How do I balance conflicting keyword research tools?
-
We've been using Wordtracker for years to find viable long tail keyword options. Lately, we've begun to doubt the true usefulness of this tool. We have implemented good optimization efforts using relevant keywords that Wordtracker suggests as reasonably well-searched with relatively low competition. Even when we rank well for these words, we get no traffic for them.
Subsequent checking of these words in Google AdWords reveal that Google has found no searches for these words at all.
Suspicious, we've begun cross-checking our keywords in AdWords and the Moz Keyword Difficulty tool. But now I keep getting contradictory reports.
For example, a keyword I recently checked reported thus:
In Wordtracker: high competition and low search
In AdWords: high competition and decent search
In Moz: only moderately competitive
Who do I believe? How do other people weight the opinions of the various keyword research tools?
-
Thanks for the input. For the sake of clarity (specifically, my clarity), could you give me an example of a keyword 'theme'?
Thanks again.
-
Keyword tool is the best on the market to be honest with you but word tracker I have tested in the past the data set is not the best at all.
But one thing Google keyword tool fails at is searches rising in volume, it takes a while for fresh data to be added to the tool from what I have seen, I have seen it some times off by 1/10 for big rising terms, but that is expected I guess.
-
Actually all of them are going to be inaccurate if you are using them for traffic numbers. The best tool is still the Google Keyword Tool, but it's numbers are averaged over the last few months and then rounded. They have been know to grossly over and under estimate natural traffic many times over. Use any tool as a gauge of it's importance in relation to other keywords, not of exactly how much traffic you might get.
For long tail, if you can find it in a keyword tool, it's mid tail, not long tail. The good long tail traffic is received when you write on topics that are relevant to the end user, answer questions, etc. These are impossible to know via a tool, if you want to know for sure the best tactic is to ask your users. Surveys and just conversations are the best inspiration for content ideas.
-
Yes, and no.
If you are gunning for a commercial product then the adwords cost of keywords might be an indirect indicator of the competitiveness of the SERPs.
However if you are gunning for an informational SERP then it could be irrelevant. For example... there are no ads in the SERP for "periodic table" but the organic competition is relatively high.
When I am gunning for an informational SERP I use keyword research tools to learn about volume. For competitiveness I examine the content of the top sites and decide if I can beat it.
Attack their content, not their links.
-
For volume, I stopped using wordtracker because I thought it made more sense to get the data straight from the source, so-to-speak. I use google to get that estimate. Google doesn't really show keywords without decent volume so that may not be the best tool for long tail. We typically only do keyword research to identify 'themes', as opposed to specific long tail.
For competition, there are many other tools to guesstimate. I personally just use google search operators (intitle: and intext:). It's not perfect or precise but I think you could poke holes in the methodologies of any other tool as well. My goal is to get a rough comparison between keywords.
Hope that helps!
-
Thanks for responding.
I've read that the competition ranking in Adwords is based on the cost of using that keyword in a ppc campaign. Does it remain a useful metric if I'm focusing on organic search?
-
I believe the Adwords tool. Because lots of people are using it to plan their spending on Google it is in Google's best interest to provide useful data.
The caution with using their tool is to understand what the data means - such as know the difference between exact match and broad match.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
How do I use Google Keyword in onsite seo?
Hello to all, I wanted to ask if I am doing this correctly. So I own a Bernese mountain dog website I used the google keyword research tools to view keyword ideas. I listed my results below. So my questions are: 1 - Bernese Mountain Dog Puppies (the keyword) blow away the other keywords. So when you are looking at your sites most popular keywords, do you make the most popular keyword your homepage? Because it gets the most link juice? Like would you build the homepage around the best keyword instead of branding - like the company name etc? Or does it matter? Basically just as long as you use it for one page? 2 - When you have keywords that have parts of other keywords, is it safe to use the longer keyword because it has parts of the other phrases? Such as Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale is a part of Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado. So if you use bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado, it will also hit the bernese mountain dog puppies for sale? ( without the In Colorado) What type of strategy would you use for this type of situation? 3- Lastly, and thank you for your time - I watched a video from a grey hat seo guy. He said to take a keyword or phrase like say Colorado home builders, create a page like example.com/Colorado-home-builders/ Then make you h1 tag - The Best Colorado Home Builders Add The Best Colorado home builders to your meta description and one more time in your h2 tag Then create a Bold, and italic The Best Colorado Home Builders in your unique content paragraphs. So my question is - is this grey hat and bad? Or the standard? I do not want to get hit for over optimizing. So just wanted to ask you opinion first. In the end, I truly thank you for taking the time to read my questions. I appreciate everyone's help and greatly appreciate your knowledge. So my results look like this | bernese mountain dog puppies | 590 | Low | $0.45 | 1% | |
Keyword Research | | Berner
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale | 90 | High | $0.42 | 9% | |
| bernese mountain dogs | 90 | Low | $0.37 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in colorado | 30 | Medium | $0.76 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog breeders in colorado | 20 | Medium | $0.32 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dogs colorado | 40 | Low | $0.08 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppy breeders | 10 |0 -
Different or Same Keywords for Second Site
Hello, We're flushing out a second site for a client that's a second site in the same niche. How do I know when to use the same keywords for both sites and when to use entirely different keywords. One site is fairly strong, and the other will be less strong, though we're going to strengthen it quickly.
Keyword Research | | BobGW0 -
Google Keyword Tool
Hello, Is the Google Keyword Tool the only reliable source for stats on keyword search volume on Google? The tool returns "no data" results for keywords I would expect to have some, if not much, search volume. I would like to cross-check these results, if possible. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | nyc-seo0 -
Keyword Ranking
Soooooo, let's just say that I put a lot of keywords into the ranking tracker. Is there an easy way to reduce this list without having to go in word by word and pause or delete them? Like is there a bulk upload type of system? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | PGD20110 -
Ok so i've done all my keyword research and have a good list of keywords, now what do I do???
Ok so i've done all my keyword research and have a good list of keywords and phrases, now what do I do???
Keyword Research | | senreview0 -
Keyword question
In my keywords should they include the city name or not? Example..... plastic surgery or plastic surgery Orlando I know the search engine knows what city i am in, if i search for plastic surgery and i live in Orlando, does it pull up world wide plastic surgery links first or local plastic surgery clinics? Thanks in advance. Daniel
Keyword Research | | dools0 -
Stop List and Keywords
I've came across a suggested list of words that google will ignore in your content, if this is correct and one of our main keywords is one of those words, will it lose effectiveness? We are trying to get #1 SERP for "Self Tan" and it seems "Self" is one of the words ignored - so should we just be focusing on Tan? Any tips / advice would be great!
Keyword Research | | ChrisMciIlroy0 -
Refining Keyword Research
I am looking to refine my Keyword research process. Currently I use 4 keyword tools to get volume, competition and of course other ideas. From there I try to distill it down to categories and then order on ability to drive traffic and convert. Anyone have something they can share maybe from the excel side, maybe from the tool side... something to help me make this easy and great.
Keyword Research | | EvolveDigitalLabs1