Why don't I see as much traffic as the keyword tool says? Options

[maria]

Okay,
Google has done me right for a change. This update put me up in the top five of my top keyword. Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool says that my keyword gets near 100,000 hits a month. Previous to the update, I was 10 and 11 under the keyword and my site only experienced 15 hits from it. Will I get some of the 100,000 hits now? Please tell me whats up?



Dan Oproiu, marketing consultant
http://www.marketingtops.com

[Grumpus]

Overture keyword suggestion is a nice tool, but it really isn't all that accurate when it comes to overall searches. The types of portals/search sites that provide Overture results tend to be a different market / user type than would typically use Google. It really depends upon the type of keyword (not the keyword itself) as to the accuracy of the count for the suggestion tool across multiple search engines. (Much in the same way that the Alexa Site Rank isn't a particularly accurate measure of your overall traffic).

G.

[Black_Knight]

Hi Maria and welcome to cre8asite.

I'm afraid that "what's up" is the inaccuracy of the reporting tools, and the unscientific relationship between how many request a SERP, how many see the SERP and how many then click a result in the SERP.

Lets begin at the beginning.

The accuracy of the Overture tool is known to be far off, because it counts the number of searches made through Overture and all partner sites calling in Overture results. This means that everytime an SEO runs a ranking report on AV, MSN and Yahoo, you already have three searches on that word with no actual visitors involved to any site at all.

If its a popular or commercial term you can expect many SEOs to be running such searches each month. Also, quite a few bidders run the searches to look at the competitors bids, again making additional searches that are not tied to any visitor. This kind of inflation of results can actually completely outweigh the real number of genuine searches, and in many cases the number of real searches made was only a fraction of those reported.

Secondly we come to the fact that we know that many people who search know exactly what the paid results are and always skip past them. I would estimate that at least around 10% of people do that, so that's at least 10,000 out of every 100,000 that will never click on the paid result anyway out of principle. In actual published studies, 30% of Internet users said that they would not use paid placement results where they knew that's what they were.

Finally, we come to the figures that many SEOs misquote. A large number of Internet users are not search experts and frequently fail to use search engines well. As a result, most users scan the results before clicking on a listing, and if what they see doesn't match what they wanted may then refine their search. The search was real and the SERP was seen, but a subsequent search was performed before any listing was clicked on.

Add to that the studies so often misquoted.
http://www.emarketer.com/news/article.php?...ltr&n=lead&t=ad

Another result from the iProspect survey found that 48.0% of users go no further than the first page of search results before clicking on a listing.

Read it carefully - 48% go no further than the first page before clicking on a listing. So 52% went past the first page before clicking on a listing, according to the study!

[Dynamoo]

I'd classify the Overture tool as being wilfully inaccurate, and really nothing short of a fabrication.

I know a lot of people who use Wordtracker and who are happy with it, but it's £140/$220 per year so fairly pricey.[/url]

[Web Diversity]

Any data is always going to be historical, so you have to bear that in mind when it comes to results.

Also, a significant percentage of searches that are made, are uniques, and it's by the use of tools like Match Driver that the results for some searches get thrown together with others.

Sometimes you just need to "use the force" keyword selection can be instinctive, and many a niche keyword will come from nowhere and you can dominate the traffic in that field.

If you are only looking to do the research for your own site, then a day or week subscription would not break the bank and would be well worth it in my opinion.

Regards.

[SteveiG]

Overture also includes singular, plural and similar words. Google searches are for specific words