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How many days has it been ranked that high?

I am also confused about my targeted keywords.
Google Keywords Tool shows global monthly search volume over 330,000.
After hard work, my site is on 3rd position for full keyword search, but I hardly get 10 visitors for that keyword per month.
Any thought?

Don't trust google adwords tool. It is overly inflated. I had same problem on some of my sites, my site is ranking but very less traffic

When you did your research on Market Samurai, did you search for the term as a "broad" phrase or "exact". Searching the phase for "exact" will show you how many searches that exact phrase gets daily. That might be something to you want to look into, as the daily search volume for the exact phrase could be incredibly low.

Sometimes depending on where you are, your website could be 1st page of google in Other countries but 2nd page in google USA. I think that also depends on where you get your backlinks from?

Are you signed into Google when you are doing the search? It will give you a different result when you are signed in to when you are signed out.

Traffic also depends on your website title, is your title compelling ? To get real estimation traffic, can use Google Adwords to get on the number of impressions, just put $10 to try out.

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check the SEMRush.com traffic

This is why I always recommend running an Adwords campaign BEFORE you spend any time trying to rank organically. There's a lot of focus on getting ranked, but a lot of people don't really have any idea what the real level of traffic is (and which ones turn into buyers) before they start trying to rank for phrases.

This sounds like a classic case of ranking for something that people don't click on much.

You might get better results if your title and description information are more appealing so I'd start testing that to see.

This is another one of those reasons why people shouldn't think they can help offline businesses until they've got results for themselves - you can promise someone google rankings (although I wouldn't) and even deliver on that promise and still not have made any difference to the business they get.

It's important to know the difference between ranking for a phrase that gets business and one that doesn't.

here is hwo to check:
Step1/ collect the domains names of the top ten
Step2. check the domains in Alexa , Compete & spyfu
Step3. you have some infos to knwo better of the value,
if you find a few websites with no traffic at Alexa; you better run away or target another keyword with this domain

my 2 cents
Mary T

Yes I was in the exact position few years ago but learned my lesson and now I always first test on PPC and know the exact traffic level. You do the same for your keywords.

From my experience and what many of you have posted, it seems to me it's a combination of several possibilities.

1) Google monthly search numbers are sometimes inflated...sometimes by a lot.
2) Be sure to sign out of google before you search (or use another browser not signed into gmail or any google searvices). I've seen my own sites rank number 1 or 2 when in reality it's not even in the first 5 pages.
3) Using "ad-like" title+description definitely helps click throughs, but in your case, if the google search figures are accurate and/or if you've signed out of google/gmail when checking, you should be getting a lot more than you are seeing regardless of a mediocre title+desc combination!

I'm heavily leaning towards #1 (google search numbers being way off), as the most likely scanario. I've seen too many from my tests.

To avoid this happening in the future, try to verify traffic by testing with PPC before spending precious time on building SEO site, articles, link building, etc. MaryT's suggestion on checking alexa/quantcast of top sites is also refreshing and can help give a good idea whether the sites get at least the amount of traffic shown by google figures.

Thanks everyone for all the great info.

Could anyone give me a good idea on the steps to running a PPC campaign to test keywords. I've never done anything like that before and really wouldn't know where to start or what to look for. Mostly, I'm concerned with the cost.

Again, thanks so much for all the help.

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As the others said, there are many factors and its actually impossible to say what's the reason without knowing that keyword and as well examining your sites/articles.

The 12 thousand "exact" is actually not that much, i assume this is monthly because you used Google keyword tool. Lets take this number, makes approx 400 people "searching" for this every day according to google.

Now calculate how many of those 400 might go to your site (sadly, #1 in google will always SIGNIFICANTLY get more), so we could ESTIMATE you might get anywhere from 50 - 250 (rough guess) to your article.

While "front page of google" sounds nice first, it could still be very little traffic...let alone how many of the traffic then actually check out your offers and then, ultimately, BUY.

I have the same problem with a site which is #2 on Google, while #2 in Google sounds nice...the actual sales make me think twice whether the SEO effort was actually worth it But, well, at least the traffic is free

ok, I had same problem with a client that was asking me same thing. Google does estimates based on PPC and adwords, banners, that is the traffic they show. Sometimes it is 0 traffic for actual search engine.

I think getting top on search engine like Google is very necessary. But apart from that you also need to use eye catchy description and title. Title tag is the first most important factor in on page SEO. You need to use it properly. Also for off page you should work in an organized way. Article marketing, video marketing and link building with niche sites definitely can help you to get good visitors to your site.

A good title and an enticing description (better if it has a sales focus) would help you get more visitors to your site.

400 a day search volume does not necessarily mean that all 400 of them would go to your site. improve the title and description (but make sure you still have your targeted keywords there) to improve ctr.

You may also want to research on conversion optimization so that the people who do go to your site would become customers. (In a physical store not all people who go in buy from the store, in the same way not everyone who visits your site would buy from your site but there are ways so that the chances will become higher.)

I also advice you to check on the monthly search trend. Some keywords have a lot search, but its seasonal. That can make the total (average) search count big. And also you can check Google insight to see how the keyword has been doing over the past 4 years.

Most people here mentioned to check your title and meta description thoroughly, i agree on that but if you can make it to #1 spot and if your title has your full keyword, chances are people will visit your site just because they see the term they are searching for in your title without reading your description.

If you also think the SERP you are receiving is personalized, append the following parameter on Google's URL to get general search result from the US region

&pws=0&gl=US

To check a keyword on adword, here is what you can do.

1-setup a campaign using your keyword.
2-create an ad, which is totally irrelevant to the keyword you are testing
3-set your CPC high enough so that you can be on page 1 all the time.

run the campaign for 24hrs or for as long as you like and you'll get some idea from the number of impressions you get on your adword report.

hope that helps.

Interesting! Gives me lots to think about! I learn something (usually more than one) new every day here!

I would always cross reference with wordtracker and keyword discovery on top of google kw tool.

I have found this constantly with my websites. Many are ranking at number 1, but they are not bringing in very much traffic. According to google the exact number of people searching for one of my terms is 40,000 but the site only brings in around 2000 visitors per month. It is at number 1 in the uk and us which is where the searchers are I think

Try searching through an anonymous proxy too. Google stores info in your cache whether you asre logged into your account or not. Maybe you really aren't there.

Bottom line: never depend too much on tools. user your brain and manual work to confirm what market samurai is telling is indeed the fact

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