A couple of weeks ago, the Internet marketing world had been hit by what seemed to be wonderful news: Google AdWords Keyword Tool started showing actual numbers instead of vague graphs for search volume.
I have received a lot of emails from newsletters I subscribe to, informing me of the great change. One of the senders was excited enough to conclude: "it probably spells the end for services like Wordtracker." A famous guru could not hide his joy: "Holy cow! Talk about shaking up the planet!"
The famous keyword research guru, Jim Morris, dedicated a post on his blog (nichbot.com) to the Keyword Tool revolution: "All of a sudden - there is no longer any confusion about how many times people are searching for a certain keyword phrase on Google.com."
Jim Morris published a screenshot of keywords suggested by the Tool when "blogging" was searched. These are the first 8: blogging, blogs, blog, blogging software, radio blog, pink is the new blog, blog search, bad girls blog. Except for the keywords column there are 3 more columns: Advertiser Competition, Approx Search Volume for last month, and Approx Average Search Volume.
Up to July 2008, the Competition column and the two Search Volume columns were using shaded bars, which were supposed to indicate relative volumes, i.e. the more shaded the bar the higher the volume. Since the change was made, the 2 Search Volume columns show actual numbers, but the Advertiser Competition volume is still represented by a shaded bar.
One of the keyword suggestions Jim Morris got was "radio blog." The Competition bar next to this keyword is 3/4 green, representing what looks like quite a lot of competition, right? I strongly suggest you search google.com for "radio blog." You'll be surprised to discover there is not even one ad! (Well, perhaps by now there are a couple). Neither when you use broad search nor when you use phrase; neither in the United States nor in Canada or the UK.
Same is true for "bad girls blog." The mystery bar is half green, which might indicate moderate competition (Actually, nobody knows what it really indicates. Why doesn't Google tell us the exact number of bidders on a certain keyword? What's the big secret?) Anyway, one would expect at least some competition when Google paints the bar half green, right? Wrong again! Not even one ad in all the English speaking countries (I confess I didn't try India).
If Google were just a search engine, that wouldn't be a problem at all. But Google sells its AdWords services to hundreds of thousands of people, who have to rely on the data supplied to them by Google in order to set up smart and profitable campaigns. If these data are incorrect, chances are many thousands of advertisers spend a fortune in vain.
About the Author:
Get the FREE comprehensive, detailed AdWords Keyword Tool Report NOW. If you are an AdWords advertiser or want to become one, go to RonnyDidIt.com, read more, subscribe to the list and I will send you The Google Report.
No comments:
Post a Comment