Hello there Webmasters, I am relatively new to the SEO world, but I had to dip my fingers, when I planned to create a website for my new bussiness. So, I went to dig the SEO techniques, which took me to the Adwords/Keyword marketing. So, I researched for the Google Statistics/Search Data and what I found really shocked me! I found the two major tools, google provide to research it's data. First is Google Adwords Keyword Tool and the other one is Google Insights. But what I saw is, that even after being owned by the same company/SE, they both came up with different results. Doesn't it point to some sort of hanky panky? What I did is, I chose the the keyword "digitalpoint" as the sample. I then signed in to Google, and performed the search for "digitalpoint" on their "Insights Search" page (http://www.google.com/insights/search/), where I was given the statistics, according to which, Malaysia was the top country, who performed most searches for "digitalpoint" (With index 100), while India was holding the second place (With index 91). While, U.S was on 7th position (With only the index of 13). So, it was obvious, that U.S was too far in the position of "digitalpoint" searchers. But when I cross-checked it on Adwords, I got a really different result! In google Adwords Keyword Tool Page (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal), I searched the same keyword "digitalpoint" for both countries, Malaysia and U.S. and what I got is, that Malaysia got the the "Average Search Volume" of 720 while for U.S., it was the 12100, which was more then 16 times of Malaysia, which obviously is dead opposite of data from Insights. One more thing/glitch I noticed: In Adwords, If you will select any other "Match Type" apart from Broad "Phrase,Exact" you will get the SAME result for every country. No matter, what country you select, you will alwasy get the same statistics for Phrase/Exact. It seems, they have forgot to apply the Automated random figures to the Phrase/Exact option. I had used the *Exact* same settings/filters on both sites. I was logged in on both, I use the region "Worldwide" on both, I chose the time period of data of "12 months" on both, and I chose catagories "All" on both. So, my conclusion is, that by providing their Search Statistics, are they fooling us? In on of it's site, U.S. was the turtle in searcher race, while on other, It was the top. Are all the data they provide is fake, and they just use some automated script to put any amount of random figures? If this is the case, how could we trust on data they provide? It's then a complete waste of time to research on Keywords gravity via google...... You too can try this test....... Please let me know about your opinions... Regards
I've also noticed that the Google Keyword tool provides "estimates" and not the actual traffic... for more accurate results try free tools such as the one on SEOBook . com... this site provides very accurate results...
No, it does not, it provides "approximations", i.e. the numbers are, according to the OED, "very near, fairly accurate, near to the actual" figures. Personally, I would have thought that was as good as anybody would need. Sege, Regarding the Google Insights figures, I suggest you read the help files for the tool http://www.google.com/support/insights/bin/topic.py?topic=13975 Basically, to put it as simply as possible, the numbers published are a comparative scale and indicate the likelihood of a particular search being performed proportional to the total searches made in each country. e.g. in your example Malaysia is no.1 because a greater proportion of the "search" population in Malaysia search for 'digitalpoint' than in any other country and not because more searches are made there than elsewhere. Regarding the data Google provide, it may not be 100% accurate but I would think it is a reasonably accurate indication of the numbers involved. I am not an unquestioning fan of Google but I really cannot see any benefit for them in publishing wrong data. Anyway, I would suggest that the comparative nature of the data is far more useful than actual numbers, i.e. it is more important to know that more people search for A than B rather than knowing that the number of searchers for A is exactly 19950 and not approximately 20000.
Thanks for the clarification bjewelled.. The approach one should consider, I am absolutely agree with. However, what about the second glitch? As you said too, this is my primary concern to know, that wheather country "A" will be a potential customer for me, or the country "B". It sounds, I should rely upon Adwords Data.... But, for each and every country, when you choose "Phrase/Exact" it comes up with the same result for any give query. I do not think, this is something neglable. As, it straightly reflects to either some sort of major lack of scripting, or something is Automated or fake there..... Just have a test with any keyword on Adwords......with different countries..