It was truly heartbreaking. I watched this man’s utter glee crash into a thousand little pieces on the virtual floor of a forum I visit from time to time. He was more than overjoyed. He was fully convinced he’d found a once-in-a-lifetime keyphrase with the ultimate combination of enormously high search count and ultra-low competition.
All the stars had aligned and he was about to become rich! At least, that’s what he thought.
You Have to Understand the Data
This poor fellow believed he’d found a keyphrase with a million+ searches a month. He was so ecstatic he went and bought a keyword domain to go with his new discovery. Plans of creating a website around the keyword filled his posts as he kept saying how lucky he was.
In actuality, he wasn’t lucky… he was uneducated. And then it happened. Somebody stepped in and told the man the truth. Then the walls came tumbling down.
Several people began to unfold what this guy didn’t understand about keyword research and all their enlightenment revolved around the data. (And his lack of understanding about it.) And yes, I chimed in too.
Here’s what we knew that he didn’t know.
- All keyword research tools are not created equal.
- The data comes from different places depending on which tool you use.
- Google’s data is enormously overblown because it isn’t “clean”. (They include automated searches in with human searches.)
- Keyword tools give you representative samples of the data, not actual search counts.
- You have to adjust the default settings in order to get realistic totals.
- All results are not presented in the same way. Google gives monthly search counts. Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery give ANNUAL (no, not daily… annual).
And a lack of this knowledge is what caused the forum guy to be led astray.
What Most People Won’t Tell You
Understanding where the data comes from and how it is presented are huge factors. For instance, Google only includes searches from their engine. Wordtracker gathers info from several sources for a more complete picture.
The default settings of any keyword tool are always on the broadest settings. That means it includes the keyphrase you’re searching for and every other phrase (in any word order) that could possibly be imagined. And most people don’t know to change the default settings or what the settings mean.
That bit of misinformation alone is enough to completely skew your keyword research results. Can you imagine what a jumbled mess you’d have if you thought the numbers represented one specific phrase when they really included a whole bunch of variations? But that’s what most people do.
Before you take on another keyword research project, you need to learn how to do it right and what the common pitfalls are. Otherwise, you might as well just be guessing.
Baffled by keyword research? Been doing it for years but still have questions? Check out Keyword Research 2.0 from my OnlineCopywriting101.com website. Clear the fog, make more confident choices, get more traffic.
(c) Karon Thackston, All Rights Reserved
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