The fact is that very few online marketers understand the results supplied by the two most basic keyword selection
tools. These are the very same tools being used globally to hone keyword choices into supposedly laser sharp focus
in an effort to keep pace with the challenges of increasingly keen competition and ever-rising keyword pay-per-click
costs.
The Critical Differences — Overture's STST vs. Wordtracker's KSS
As one of Wordtracker's technical support team, one
of the most frequent questions we receive these days is...
Why are the keyword search query numbers supplied by Overture's search term suggestion tool (STST) so incredibly
different than those supplied by Wordtracker's keyword selection service (KSS)?
Frankly, there isn't a better search engine related question one could ask. And, now's a good time to pay close
attention because the surprising answer will likely change forever how you evaluate keywords!
First: Understanding Their Motives.
To help you understand the details we're about to reveal, let's examine the motives of the services that are
providing the keyword query numbers.
Motive Analysis: Purpose
On the one hand, there's Overture's STST whose purpose is to help customers buy keywords.
On the other hand, there's Wordtracker whose purpose is to help customers select keywords.
Proposal:
Overture's STST suggests what keywords to buy from them.
Wordtracker suggests what keywords to use in your optimization efforts and/or which to buy elsewhere.
Success:
Overture's success depends on you believing there are Lots of search queries for whatever you are selling.
Wordtracker's success depends on you getting accurate numbers upon which you can reliably base your optimization
and keyword purchase decisions.
Profits:
Overture's STST is free. Overture profits by selling you the keywords that STST reports on.
Wordtracker's KSS is fee based. They profit by selling you access to accurate and impartial information. Since they
don't sell the keywords, there's no vested interest in query numbers beyond accuracy.
It's important to note there is no good-guy, bad-guy here - just two companies that provide information and do so
with different incentives in mind.
Second: Understanding The Artificial Skew.
In researching the search term "keyword," Overture's STST indicates there were 180,468 searches for the
30-day period ending the last day of December '03. Of course, when we divide this number by 30 (days), one
naturally assumes that's an average of 6,016 combined searches per day for the term "keyword" - (180,468/30=6,016).
Now, if you happen to be in a business that sells keywords (like Overture) then 6,016 pairs of eyeballs per day
is a pretty encouraging number indeed! The problem is, there isn't anywhere even close to 6,016 per-day queries
for the search term(s) "keyword(s)". In fact, the actual number, which we'll share with you in a minute,
will no-doubt shock you!
But, for the moment, let's look at why that number is skewed.
Reason #1 — Artificial Searches
Overture's STST numbers are increased upward by automated queries. These include automated bid optimizers,
position and ranking monitors, page popularity analyzers - anything other than a real person manually performing
a search is considered an automated query. Monitoring a site's positioning at, say, AltaVista for the search term
"keyword" tallies a "hit" within Overture's STST system for that search term. That's in spite of the fact that it
was actually automated software that generated the hit. The same holds true for page-popularity checkers,
pay-per-click bid optimizers or any other machine generated monitor or tabulator that queries an engine for a
"pet" keyword and generates a hit in the process.
Then, when the same positioning query is done at, say, MSN (another Overture partner), STST records yet another
hit. Understandably, STST cannot differentiate between automated and human queries. Neither can they tell when the
auto-query has already been queried at another partner's site.
Now, when we take into consideration all of the position monitoring, page popularity checking and pay-per-click bid
analyzing - there are well over 15 automated and semi-automated bid checking software programs alone - it's
staggering to realize the significant effect these automated queries are having on the overall search term query
tabulations.
However, artificial searches are only one aspect contributing to the artificial skew (defined as: the inflation of
actual search queries for specific keywords performed by anything other than humans).
(Continued in Part 2. Contact Robin@SearchEngineWorkshops.com
for the complete article.)
About The Author
Robin Nobles is Co-Director of Training for Search Engine
Workshops. She has trained several thousand people in her hands-on 2-5 day optimization and marketing
workshops at locations across the globe and her online SEO courses.
Robin is also a member of Wordtracker's special technical
support team, and she partners with John Alexander whose eBook,
Wordtracker Magic, offers unique strategies for applying the Wordtracker service to generate profits for online
marketers.
First published in Planet Ocean News. Copyright 2004
Robin Nobles. All Right Reserved.
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