Number One and No Traffic - Is Market Samurai Accurate?

28 replies
  • SEO
  • |
This should be relevent even to folks who arent using market samurai, because we all use some type of keyword tool to research. Allow me to summarize:
My main keyword for which i bought an exact match domain.com is at number one. The stats were 1,088 searches/day, seot (max potential traffic for #1 position in google) is 456.

There is usable content and links, the website title and meta description are fairly enticing, straight forward, honest, etc. but google analytics is showing no visitors and ive been at number 1 for a couple/few days.

any ideas why this might be. was the keyword data off? does google analytics have a lag?
#accurate #market #number #samurai #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author jan roos
    Did u use broad match or exact match with Market Samurai?

    If you used broad match go ahead and set it to exact match and see what the tool says then.

    Personally Market Samurai has always been accurate for me.

    Jan
    Signature

    I'll teach you how to make money like a Mamba.

    Sign up for the free money mambas newsletter!

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2712539].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jeff S
    I can't speak for MS, but I'll walk you through my basic keyword analysis that might shed some light on your findings.

    - Broad vs. Exact - Again, I don't know what metric MS uses, but there is a HUGE difference between exact match and broad match monthly search volume. If you're buying keyword-rich domains, this is extremely important.

    - The funnel: Organic gets about 70% of the overall click volume (30% goes to PPC). From that, position #1 gets 35-42% of the volume, #2 gets 11-15%, #3 gets 8-10%. So the #1 rank for a keyword with 100 monthly exact phrase matches would get about 28 visits (100 * 7% * 40%).

    - Other notes: The Adwords tool does a much better job now than last year in giving more accurate/real results, and the updates to Google Webmaster tools showing traffic by rank is helpful. Then there's the old method of buying PPC campaigns around your targeted keyword aiming for the 6-8th spot so that you can see impressions without really having to pay for clicks
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2712567].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
      Originally Posted by Jeff Scott View Post

      I can't speak for MS, but I'll walk you through my basic keyword analysis that might shed some light on your findings.

      - Broad vs. Exact - Again, I don't know what metric MS uses,

      -
      You can set it at Broad, Phrase or Exact (default is set at Broad....just like the Google keyword tool itself). When you export data from MS, it actually gives you 3 columns of data, one for each of the search types for each keyword.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713087].message }}
      • Tom, thanks. While im sure all three of those results/data sets are useful or they wouldnt have included them in the software, which is the most important and/or how do those number play against each other? what is my best way to analyze these number when researching keywords? it would seem that with each you get progressively less traffic. most for exact, less for phrase, and less for broad? any input is appreciated.....
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713108].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
          Originally Posted by NoFluorescentLights View Post

          Tom, thanks. While im sure all three of those results/data sets are useful or they wouldnt have included them in the software, which is the most important and/or how do those number play against each other? what is my best way to analyze these number when researching keywords? it would seem that with each you get progressively less traffic. most for exact, less for phrase, and less for broad? any input is appreciated.....
          You are correct, that traffic will go Broad-->Phrase-->Exact.

          But, i have a similar philosophy as Catherine. I do use Broad sometimes to help with keyword research and to brainstorm (if you have an exact of a keyword of 2k per month, but a phrase of 10k per month and a broad of 50 k per month...clearly there are lots of other good exact keyword domains that include your keyword (perhaps with the keywords flipped or in a different order) in order to get to those other keyword volumes.

          But, at the end of the day, when you are making a decision whether to go after a keyword for an article, or a page on your site, use only the exact. Everything else just won't get the job done and you'll be dissatisfied with the amount of traffic that you get.

          Tom
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713128].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
            Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin View Post


            But, at the end of the day, when you are making a decision whether to go after a keyword for an article, or a page on your site, use only the exact. Everything else just won't get the job done and you'll be dissatisfied with the amount of traffic that you get.

            Tom
            Exact is definitely the way to go, especially for people new to keyword research. Once you get familiar with keyword tools and ranking websites and the traffic you get from those rankings, you can play around with phrase match.

            In some cases I will go after keywords that have a low exact figure with a huge phrase match. Because, if you play your cards right, you can backlink 1 term and pick up traffic from 10 different terms that match the phrase.

            For example, I have one keyword I've been targeting that gets 1000 exact match searches per month. However, the phrase match is over 10,000. The page targeting this keyword brings in over 400 unique visitors per day thanks to all the phrase terms. When you backlink for a high phrase match term, you will find your page ranking for lots of variations of that term in most cases.
            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713175].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
            Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin View Post

            But, at the end of the day, when you are making a decision whether to go after a keyword for an article, or a page on your site, use only the exact. Everything else just won't get the job done and you'll be dissatisfied with the amount of traffic that you get.

