic listing and that's the number that a #1 position would get about 50% of the clicks from.

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McBrett

14 years ago

Good point @Medway.

If you want to get a better idea of how many searches there are per day try running keyword on exact match using Adwords for a couple of days. Then check out the number of impressions for the keyword. It will cost you a few bucks, but will save you a lot of time building backlinks for a terms you're not sure will get enough searches.

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medway

14 years ago

Originally Posted by McBrett

Yup great tip. The more you run adwords tests the better feel you can get for what to expect when looking at those numbers. I know some people might not want to spend the cash for this but compared to wasting time on a phrase with a signifigant difference in actual search volume its worth it. I also use data from split tested ads to help write title and meta descriptions for the site to convert more views to clicks.

I need to spend more time with the search based tool to see if they volumes it reports are any more accurate.

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Iknow

Banned 14 years ago

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tjcocker

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Iknow

Divide it by 10? LoL! That's way to much dude!

All the keywords I found and getting traffic for is pretty precise! I never divides anything! What I usually do is to take the number os mothly searches, take 30% of and divide it with 30 to see the daily number of visitors I will count on getting.. So:

3000 - 30% = 2100 / 30 = 70 visitors per day, and this seems very very accurate to me!

I think that divide the monthly searches by 10 is way to much. Maybe you're unlucky!

Oh well. Bad luck is better than no luck.

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medway

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Iknow

I also think 10 is too much. What I've seen is often 60-70% of impressions for that the keyword tool says when using an Adwords campaign.

I have also had 30+% CTR on an adwords ad which means I was getting 30% of the traffic for that word that day, which only leaves 70% for the rest of the ads and organic listings.

Of course some people will click an ad or listing, not see what they want and then click another listing. But it goes to show adwords ads themselves can take a big chunk out of the available traffic, which is already usually less than what the traffic estimators say.

All in all I really focus more on getting in the top 3 spots now as I've realized lower than that just doesnt cut it in the somewhat smaller volume kw phrase results.

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tools951 14 years ago

Yeah, Google is having some difficulties with their keyword tool, you can try searching the key phrase in yahoo search.

Furthermore, I know of another reliable keyword tool that provides you with the ability to directly query the Google keyword databases and mine for keywords to use in your Internet marketing campaigns. The tool offers the ability to create, manage, and export keyword lists as well and easily integrate with other tools such as the Competition SPY tool and Keyword list builder.

Contact me for the resource
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kwality 14 years ago

All keyword tools are inaccurate some under estimate and some over estimate. Plus the keyword volume may be seasonl like christmas gifts and easter egg baskets. But the two best keyword tools i have tried are market samurai and the google keyword tool. I give a slight nod to market samurai, since it gives a bit more longtail suggestions than the G keyword tool.
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Google Keyword tool untrustworthy

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