Ok probably a really dumb question but im getting really confused about the search engine results when im trying to research competition etc. This is happening all the time and I cannot find anything about it in the forums. Hopefully someone can help me understand this better... Example: Lets use the keyword phrase mobile careers intitle:"mobile careers" - Google says About 1,240 results (0.15 seconds) Now iv'e set my search settings showing 10 results per page...(basic setting I think) This in my head would mean about 124 pages of results. So browsing through I click on page 10... Page 10 of about 1,220 results (0.17 seconds) Thing's here seem to be normal and as expected and I can see plenty more pages of results... I then click on page 19... Page 18 of 179 results (0.21 seconds) - Hang on a sec! There aint even 19 pages there and im now being told that there are only 179 results! Im kinda at a dead end now, I feel all my efforts to analyze competition is constantly bringing back false results from the start and I really can't be bothered to click page after page to see what it settles at. Am I missing something here? Does the same thing happen with you? Thanks in advance.
My advice is that you find a new way checking your competition, the tactics you are using are only going to bring you just bits of the information.
Yes I understand that! And I do use many tactics to analyze my competition... This however is just one of the methods I use and im sure you will agree that its best to fully understand every aspect of market research in order to succeed!
Googles SERPs are notoriously broken when you try to get accurate numbers from them. It could be an attempt at obfuscation or it could just be part of the way their algorithm works to quickly produce results. What are you trying to achieve with this particular number? Are you trying to work out which keyword to target (for example)?
yes, what carleisenstein said, my guess it has something to do with caffeine and now when the results are not deemed "good enough" they do not even display in the index. I did a little test run on a keyword which I knew would yield few results and it's the exact same thing. I typed it in and it said "About 181 results (0.15 seconds)" then, I click on page 9 and all the sudden it only displays four pages of results and changes to 33 results. A quick question: did you see this, When you click "search with the omitted results included" you'll see all of the results and many times it is heavily saturated with duplicate content and pages that offer next to nothing.
Thanks for the info, Yes im looking into who else is targeting the same keywords... but seem to always end up scratching my head when it comes to Google's silly number game. I felt is was time this question was layed out and im sure there are a few people glad that I asked this just to see what everyone's thoughts are. Same thing applies when researching the number of backlinks on expiring domains. If you don't dig to the end of the results you could have a huge shock when you finally realize there's actually half that amount first shown. Cheers.
You should be able to go with the first number and factor in how many pages are actually displaying. Say for instance, there is 1.2 million results and only 300,000 are displaying, well you know that only 300,000 are good enough to display. Also check PR, Domain Age, Indexed Pages, KW title mentions, KW in URLs, headings and body mentions, of course number and PR of backlinks, etc. etc. etc
I was always wondering what that omitted option does - Thanks for clearing that up. Bang on! I use various browser tools to check for all those Indexed pages, KW's etc. but as much as Google keeps lying to me I still end up using it and getting frustrated... I think I started my journey with Google and see it as my right hand man for everything I need. Im starting to think otherwise now. Thanks a lot man +rep