I'm trying to do some niche research, but I'm confused. Google says the search volumes may vary slightly between their Adwords and Search-Based Keyword tools, but I'm finding more than a little variation. "Black Dog Cafe," to use an innocuous example, shows 1300 monthly (exact match) in the former and 350 monthly (all countries) in the latter. Just for the fun of it, Wordtracker shows 14 daily (~420 monthly) searches for the same phrase. Any hints on which numbers I should pay the most attention to?
Different search volumes
- Thread starter schizoman
- Start date
Hi schizoman,
All the KW tools will report different numbers. Even for instance with web stats on your own host webalizer will report a very different amount of visitors and hits than awstats or others. (Numbers are just never consistent on the web for a variety of reasons.)
So don't worry about the count variance too much. What these tools are most useful for is showing you comparative KW volume - which key phrase gets more searches than another. And that should be pretty consistent across all the tools.
So if you search root KW luggage and "airline luggage restrictions" gets almost twice the searches that "carry on luggage regulations" gets... if you check with other KW tools, the numbers may be different, but you should see about the same search volume ratio so it helps lead you to the assumption that restrictions has more volume.
Does that make sense? I should have had another cup of coffee before attempting to explain this.
All the KW tools will report different numbers. Even for instance with web stats on your own host webalizer will report a very different amount of visitors and hits than awstats or others. (Numbers are just never consistent on the web for a variety of reasons.)
So don't worry about the count variance too much. What these tools are most useful for is showing you comparative KW volume - which key phrase gets more searches than another. And that should be pretty consistent across all the tools.
So if you search root KW luggage and "airline luggage restrictions" gets almost twice the searches that "carry on luggage regulations" gets... if you check with other KW tools, the numbers may be different, but you should see about the same search volume ratio so it helps lead you to the assumption that restrictions has more volume.
Does that make sense? I should have had another cup of coffee before attempting to explain this.
Hi, Linda. Thanks. Your explanation was quite lucid and helpful. For one thing, it helped me realize that I'm trying to establish a threshold for working on a micro niche. (If someone wants to throw me a number, great, but I don't expect that.)
Let's say I set a threshold at 30 searches per month. (Low, in my opinion, but what the heck.) In the above example, AdWords says "go for it," while Search-Based says "not even close." Should both tools meet my threshold?
Thanks again for your reply. Most of the forums I visit have helpful information, but this one seems the most user-friendly.
Let's say I set a threshold at 30 searches per month. (Low, in my opinion, but what the heck.) In the above example, AdWords says "go for it," while Search-Based says "not even close." Should both tools meet my threshold?
Thanks again for your reply. Most of the forums I visit have helpful information, but this one seems the most user-friendly.
I don't like the searched based tool. It's vague and you don't have as much control as you do with the Adwords tool. Maybe it's just a comfort level thing, but I go straight to the adwords tool and don't look anywhere else (for search results that is). Keep in mind also, apps like wordtracker are getting there info from 3rd tier search engines so it's always going to be lower. (because most people are doing their searches in Google, hence another reason to stick with the Adwords tool )
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