Google Adwords - trying to understand the figures...
-
Whilst researching keywords I often find the global monthly search on google adwords tool differs, yet the local (UK) is the same (or vice versa)
Example:
ready mix concrete - global 90,500 & local 18,100
ready mixed concrete - global 60,500 & local 18,100
or
forklift truck hire - global 18,100 & local 4,400
forklift truck rental - global 22,200 & local 4,400I'm making an assumption that for my local country, the phrases ready mix" and "ready mixed" are being treated the same, as are "hire" and "rental" but globally they are not. Am I correct?
Of course, they could be two completely separate terms according to Google but coincidentally, have the same search volume. However, I find this happens quite regularly.
Anybody shed any light?
-
You are looking at broad match Gordon, I tend to look at the exact term (exact match), you could have terms coming off which are not relevant, which you would almost neg out straight away but anyway that's another thread.
Just so you know Google takes the last 12 months of data and averages it, and it's not the exact number of searches either it's rounded.
If you put both terms in again, tick both of them and choose 'Download' it will break the search volume down into months for you, you will then see different search volumes for the local search each month.
Hope that helped a little.
-
Thanks Chris. Yes, some of these can indeed differ when exact type is chosen, but it's not the case all the time..
-
dare I ask what keyword tool you do use?
-
In addition to what everyone else has said, be sure to check your match types. On a broad match level "ready mix" and "ready mixed" aren't different. On an exact match I would assume it could be different.
-
I expect that the search volume for these terms varies by season - very strongly in some parts of the USA or world.
Where I live ready mix will not be searched during the winter and the use of forklifts also has seasonal change.
So, flux in the reported volumes should be expected.
-
Remember, Google uses LSI in their algorithms - so usually when you see strange discrepancies like this it means that the terms are being treated as semantically related. E.g. - if you search for "ready mix concrete" you'll see both terms (mix / mixed) in bold. Same for forklift truck / hire - you'll see both in bold.
I cant say that I know if this is the reason its just food for thought. I no longer use the Google Keyword Tool to estimate traffic as it can be really off - but what it still does well is measure relative traffic (keyword x has 2.5x the traffic as keyword y, and so on).
-
Yes, I would say that is a very accurate assessment Gordon. For example, "ready mix" and "ready mixed" are probably used interchangeably in the UK, however, in the USA the term "ready mixed" would be used much less often and instead we would maybe use "premix" or "premixed."
I do believe those kinds of differences would effect global search. Hope that helps!
Also, keep in mind that those Google numbers are estimates. They aren't hard and fast. They are based on data samplings and not complete data sets.
Dana
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does Anchor Text in Links Count When Google Looks at Overall Keywords on the Page?
So, on our site, we have a list of related blog posts on a page that focuses on bamboo flooring. These blogs posts have anchor text like "What's the best bamboo flooring?" "How to install bamboo flooring." "Yada yada bamboo flooring yada." Because the main keyword for the page is bamboo flooring, would the presence of these words within anchor text on the page be considered as keywords on the bamboo flooring page, affecting that page and possibly stuffing within that page?
Keyword Research | | Syed10 -
Google update going to cause problems for me and maybe you!
Hi, I got a warning come up today in my Adwords account about exact and phrase match being updated to include misspellings etc Read more here: https://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=2537522 Now I use the Google keyword tool to research into exact match terms for SEO, gives me an idea of the search volumes I could potentially receive. If Google adds misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings etc this will change the data in the Keyword tool not giving accurate figures on the EXACT term. Any thoughts?
Keyword Research | | activitysuper0 -
What is the relationship/difference between categories and keywords in terms of google local seo?
I know that they are very similar as search signals, but I would like to understand the exact relationship. My company is in the process of adding local seo services to our seo offerings, and we are trying to hammer out a process for determining optimal categories for businesses based on keywords we are already using for optimizing their sites. Any insights or suggestions on how best to do this would be much appreciated.
Keyword Research | | CustomCreatives0 -
Why does google's autocomplete not align with google's keyword tool?
Is google autocomplete based solely off keyword search volume? Or is there some other factors i am missing here? Here's an example: Auto complete suggestions for 'storage toronto': [storage toronto cost] [storage toronto downtown] [storage toronto rates] [storage toronto leaside] [storage toronto prices] [storage toronto dupont] [storage toronto laird] [storage toronto eastern ave] [storage toronto ontario] Google adwords keyword tool results for these: <colgroup><col width="151"> <col width="129"> <col width="169"></colgroup>
Keyword Research | | adriandg
| Keyword | Global Monthly Searches | Local Monthly Searches |
| [storage toronto cost] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto downtown] | 36 | 28 |
| [storage toronto rates] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto leaside] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto prices] | 73 | 73 |
| [storage toronto dupont] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto laird] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto eastern ave] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto ontario] | 0 | 0 | So here is what i find confusing: If [storage toronto cost] is the top suggestion for [storage toronto...] then why does google say it has 0 monthly searches? Why isn't [storage toronto downtown] the first suggestion? or better yet, why isn't [storage toronto prices] the top suggestion? So either: 1) google adwords keyword tool is wrong. or 2) google suggest isn't based on just volume?? I've run these same keywords through Bing's Excel keyword information spreadsheet query and it came back saying all keywords had 0 searches ever, except for...drumroll: [storage toronto prices] with 7 monthly searches, once, in august, and 0 all other months. Now i assume that bing/yahoo numbers are significantly smaller, but this does show that that the same keyword is the most popular, so in some way suggests that google's keyword is accurate. So i guess this brings be back to my confusion, what other factors is google's suggest based on, because it obviously isn't primarily search volume. And yes, i have made sure to clear caches, and disable personalized search and search history, and tried the query in several browsers, just to double check i wasn't getting a personalized list, so we can rule that out. Thanks, Storwell.0 -
Google Trends not Consistent with Google Keyword Tool
Hi Everyone, I was doing a little Google Trends research on Real Estate and narrowed it down to my state. I have found that on Trends it is showing a two or three towns above the one I am living in showing that it gets a lot of search volume. They will put the top one as a 1 and then the others below it as like .87 or .675 etc. I am taking that as 87% of the top one or 67.5% of the top city in search volume. I checked these numbers against the Google Keyword Tool and found that my town still gets more exact visits (4 times the amount of the one Google Trends ranks #1) I can't see the actual search volume on Google Trends but was wondering....Which one do you trust? I have done some testing on it and realized that for the most part, the numbers in the keyword tool RARELY change. Do they maybe update it once per year? FYI: As you know I trended real estate so what I did on the Keyword tool is "Town State Real Estate" and looked at both Broad and Exact searches. I would appreciate any guidance you guys can give on how I should be paying attention to this data. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | blake-766240 -
Are the Volume numbers from the Keyword Difficulty Tool identical to Google Adwords Keyword Tool?
I use the Keyword Difficulty Tool daily. Because of the troubles with Google's API I can no longer see the search volumes. I still want to use the tool for difficulty numbers because I think this is a much better number than the Google Adwords Competitive bar. If I use the Adwords keyword tool for volume numbers, will that be sufficient? Is this the same as what Moz usually provides? If no, where is the best place to gather volume numbers? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | KevinBloom0 -
Google Analytics - Long keywords
Hi All, Question for you Google Analytics pros. In the keywords section of my account I see the various words that have been used to find my site. The top entry shows a big long line of text from my site and I wondered why this appears on the keywords. e.g Lets say I had "Today I went to the shops and bought a football" In the keywords I would normally expect to see 'football', 'shops' etc but instead I am actually seeing things like " went to the shops and bought a football". What causing this? Thanks all
Keyword Research | | wedmonds0