            Tom
            Agreed for the most part but I wouldn't be too quick to rule out phrase match on a long tail keyword say three or more words. Point is that a lot of those terms don't have competition that is optimized for the long tail anyway. In many test I have run the page that is ranking for the phrase match does a good job of picking up ranking for several if not all of the exact match results using those terms.

            I'm working on optimizing a page for a term now that on exact keyword match i would have never bothered to try because it comes in low. However it gets five times the traffic on phrase.

            After analyzing the first page it turns out that almost every site that ranks for the phrase match is also ranking for several of the exact match terms related to the keywords and therefore getting traffic that comes in closer to the phrase match. The top three in fact are almost unchanged. Varying the anchor text in link building I am finding is enough to pull in traffic close to the phrase match.
            Signature

            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2720513].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CatherineC
    Banned
    I use "Broad" or "Phrase" only for brainstorming big lists of keywords.

    After that all of the data and research is done using "Exact", because in reality those are the only actual click-throughs you're going to get (unless you somehow rank top-3 in every single deviation or "Phrase" for that keyword).

    You'll probably be shocked to find that most exact keywords, particularly long-tail, don't add up to many searches per month. Which is why article marketers need to generate hundreds of articles a month to cover both their normal keyword rank attempts AND their long tail attempts.

    No easy way to riches unfortunately...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2712588].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jan roos
      Originally Posted by CatherineC View Post

      I use "Broad" or "Phrase" only for brainstorming big lists of keywords.

      After that all of the data and research is done using "Exact", because in reality those are the only actual click-throughs you're going to get (unless you somehow rank top-3 in every single deviation or "Phrase" for that keyword).

      You'll probably be shocked to find that most exact keywords, particularly long-tail, don't add up to many searches per month. Which is why article marketers need to generate hundreds of articles a month to cover both their normal keyword rank attempts AND their long tail attempts.

      No easy way to riches unfortunately...
      Good Advice Catherine. This is the reaon I like to use Market Samurai to dig deeper and find the keywords with high search volume and what seems like strong competition on the surface but in reality they are not.

      This is what I love about MS, you can dig so much deeper into a keyword and the competition.

      Cheers
      Signature

      I'll teach you how to make money like a Mamba.

      Sign up for the free money mambas newsletter!

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2712684].message }}
      • thanks for the advice, some good stuff in there.
        jan roos, id be interested to hear more on what you have to say since you have specific experience with MS. my understanding was that ideally, while optimizing for a particular 2 or 3 word keyword phrase, that much of your traffic would ultimately come from broad match searches. While you will get a nice chunk of the exact match traffic at #1, you will still get some residual broad match traffic as well? so if dog training was my keyword, at number one i would get 35-42% of the 70% that organic results get, plus maybe some traffic from people searching phrases like "best dog training" "cheap dog training" "where to get dog training" "dog training how to", etc....am i off base? thanks
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713053].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
          Originally Posted by NoFluorescentLights View Post

          thanks for the advice, some good stuff in there.
          jan roos, id be interested to hear more on what you have to say since you have specific experience with MS. my understanding was that ideally, while optimizing for a particular 2 or 3 word keyword phrase, that much of your traffic would ultimately come from broad match searches. While you will get a nice chunk of the exact match traffic at #1, you will still get some residual broad match traffic as well? so if dog training was my keyword, at number one i would get 35-42% of the 70% that organic results get, plus maybe some traffic from people searching phrases like "best dog training" "cheap dog training" "where to get dog training" "dog training how to", etc....am i off base? thanks
          The problem is that broad just picks up everything. Depending on the niche and the keyword, there is no doubt that you can sometimes pick up additional keyword traffic that would count as broad (but not exact), but I would never ever count on that. Go for the exact traffic, and hope for some "extras."

