SEO Confusion!!! Front page of Google = NO TRAFFIC

41 replies
  • SEO
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So I've been using Market Samurai to find high searched for keywords with low competition. I recently found one that, supposedly, has a ridiculously high search volume (according to both Google and MS) and bought a domain name using that keyword.

I wrote an article and it is now number 2 for that term on Google. I also put up a Hubpages, it is somewhere in the bottom five.

I know it's not the same as having my actual sit on the front page, but even the stats on the articles are low.

The search vol, phrase match is over 4 million in the Google kw tool. 12 thousand exact match.

Any ideas as to why I'm not at least getting some of that traffic?
#article marketing #confusion #front #google #keyword #page #seo #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePrince
    How many days has it been ranked that high?
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  • Profile picture of the author digiwebtools
    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?
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    • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
      Getting on first page of Google is easy. Having a converting article or landing page/sale funnel is the difficult part. People are becoming more savvy and careful with their online purchases.
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      • Profile picture of the author michealcdz
        Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

        Getting on first page of Google is easy. Having a converting article or landing page/sale funnel is the difficult part. People are becoming more savvy and careful with their online purchases.
        yeah i ll advice not to trust google adwords tool that much
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  • Profile picture of the author tamilseo
    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
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    • Profile picture of the author rainyclayday
      Are you making sure to sign out of Google before you do your search to see where you rank?
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  • Profile picture of the author bhuff85
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author lina75
    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?
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulaC
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author Malcolm Chua
    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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  • Profile picture of the author jminkler
    check the SEMRush.com traffic
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    • Profile picture of the author netkid
      Hate to burst your bubble, but simply being on first page of Google is no gaurantee of traffic, nor customers. There are too many variables to expect those kinds of results.

      Instead of banging your head against the "wall" to find where the problem is with traffic from first page of Google, the best way to get traffic and customers is to complement your Google page rank with many other "traffic getting" methods such as article submissions, commenting on relavent blogs, forum commenting, joint ventures, ad swaps, offline promotion, etc.

      Never underestimate the power of your creativity to add new and complementary ways to attract traffic! This is what successful IM'rs do but do not reveal.

      Hope that helps!

      Bruce
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaryT
    Originally Posted by kennyk3 View Post

    So I've been using Market Samurai to find high searched for keywords with low competition. I recently found one that, supposedly, has a ridiculously high search volume (according to both Google and MS) and bought a domain name using that keyword.

    I wrote an article and it is now number 2 for that term on Google. I also put up a Hubpages, it is somewhere in the bottom five.

    I know it's not the same as having my actual sit on the front page, but even the stats on the articles are low.

    The search vol, phrase match is over 4 million in the Google kw tool. 12 thousand exact match.

    Any ideas as to why I'm not at least getting some of that traffic?

    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
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    • Profile picture of the author Calamaroo
      Originally Posted by MaryT View Post

      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
      Hey!!! I hope the Market Samurai creators see this post and find a way to add this filter to their program.
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  • Profile picture of the author tribros
    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.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ren Han Tay
      Originally Posted by tribros View Post

      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.
      I totally agree with running a PPC campaign first before launching a campaign. Even though you will require to spend some money in PPC, it's totally worth it in the long run, rather than wasting all your time and money on building tons of backlinks to get rank #1 in Google for a worthless niche.

      If your PPC campaign drives a lot of traffic to your site and it converts well, then only you scale it bigger.

      Keep in mind that
      High Traffic Volume doesn't mean High Conversion Rate
      ONLY highly TARGETED traffic converts.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        What is overblown is how people check to see if they are
        #1. They always tend to skew the results using a phrase
        that on the surface sounds good, but not in the real world.
        Google and others will never, ever give you an accurate
        real world way of telling who is searching and for what.
        An exact phrase is very misleading. Most people don't
        do that. Think of how you do searches. Search for that.
        In fact, do a whole bunch of tests.

        Example:
        what is page rank
        what is my pagerank
        how do I get page rank
        check my page rank
        pagerank

        Those are real world examples for pagerank.
        If you are in the top 10 for all phrases, like prchecker.info,
        you have something. If you are in 1, your results will
        be very low. Google and others would not give individual
        stats for those phrases that are anywhere near accurate.

        Continuing with the above example. Someone says they
        rank #1 for pagerank increase. Then wonders why they have
        no traffic. Simple. Google will show a ton of stats for pagerank
        increase. But that's not really what they are showing. People think
        this means a ton of people are searching for just pagerank increase
        and they are not. This is what makes unscrupulous SEO people
        get rich. And drives webmasters crazy.

        Don't get me wrong. Pagerank increase would have some value.
        But if that's the only way to get your site listed as #1, then it
        is not going to get much traffic.

