How accurate is overture stats?

I just like to know how reliable is the overture stats... and you guys' opinion of it.

I have a site that is ranked no 3 at yahoo for a keyword that overture said has more than 30,000 searches per month. The problem is, I haven't seen a visitor from it at all!

Is it just because people no longer use Yahoo .. or because the overture stats are not accurate ?

Now I have started to believe that "there are lies, damn lies and statistics"

 

Overture is not very accurate at all, but definitely not that dumb to say 30,000 for a keyword that noone searches. Iskandar, can you PM or post the keyword?

 

Overture is SHITE as it uses semantics on the phrases. If your words are geneeric, then they might well be telling you stats for totally different phrases.

 

The domain name is www.best-kid-toy.com and listed no 3 for "best kid toy" at Yahoo. Site is stunted because I am just annoyed. I haven't seen a visitor for the past 3 weeks when it got that spot. I am abandoning this site ( it's not even completed yet! sob!sob!)

Overture reported 32,000 searches last mth and 300,000 ( yes, with another '0' ) the mth before. Check at nichebot and scroll 3/4 down and you'll see that term.

I'm taking off the site in a few hours. It's a bloody waste. No 3 and getting no traffic! Ah! What a luck. I thought I can make tons of money with that domain. It appears that I can't even make 3 cent from it.

Overture .. overture .. you guys have just given me an over estimated bullsh*t ..

 

While this could be an explanation:...

Best kid toy only appears on the serps as singular and not plural. 90% of people of people who will search for this terms will use the plural cuz they are researching hence expecting a variety of toys to choose from.

Here is the actuality of things:...

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ for the wordtracker part is very revealing "No data for phrase: best kid toy". Whenever you're searching for niche keywords, see if the "wordtracker" result is coherent with the "overture" one.

 

Overture is great for getting an idea about potential traffic for a keyword, but as webmistress says, their main problem is that they don't use plurals, so you end up wondering if you should optimize for the singular or plural term.

I always optimize for both, but focus on the plural, it is very rare to see someone searching for a singular term.

 

Dude I think it's just a case of optimizing for the wrong keyword.

Who would search for "best kid toy" ? I know I wouldnt. It just sounds gramatically incorrect.

I would imagine the phrases... "best kid toys" or "best kids toys" would be a better option.

You also have to remember OVT combines singular/plural versions which can inflate figures.

 

Maybe those are good explanation. The only thing is I am ranked on the 2nd page for "best kid toys" at Yahoo before Yahoo shakeup this last few days too (now no 42)... and still receives nothing for that search term.

I accept if you guys think that maybe lots of people do not go past front page ... but surely at least 1 or 2 ?

I have recently found keyworddiscovery.com site and when I do the same research, the keyword both in plural or singular are almost nill. For "best kid toys" there's only 1 search ! and no search for the plural version.

Anyway, I'm throwing the towel. I give up! The site is going off.

I will most probably ignore overture stat from now on. For all my new sites, I will now test if keyworddiscovery gives a lot more accurate estimate...

Thanks for the help guys!

 

Iskandar, fryman said it. Overture is a great way to discover super niche markets so don't dump it at any cost. But also as drisco said, you're optimizing the wrong keywords and you must use common sense when in this business. If i refer to the keyword "kids toys" on overture, you will see that "kids toys" is searched about 1200 times a day while "discount kids toys" is searched about 4500 times a day. Does this make sense to you? Can apparently "subordinate" keyphrases be searched more than "main" keyphrase?. This is what to look for when you do keyword research on overture...anomalies.

 

Thanks for the reply webmistress.

Excuse me for being naive but isn't being niche means optimizing your site for one specific keyword? I am optimizing for "best kid toy" or "best kid toys" since it's far easier than optimizing for "kid toys" or "discount toys" (which are very very competitive)... and I targetted the keyword since overture says it's popular ( regardless of wheteher it's singular or plural)

All I'm trying to say is overture has given me very inaccurate estimate, that's all. It should have showed me something similar to WordTracker, that is, no one search for "best kid toy" or "best kid toys"

 

Ok let me further explain how unreliabe overture is.