          I only ever use exact search traffic when I am choosing keywords to go after, as that is the closest you will get to a sure thing (which still isn't that close...but a heck of a lot closer than broad).

          tom
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713107].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author jan roos
          Originally Posted by NoFluorescentLights View Post

          thanks for the advice, some good stuff in there.
          jan roos, id be interested to hear more on what you have to say since you have specific experience with MS. my understanding was that ideally, while optimizing for a particular 2 or 3 word keyword phrase, that much of your traffic would ultimately come from broad match searches. While you will get a nice chunk of the exact match traffic at #1, you will still get some residual broad match traffic as well? so if dog training was my keyword, at number one i would get 35-42% of the 70% that organic results get, plus maybe some traffic from people searching phrases like "best dog training" "cheap dog training" "where to get dog training" "dog training how to", etc....am i off base? thanks
          Just because you rank for "dog training" doesn't mean you are going to automatically rank for "best dog training" etc. Other sites might be purely optimized for "best dog training"

          I always use exact match when I decide on a keyword to target. I check the competition on the first page of Google only and if I think I can beat them I go for it.

          As someone else already mentioned you only get about 40-50% of the clicks when you are in the number one spot on page one. The numbers gets even more diluted the further down you are thats why I choose high searched keywords even if it will take me a bit longer t rank for them.

          Hope that helps

          Jan
          Signature

          I'll teach you how to make money like a Mamba.

          Sign up for the free money mambas newsletter!

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713463].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author wannabeaim
    hi all,

    Ive been looking at market samurai today on utube. is it a good tool to use? i bought something called micro niche finder today but i cant figure it out so i was thinking about getting the market samurai and sacking the micro niche thing.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713075].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ianbong
      Originally Posted by wannabeaim View Post

      hi all,

      Ive been looking at market samurai today on utube. is it a good tool to use? i bought something called micro niche finder today but i cant figure it out so i was thinking about getting the market samurai and sacking the micro niche thing.
      Market Samurai is perfect if you want to dominate a niche, Micro Niche Finder lets you explore different niches or sub-niches that you wouldn't otherwise find out by yourself.

      In terms of analyzing SEO competition or traffic, Samurai does it best.

      I think PBR counts, in addition to exact match.

      Scratch that. PBR is way more important.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2720640].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author pcpupil
      Originally Posted by wannabeaim View Post

      hi all,

      Ive been looking at market samurai today on utube. is it a good tool to use? i bought something called micro niche finder today but i cant figure it out so i was thinking about getting the market samurai and sacking the micro niche thing.
      As someone else also pointed out.
      If you cant use MNF,dont purchase MS then.
      What i would do is go and download the free version of Traffic Travis,watch the videos,then use it to start.
      Or,if you do buy MS,download the 30 day challenge toolbar.
      Then watch the first 10 videos on how to use it.(MS)

      I use TT,the free version.
      Free version of MS.
      Wordtracker.
      Googles keyword,and the adwords keyword tool in my adwords account.

      Plus all the ones in firefox sometimes.I wont even go into that bunch for you yet.

      Actually,best to watch the videos and learn MNF.
      Signature
      I will be your Digital Assistance for cheap.PM me.
      I can help relieve your work load.Pm me

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2743467].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    I notice no one is talking about the PBR percentage in Market Samurai. (Phrase to Broad Match Ratio)

    I always use it to filter potential phrases to use. I set an initial filter at 20% to get an idea of what I want to dig into deeper. I avoid phrases under 50% if possible. The higher the percentage, the higher the likelihood it is the phrase they are actually typing.

    The items between 20% and 50% I will dig into deeper by opening them as another keyword, then choose the option to have Market Samurai analyze the phrase in all possible word orders (Add Permutations). You can then see which order the phrase is most commonly searched for.

    I just noticed Market Samurai has been updated to include the new features of the Google Keyword Tool.
    Signature
    Brain Drained...Signature Coming Soon!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713209].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Jordan
    I've been using Market Samurai for some time now and so far it has been giving me accurate results.

    I normally would use an exact match to find profitable niches and use broad match for brainstorming.

    You can check out these youtube videos for instructions on how to use MS to make money online. Good luck

    How To Use Market Samurai To Find Profitable Traffic Keywords
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713581].message }}
    • thanks for the link to the videos...watched half of them, need to finish. have started several ideas and may ditch a couple. i think my main site is still a good, attainable niche but im concerned that 1500 man hours later the traffic wont show. it seems like i may need to rank for quite a few keywords, which probably gets easier down the road. how many do you typically target per site? seeing the exact data compared to what i thought was good traffic (broad) is a bit discouraging though...may abandon a few keywords. thanks
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2713784].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author chrisbiz
    Well. I am using MS for quite some time now and really find it very helpful. Using it for keyword analysis, I am trying to make sure that that I set match type to exact with high PBR value. Usually, I go for 50% up, but most of the time I choose keyword that has PBR value of 70% and up with at least SEOT of 300 a day.