        A lot of people may disagree with me on what I said. That's fine.
        I can take it. We can disagree.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author andystealth
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author kennyk3
    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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    • Profile picture of the author A Bary
      It's obvious, people don't click on your site link..

      Did you check your titles/meta description?

      SEO listing is not different from paid advertising, you need a compelling headline (title) and great description to convince the searcher to click..

      It's not necessary that the kw data was inaccurate (sometimes it's), but with these huge numbers, I am almost sure your site description is turning searchers off..
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    Originally Posted by kennyk3 View Post

    So I've been using Market Samurai to find high searched for keywords with low competition. I recently found one that, supposedly, has a ridiculously high search volume (according to both Google and MS) and bought a domain name using that keyword.

    I wrote an article and it is now number 2 for that term on Google. I also put up a Hubpages, it is somewhere in the bottom five.

    I know it's not the same as having my actual sit on the front page, but even the stats on the articles are low.

    The search vol, phrase match is over 4 million in the Google kw tool. 12 thousand exact match.

    Any ideas as to why I'm not at least getting some of that traffic?
    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
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaunman
      Don't trust 1 keyword tool by itself. I think it is better to test it against a few different keyword tools. This gives you the best chance of getting an accurate idea of the monthy search volume. wordtracker has a good keyword tool that you can use.

      Also like others have said before there are other factors at work here, location, if you are logged into google, etc. It could be that 99% of other people in the world don't see your site in the top 10.
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      • Profile picture of the author JonasHastings
        ^ I agree with you even Google keyword tool is becoming unreliable so don't trust and rely on a single tool/software. Organic traffic sometimes are hard to convert to sales so be witty in choosing keywords that really up your sales.
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        • Profile picture of the author netkid
          If you can get to AWSTATS from your cpanel of your webhosting, that is a great "free" way to test what keywords and phrases are attracting visitors to your site in real time.

          There is a section there that grabs specific words and phrases and greatly helps me tweak my blog or sales pages to more of what real traffic is coming to my domain.

          I use this method in conjunction with Google keyword tool and Wordtracker "lite."
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  • Profile picture of the author pandorasbox
    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.
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    • Profile picture of the author FrontLineMentor
      I know the reasons. Your exact search volume that shows high volume, actually not human. Mostly are robot (manipulation to increase the search volume). There are reasons for the manipulation which I don't need to explain here.

      Another reason, 1st page Google doesn't mean high traffic unless if you are on top 5. Because on average:

      1st position: 42% visitors
      2nd position: 12 % visitors
      3rd position: 8% visitors
      4th position: 6% visitors
      5th position: percentage keep decreasing...

      Just my 2 cents...
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      • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
        Originally Posted by FrontLineMentor View Post

        I know the reasons. Your exact search volume that shows high volume, actually not human. Mostly are robot (manipulation to increase the search volume). There are reasons for the manipulation which I don't need to explain here.

        Another reason, 1st page Google doesn't mean high traffic unless if you are on top 5. Because on average:

        1st position: 42% visitors
        2nd position: 12 % visitors
        3rd position: 8% visitors
        4th position: 6% visitors
        5th position: percentage keep decreasing...

        Just my 2 cents...
        That's what i am saying. Already #2 is *significantly* less traffic compared to #1. Sadly.
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        • Profile picture of the author junkdna
          There is no doubt that Google Keyword Tool is giving overblown estimates. My site is on the first page for 15 keywords that should combined, according to the G.K.T. bring 40,000 impressions, yet I receive something like just 27,000 impressions. So, I would say that roughly G.K.T. gives you 100% overestimated traffic. Or, divide by 2 what Google gives you, and you'll be close to the truth.
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  • Profile picture of the author webbyworld
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author madzseo
    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.)
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  • Profile picture of the author dhex
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author marck_don
    Interesting! Gives me lots to think about! I learn something (usually more than one) new every day here!
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    • Profile picture of the author blueorca17
      I would check insights as well if I were you. I'm ranked #1 for a very popular keyword (22K a day) but apparently according to Google Insights there are only three months out of the year where it has that much traffic (June-August). It's just now starting to pick up like Google Insights has shown that it's done for the last 6 years. Weird huh? It's a seasonal topic, apparently. Kinda like Christmas.
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  • Profile picture of the author andystealth
    I would always cross reference with wordtracker and keyword discovery on top of google kw tool.
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  • Profile picture of the author angelx
    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
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    • Profile picture of the author Google.me
      Just aim and optimize for more targeted queries within your website it will make the numbers eventually.

      use wordtracker keyword tool
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Kovats
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author smallbusinessguy
    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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