Do use it with a word of caution... may not be as accurate as it seems...according to this oldtimer...not sure if he's guru...
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Google Keyword Tool traps to avoid
By Allan Gardyne | Published Yesterday | 2008 Newsletters |
If you're not careful it's easy to get wrong search figures
Associate Programs Newsletter #374
Good news for everyone who wants a reliable keyword research tool without paying for it. Well, PROBABLY reliable... we'll see.
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1. Yippee! Google provides keyword search figures
... but watch out for the traps
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Google has added a wonderful new feature to its free Keyword Tool and now shows real search numbers instead of a little bar graph.
You can type in a word or phrase and see how many people searched for it at Google the previous month and also see average monthly searches.
This is a timely replacement for Yahoo's keyword tool - inventory.overture.com - which was unreliable and has apparently disappeared for good.
The improved Google Keyword Tool is now much more useful for basic keyword research for PPC campaigns, websites or product research.
But before you try it - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - be warned. I've been playing around with it for a while, and noticed a couple of traps.
If you're not careful, it's easy to get search numbers that are obviously wrong - far too low or far too high.
For example, if you dive in and search for "2009 calendar" you may think the average monthly search volume is 165,000 searches. Or think it's 14,800 for "seo book".
However, that's for the "Broad" search, which is the default. If you're doing basic keyword research for website planning or article writing, that's probably not the figure you need to look at.
There's a little drop-down box you can use to refine your search and get different average monthly searches. For example...
2009 calendar - Broad - 165,000
2009 calendar - Phrase - 74,000
2009 calendar - Exact - 49,500
2009 calendar - Exact (Australia) - 49,500 (??? Can't be right.)
seo book - Broad - 14,000
seo book - Phrase - 12,100
seo book - Exact - 6,600
seo book - Exact (Australia) 140
The Broad and Phrase options can include variations of your phrase. (Click on the question marks inside the tool and follow the links for detailed explanations.)
Where you live can alter your search results. I'm in Australia, and so Google "helps" me by tailoring my Keyword Tool searches for Australia. You can click on a link and tailor results for different parts of the planet or choose "All Countries and Territories".
Also, Google says if you access the Keyword Tool from within an AdWords ad group, the search traffic statistics will factor in your campaign's country and language targeting (if you target a region or city, only the country will be reflected).
As you can see from the results I received for my "2009 calendar" searches, the Australian result doesn't make sense. The International and Australian results ought to be hugely different. Instead they're exactly the same.
This odd result is a handy reminder that when you're using keyword research tools don't automatically accept the numbers. You need to add a hefty dollop of commonsense.
I did the same search three times and received the same odd result each time. I returned an hour later and still received a wonky result.
Google's Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
How to use the Google Keyword Tool
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=25918
Info about Keyword Tool's search volume statistics
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=96571&hl=en_US
Here's another little oddity... 45.5 million people a month search for "google" (exact match) and 45.5 million search for "yahoo".
