Google AdWords Keyword Tool – The Difference Explained

Hey Dave,

Would like to know if they’d roll out a localised version, seeing as they’re so big on localisation. However, I think it was always assumed that the hyper-inflated numbers were down to the content network and search partners 🙂 *even-smugger-smug-face*

Hope you’re well

Dave,
I’ve followed the other posts regarding this so good to see hear the confirmation from Google then. Good work.

I still prefer to compare number in Google Insights to a keyword from which I know the number of visitors which originate from a no.1 ranking.

Or simply use Adwords for a few days to get exact number of views.

@Andy – yeah me too. Am good ta 🙂

Good post 🙂 so is it more useful for SEO now?

You really can’t use AdWords to get an accurate count because of the revised quality guidelines. How do you make a determination of the proper subject (niche) of a site before you have th actual site up? If you do not put an actual well-targeted site up, your keywords will receive a low quality score — which means that they will now show up as often. So in short, Google has stopped the effectiveness of this technique.

I’m not convinced. I saw one keyword go from 90,000 to 9,000, while a very similar one was unchanged at 9,000. I think the latter one was always the correct.

@james you tell me the keyword I rank ~1 for it and we can see for real 🙂

@DaveN – You’re probably still top for “UK SEO”, but I’m sure you said it drives sh*t traffic 😛

It says 1,300 searches a month, I wonder how many SEO’s there are in the UK rank checking it though… LOL

So if you do the maths, if all the numbers are now one tenth (or lower) of what they used to be, does that correlate that Google.com only gets one tenth of the traffic of all its search partners? That would seem to be a low percentage?

About time they sorted this out.

I think this calls for another blog post on the best way to do keyword research.

It seems there’s something more going on than just no longer including search partners. Many search volumes are 10% of what they were, but not for every keyword. It isn’t proportional. There is still a considerable difference in search volume between the Adwords tool and the SK tool.

I’m lost. What really is the best way find out how much search volume a keyword gets? Adwords tool? SK tool? Has anyone else had success with Bartjan’s method using Google Insights? Any reason why Google Insights is more trustworhty than the other tools?

Tony

@Tony the search volume from Google search partners is unlikely to be proportional to search volume on Google.com.

Have you tried the tool both logged into your google account and again logged out? In my experience the numbers were drastically different. Hopefully they’ve since corrected this. Not sure I trust it, yet.

I believe the local monthly searches would not include google.co.uk if you live in the U.S. but the global monthly search results would include all of google’s domains and all search traffic across the globe.

I agree, that they appear to be more accurate, but in addition I incorporate google instant. I strongly feel that people are more inclined to use some of the results google instant provides, and a few extra relevant words after the core key-phrase that google suggest doesn’t hurt. I’ve already seen some great results by taking this into consideration.

It’s about bloody time someone exposed this scandal. I brought it up to Leslie Rohde and Perry Marshall earlier this summer:

http://www.leslierohde.com/2010/06/18/seo-mindset-reminder-8/#comments

Anyway, it just re-enforces what Seth Godin has been saying about SEO forever.

I am not arguing that Google’s numbers aren’t more accurate because they aren’t including partner data, but unless those partners dramatically inflated their search volumes, Google is not being entirely honest here.

I am seeing too many shifts in query volumes where search volumes are 1/10 – 1/100 what they used to be, and just appear totally out of whack with the size of the markets they could support. I have also seen instances, where Google’s search query numbers for a keyword are less than the amount of traffic that keyword sent

There has to be something else here

I’ve been following your posts and have, like you, relied on the Keyword tool to help build website optimisation strategies for clients. I have always taken results with a pinch of salt and told clients to do so as well. Now that Google have got their act together at least it’s a smaller pinch of salt.

Spot on Alec, that’s exactly how I feel about it.

What an amazing blog, I’ll be sure to subscribe in the future! /end Scrape-box s*am 😛

Jk, pretty good, I’m changing my keyword research strategy as a result of this, will rely more on the Google tool from now on and ditch Sk tool once and for all. As for the keyword difficulty, seomoz keyword diff. score seems to be providing good metric to see how ‘easy’ a term is to rank for. What do you think David?

I used to trust Google’s Keyword Tool a lot, but recently I’ve noticed that some of the results it gives are very different from those of other keyword tools out there. So i don’t know what to think anymore.

@Tony: any answer yet on your Q “I’m lost. What really is the best way find out how much search volume a keyword gets? Adwords tool? SK tool?”
Our experience is that SK tool somethings gives better data although its retired soon.

@David: Here in the Netherlands it is still bad. Also in the tool itself there a re conflicting help texts on it. On the left sight it tells us that search data are based on Google and its network. In the right site column help it says: only on google.nl

I asked a Google rep about this. Keep you posted and thank you for teh good investigation articles!

Its still the same.. nothings changed, google keyword tool has been a major time-waster for me , wish i’d have found this great blog before!!

Hi folks, Just a thought for you. When you put your keyword into the Google search engine with quotes “before and after” have you tried choosing 100 results per page, and going to the bottom and clicking the last page on the results list? Try it with a good keyword and one that shows low amount of results. I did it when it said 7 pages, and when I clicked on the 7th page, it ended up with only 4 actual pages? I found out that Google have said that the results are just an estimate. Then try this.Put intitle:”your keyword”inanchor:”your keyword” and then check the results. Don’t do it too often or Google will block your IP, so go through a free proxy server. Hope this helps anyone who didn’t know about this.

Even-though versions of keyword research tools are updated, inaccuracies remain. However Google has the knack for improving. Having said that, one should always double check search volume results in different keywords, before spending a fortune in building a site and SEO geared towards the same.

I’m glad to see that this has been straightened out, was really worrying reading your previous post on this issue (a while back).

Google AdWords Keyword Tool – The Difference Explained

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