View Full Version : Google Keyword Tool
Has anyone else noticed that the numbers for the keyword tool seem really far off for search volume?
I have compared it to many different campaigns in different industries and have noticed that it is not even close to accurate. I know it is a approx., but most of the numbers are not in the same ballpark!
Where are the numbers coming from then?
abbottsys
07-18-2008, 04:00 PM
How did you compare? These numbers are Google search volumes on google.com and their Search Partner network. Seems to me only Google would know these numbers. What could you possibly compare them to?
the keyword tool gives approx numbers for each keyword over the last month, in this case June. I punched in keywords that I have data for and found the numbers the tool was giving were very low. You brought up a good point about the search partners though. Maybe the numbers the tool gives does not include those and that is why the numbers are low.
michelle car
07-23-2008, 11:46 AM
The Google tool is including the search network...
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/07/keyword-tool-updated-with-search-volume.html
"you'll be able to see the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google and the search network"
"approximate"...I wouldn't say that!
It is most definitely an approximation. That is why in the keyword tool column it says "approx search volume for june" haha
The Google tool is including the search network...
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/07/keyword-tool-updated-with-search-volume.html
"you'll be able to see the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google and the search network"
"approximate"...I wouldn't say that!
rensquared
07-31-2008, 02:11 AM
Has anyone else noticed that the numbers for the keyword tool seem really far off for search volume?
I have compared it to many different campaigns in different industries and have noticed that it is not even close to accurate. I know it is a approx., but most of the numbers are not in the same ballpark!
Where are the numbers coming from then?
Use google adwords bro..
Use google adwords bro..
Huh!!? riiight
rationale
08-07-2008, 06:16 PM
The Google Keyword External tool is located at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal ... You don't necessarily have to log-in to Adwords to use it..
Also, some of you might want to take a look at http://www.google.com/trends . Cool Google feature that lets you see the trend in particular Keywords
rensquared
08-07-2008, 09:42 PM
Huh!!? riiight
Why, whats wrong with google adwords?
Robert_Charlton
09-02-2008, 04:44 AM
Has anyone else noticed that the numbers for the keyword tool seem really far off for search volume?
I have compared it to many different campaigns in different industries and have noticed that it is not even close to accurate. I know it is a approx., but most of the numbers are not in the same ballpark!
kg84 - I noticed from the time the tool started displaying numbers until about August 7, that it was dropping some big chunks of data. It was indicating, eg, insufficient search volume to return data on phrases that I knew to be very high volume phrases. It was even returning misspellings on some of these (a clear indication, IMO, that the correct spellings were likely to be frequently searched). You posted during the time the tool was having problems.
In any event, the problem got worse before it got better, it got discussed publicly (albeit not widely), and Google acknowledged the problem as a "known issue."
The glitches seem to have gotten fixed around Aug 8. While I'm still getting dropped as a bot from the public tool once in a while, I'm otherwise very pleased by the data.
How did you compare? These numbers are Google search volumes on google.com and their Search Partner network. Seems to me only Google would know these numbers. What could you possibly compare them to?
In my case, it wasn't looking at the numbers so much as at the relative positions. I was familiar with the market area, and I also had Trellian Keyword Discovery numbers.
Trellian numbers are not monthly search numbers. They're toolbar data, gathered over a period of time. I've found them to be generally pretty dependable as relative search volume indicators. Until Google started releasing numbers, the Trellian tool had the most granular phrase data available with numbers of some sort at a reasonable price.
There are some aspects of using the Trellian tool I still prefer... and, for B2C searches in particular, I now use both Google and Trellian together.
Why, whats wrong with google adwords?
I was not stating there was anything wrong with adwords with that statement. You clearly do not understand what was being discussed by saying "use google adwords bro!". I am using google adwords to do these comparisons that I noticed were off.
Charlton,
Thanks for the info. I apperciate it. This gives me hope that the numbers could actually be useful now.