about us
contact us
Estimating Search Engine Traffic With Google’s Keyword Tool
If you’re a search engine marketer, you’ll be glad to hear that Google recently updated its keyword tool to include traffic estimates. Although this may not appear ground breaking at first, estimating actual search engine traffic has been rather difficult since the disappearance of Yahoo’s overture keyword tool after their panama update.
Up until now, only semi-reliable tools have existed such as the ones offered by KeywordDiscovery, WordTracker, and Spyfu. With Google, search estimates are provided by keyword in a previous month format as well as average monthly search volume:
Implications
One video i caught on Robin Good’s site discussed that by using AOL’s organic search engine ranking data, search engine marketers can see exactly the kind of traffic they can receive by achieving a #1, #2, Etc position in Google. As the vlogger discussed, this will play an essential role in planning search engine optimization campaigns.
In addition to the above, I find that the above tool will provide useful for preemptive ROI analysis for paid search engine programs. As prospective clients will continually demand more analysis on how their hard earned dollars will be spent, this above tool can easily be used to estimate search volume and the associated PPC click costs to determine the “investment” portion of the equation. When combined with a predicted response and close rate, an initial ROI baseline can be determined.
As these are likely only a few new implications, I think its safe to say that this tool will become an essential component to any search engine marketer’s toolbox.
You seem like an expert on the Google keyword tool. I am looking for some advice.
I often search and there are 1000′s of results displayed in the Approx Avg Search Volume column yet the data from the previous month is “Insufficient Data”.
This does not make logical senses to me as how can there be no search volume (Insufficient data) during previous months if there are 1000′s on an average month.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Comment by Goran Web — March 14, 2009 @ 3:50 pm
@Goran
Estimates are just what they are…estimates:) I think what you might be seeing could be related to seasonal variances. Typically I use the averages because I think it’s a better representation of keyword volume in the long term. In addition, some keywords that do not display a ton of traffic volume are still worthy keywords to go after. As I tell many clients, you should always go after the most relevant keywords vs. the ones that exhibit the most volume. I hope that helps. Good luck!
Comment by Christian Del Monte — March 16, 2009 @ 10:44 am