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Google Keyword Tool Question

by brittlesnc
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
This may not be new to anyone but what do you think of the following information about the Google Keyword Tool from another Warrior?

It's suprising to me and I honestly don't know how IMers can overcome it without getting lucky for the most part when doing keyword research :

Originally Posted by niac7 View Post

Hey guys,

I noticed a pretty impotart piece of information at Google's own website.

Many of us use Google's Keyword Tool or some software or database that pulls from it.

Well, the info given here are NOT the stats that we want.
Attachment 3249

Basically, this attachment is stating that the info in the Keyword Tool is based on ALL Google Searches. Although it doesn't specify, this probably means searches from:
  • the main site,
  • image searches,
  • map searches,
  • mobile searches,
  • searches from sites that include a Google powered search function.
Who knows what else?!


It appears that the SKTool is the right tool for searches done only at the Google main site.

However, if you've ever used that tool, it goes down a lot. I can do about 3 searches and then it malfunctions and it basically sucks.

The reason this important is because a lot of people use the Keyword Tool for Micro Niche sites and search for terms with a small, yet decent amount of traffic (1000 - 5000 searches).

The problem is that some of these numbers are wrong and some are right. Some of the terms could have the bulk of their searches from the main page and we would be fine.

But some could have only about 50 searches from the home page and the rest of the search volume from other Google channels. So, getting on page 1 will not do you much good if only 50 people see you each month.

So, basically, Google Keyword Tool is hit or miss and makes our research highly inefficient. This is why we've seen an increasing amount of posts from Warriors making page one and getting no traffic. The data was misleading.

Our best hope is trying their SKTool, but again, it is not very reliable either.

Any other suggestions would be great.
#google #keyword #question #tool
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi brittlesnc,

    Why in the world would you assume that the affiliated search properties not return search results that people click on just like on Google.com? Is traffic from those other search locations not valuable? Somehow meaningless? Do you put up a script on you website that blocks traffic that comes from Google's search services if it doesn't originate from Google.com?

    Perhaps the conversion rates are a bit different, but are they better or worse? Maybe they are just the same. I don't think you should assume that absolutely no traffic comes from those searches or that the traffic is somehow worthless.
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    • Profile picture of the author brittlesnc
      Sorry to offend you dburk lol. But I also think you've missed the point. I never said that people don't click on those results from other search properties, it's just that those search properties don't bring up the same exact results in the same exact order.

      In fact, from what I understand those other search properties sometimes show totally different results. So I might show up on page 1 for google.com but page 10 for a different search property (whose going to see me on page 10 lol).

      But anyway, I don't discredit other sources of traffic but the likelihood of you getting even half of that 4K searches a month greatly decreases don't you think?

      Would explain why I have a few sites ranking #1-#3 for keywords that only get a trickle of traffic when according to GAKT the keyword supposedly gets 3,600 searches a month exact keyword match.

      And I've read on this forum how it happens to other people too.

      Any way to combat this??? Go after keywords with more monthly searches? Just hope and pray I pick a keyword with accurate monthly search volume number?

      I'm open to suggestions.
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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Hi brittlesnc,

        What you say is mostly true, however those other properties are typically a tiny portion of the total numbers, in most cases 99% of the total numbers are coming from Google's SERPs.

        There are other plausible reasons that you are seeing the results you indicated. Let's do the math, shall we?

        Not all searches result in a click through, on average only about half of all searches will receive a click so when we apply that to your 3600 searches here's what we get:

        3600 searches = 1800 clicks.

        The #3 position gets about 12% of those clicks on average so that means:

        1800 * 0.12 = 216 clicks per month.

        We divide that by 30 days in a month:

        216/30 = 7.2 visitors per day.

        Now if the keyword has commercial intent tied to it then you are likely to have sponsored results that often take more than half of those clicks bringing the average number of daily visitors to about 3.5, and that assumes that you have a great title and description for your listing or it could be considerably lower, maybe 1 a day.

        Of course these are averages and some keywords vary a great deal from the averages so you might see more, or even less. The bottom line is that 3600 searches isn't all that great of a number. It's okay if you hit number one, have no strong PPC competition, have a killer title and description in your text snippet, and an above average CTR. You might get dozens of visitors a day, but that's a lot of ifs.
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        • Profile picture of the author brittlesnc
          Thanks for the explanation and clearing this whole thing up.

          I've also heard something to this effect about the percentage of visitors the top 3 get but I just didn't know if it were true or not.

          And basically anything not in the top 3 for a keyword with just 3,600 searches a month gets next to nothing in traffic.

          Also, thanks for the "alot of ifs," it does put things in perspective and gives me a realistic outlook.

          So the solution would probably be to after keywords with more searches and/or less competition correct?
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          • Profile picture of the author dburk
            Originally Posted by brittlesnc View Post

            So the solution would probably be to after keywords with more searches and/or less competition correct?
            Yes, definitely go for all the low hanging fruit first, but don't be afraid to compete for keywords that have high search volume if you believe the conversions can pay off. I usually setup a PPC campaign to test the viability of the keyword and to test different headlines/titles and text snippets to find the highest CTR and conversion rates before launching my SEO campaign.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoforu
    I don't agree at all...the Google keyword tool is still the best tool...
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    Guest post links are effective when they are contextual and natural!!

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    • Profile picture of the author jeffybrown
      yes google tool is the best no doubt
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  • Profile picture of the author Domenic Carlson
    Someone said that this is the reason that a lot of posts are on here suggesting that they are on the first page but they get no traffic.

    This is partly because being on the first page does not guarantee that someone is actually going to click on your site.

    Your site has to have a compelling answer to the searcher's question and it has to not look spammy. If the description that people see under the title on the SERP is just stuffed with keywords, then I don't care if you're in position #1 - you won't get a lot of traffic.
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