    With this, I am sure that I will be truly benefited with the organic traffic. After that, I sort out the rest of the keywords according to SEOT value and I will get the top five highest ranking keyword in terms of SEOT with at least 50% PBR value as may secondary keywords.

    But then again, the competetion analysis is a whole different story. But usually this is how I search for keywords. A tip for competiton analysis: If you will see in the top ranking sites domain names that include your target keyword, it indicates tight competition. In a case that it is full of high page ranking sites major players in your niche, let say amazon, you can still compete with them with your EXACT DOMAIN name, you can easily outcompete them. You may want to use Domain Samurai in checking the density of your domain name in relevance to your main keyword.

    Signature
    Virtual Assistantship?
    Need help finding Filipino VAs?
    Need help outsourcing to the Philippines?
    I can help you, FOR FREE. PM me.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2718158].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author kevinw1
    wannabeaim - If you can't figure out MNF, MS is likely to be over your head too - it does more and is more complex.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2721263].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Rockid
    further to the point of more accurate estimates - note that MS gives you GLOBAL estimates of a number of searches. if you go and test your keyword manually on google.com, .ca, .co.uk, .de, .fr, .ru etc you will find that your standing may be significantly different in other datacenters - you may be on first page on one of them, on page 3 with other and not even in top100 on the rest.
    unfortunately you can't get data for different datacenters with MS, only goog KW tool.
    the US market is usually 25-50% of the global market, next most important one is .co.uk for most english-based KWs
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2743043].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Derek Soto
    NoFluorescentLights,

    When we do keyword research, we never rely on just one tool. In fact some people don't even use Google's built in keyword tool because everyone knows the data they report on their own traffic is not completely accurate on purpose because of business purposes.

    What I've done with great success is used at least three keyword tools.

    1/ market samurai
    2/ spyfu
    3/ keyword discovery


    and

    4/ google's keyword tool


    If your budget is low, I'd still go with Google's keyword tool and it's free.

    Then get the data from these tools and calculate the average.

    What I've found is that these numbers tend to be more accurate and you'll be ahead of the curb on a lot of other people.

    respectfully,

    Derek Soto
    Signature

    Discover How to Create a Brand New $300 Income Stream Every Single Day! Click Here Before Sold Out <--------------------

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2743137].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author imhonesty
    Market Samurai is a great tool. However, there are bugs now and then. They are good about keeping it updated though. There is an update available about every sixth time I log into it.

    I have had issues with the "Rank Tracker" telling me that my sites are ranked differently than they actually are in Google. But then after i download the next update, it clears itself up and gets corrected.

    I don't think any software is 'perfect' - use your own judgment.

    Andy Moore
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2743190].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author erange
    Review the Market Samuria videos. They cover more information about the (4) Golden Rules than I can cover quickly in this post. Best guess is that you need to re-visit Broad vs. Exact....

    To Your Success,
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3773131].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ozmac
      I have both MS and MNF and you can spend hours on them and not be really certain if it has been worthwhile. Thanks for all the info here. I think cross checking ondifferent KW tools and averaging it out is really useful.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3773269].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Mizel
    Here's something to consider... Before you bust your ass getting ranked for a keyword or phrase, and assuming you have a Google AdWords account, run an ad targeted to that specific phrase and see what happens.

    I can't tell you then number of times I heard somebody say they were #1 for this or that keyword, but in terms of actual traffic, it was only a couple visitors a day.

    If you don't get any traffic from a paid ad, you probably won't get much for an organic ad. Volume data from trackers and tools is instructive, but in the real world it's about actual volume to your site, not the keyword.
    Signature

    Your First Paid Traffic Campaign
    www.MarketingMonopoly.com

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3773334].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author KelvinLee
    Sometime you have to check the Phrase to Broad section of the keyword research. There are some keywords with high traffic but the PBR is very small.

    For example, if dog training has a low PBR, it means that people are not searching for the word dog training, they are actually searching for dog obedience training, dog potty training, dog leashing training and many other words with dog training in it.

    Therefore your high traffic does not means that all of them are looking for dog training (This is an example). It actually sums up all the search traffic with the word dog training in it.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3774480].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Stupid question. How are you determining that you are #1???
    Signature
    Do Your Copywriting Skills Suck?

    Let Us Help You Develop Your Writing Skills!

    Submit Guest Posts With [ TheBitBot.Com ]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3774575].message }}

Trending Topics