This really couldn't have fallen better to explain how far off and how Overture works with its semantic substitutions.

Here is the data from overture uk on a search for 'kid'

Searches done in August 2005
Count Search Term
24156 child bed
19892 kid
15321 kid game
14538 angry kid
11984 kid chat rooms


Overture has asosiated the word kid with child, not only that it has associated it with the plural. I was lead to believe at a show a while back, that because Overture does this on a live basis, and because the Overture feed is meant to be an Overture PPC checker, they substitute and roll up multiple search terms into what you see as results.

Is Overture data useless? NOPE certainly not if you use it as a seed, then set the possible phrases into an Adwords campaign with absolute match on, then you are on the right track

 

Wow! that's news to me. You have given me an insight of how to actually use overture.

Thanks man. This really helps

 

Keyword research is the bedrock of any organic or PPC campaign, you must get it right. If you spend $500 or more on the PPC campaign to test them out it don't matter as you will have laid the foundation for a successful campaign. Too many people rush the research stage and pay for it later.

 

A niche is a marketing term that defines a small market where is the low competition (supply) but high demand. A niche market both offline or online absolutely does not mean the catering for only one type of service. It can be multiple ones. For example a printing company X in a region with low competitors can supply the need for webdecals, posters, business brochures and so one. The only factor that decides whether printing company X is in a niche is the number of competitors it has and the demand for the printing service. The same applies online. You can cater for multiple keywords as long as such "keywords" are relevant to your site, a high demand and low supplies.

There is a very specific term for what you are trying to do right now and that's being an OPPORTUNIST

A niche is an involvement and definitely not optimizing a few pages for a specific term for people to find them and buy from you. There's a very big difference between a niche marketer and an opportunist, and there's also a thin line between the 2. Most people who actually are trying out the so-called niche markets end up becoming opportunists. Pulling up hundreds of sites each optimized for 1 or 2 keywords while sitting an ones arse waiting for the search engine gods to bring cashflow is definitely not the work of a niche marketer. I want you to see this point clearly iskandar

This point has already been cleared i think. Read the past comments.

The wise Old Welsh Guy has already explained the reason behind this

 

Oi Webmistress, what happend to Old Bald & Stupid Welsh Guy

personally I wouldn't be going for 'best kids toy' I would be optimising for every single item I sold on every single page it appears in. If you optimise for one or two phrases, you are behaving almost crimally. Best kids toy for a vegetarian certainly wouldn't be the 'billy bobs beefburger maker' would it!

You optimise PAGES not sites, sites become optimised because all the sites within it have been. The site is themed, and you make sure that you have applied the various phrases you unearthed iduring your research to the best matched pages.

Take 'Bob the builder' as an example:
Here are the suggestions from Overture (I am only using them as a raw example)

1502 bob builder
958 bob the builder toy
803 bob the builder game
666 bob the builder picture
558 bbc cbeebies bob the builder
373 bob builder knitting pattern
366 bob the builder wallpaper
305 bob the builder muck
290 bob the builder com
269 bob the builder costume
264 bob the builder song
250 bob builder scrambler
223 bike bob builder
218 backpack bob builder
212 bob the builder bedding


Take 'Bob the builder game' for example. Imagine we have checked in adwords and imagine (as I suspect) that this is a good phrase. I have a 6 year old daughter who could get a damn good ranking for this phrase.

Now multiply your efforts to every page on your site, and you really will become a niche marketer. it CERTAINLY isn't easy, but the only easy way to make money is to win the lottery, marry into it, or steal it. Everything else takes work.

As Winston Churchill said after being told he was a lucky man to be where he is " yes, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got"

 

Great advice, thanks Old Welsh Guy!

 

I made a typo though I should proof read. I said 'sites become optimised because all the sites within it have been' it should have read 'because all the PAGES within it have been.

Sorry

 

Lmao!!! :d