How Accurate Are Keyword Tools?

In search engine optimization, it is a crucial element to select the right keywords when optimizing a website. The obvious reason being, if you have keywords with no search volume, you will not receive any traffic. Secondly, if you have keywords that are too competitive, you will find it almost impossible to win high ranks. So how do we find the in between balance for both obstacles? This is where keyword tools would come into place, but how accurate are they?

To start, the main keyword research tools that are found on the market today are Google AdWords Keyword Tool (KeywordToolExternal), Wordtracker, Keyword Elite, and Trellian Keyword Discovery. Now I bet many of you are pulling your hair out over which keywords are going to be suitable for optimization. What makes it probably even more stressful is the varying results between these four different keyword tools i.e. one keyword tool may show a particular keyword to be very good, while another tool may suggest a whole different result for the same keyword. Well stop stressing right now! The truth is that we don’t really know how accurate these keyword tools are and we should only use their search volume figures as an indication as to whether a keyword is popular amongst search engine users.

Each keyword tool uses its own unique keyword sample source and uses the data to predict search traffic. So, it makes sense that the results are different amongst different tools.

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool uses Google search engine database. As the most searched upon search engine on the Internet, you will not go wrong relying on this tool results for your SEO effort. After all, you want to have your site on high ranking on Google result page, right?. And it is FREE to use Google keyword tools. (more reading: Google AdWords Keyword Research Tools).

• Wordtracker is a web based research tool that grabs the data from Dogpile and Metacrawler queries over the past 110 days and reports on that data to use as keyword sample source to predict search traffic.

• Keyword Discovery doesn’t disclose clearly where they sample their data from. Officially, they mentioned to get the data from many sources, including first and second tier search engines from several countries. This tool also analyzes traffic logs, so indirectly, the data includes keyword searches from the major engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN.

• The advance option of Keyword Elite 2.0 lets you choose where you want to get the data from. There are 5 data source options: Keyword Elite Engine database, Ask.com, meta tags, FreeKeywords of Wordtracker and Google suggestion tool. So, you can use this keyword tools itself to get various keyword results. (more reading : Keyword Elite 2.0 Review)

For optimization, you have to get at least two or three keyword tools to reflect reasonable / high search volumes before considering that keywords or keyword phrases to be suitable for optimization. If you have all three keyword tools returning reasonable or high search volumes for your keywords, then the chances are that these keywords are reasonable / high in search volume and definitely worth considering for optimization.

Once a good set of keywords and keyword phrases have been agreed upon through the use of these keyword tools, you should then focus on the keywords that have a low / reasonable amount of competing web pages. There is no point trying to compete for a keyword that has 1,000,000 web pages in competition for it. If you are good at SEO then you could achieve high ranks for that keyword, but it would require a lot of time and investment which could be spent on better things. The lower the competition is, then the more chance of achieving higher ranks.

To recap, there is no indication to say that keyword tools are 100% accurate. Whilst the reseller of the tool may suggest otherwise, I highly doubt it. The results should be taken like a “grain of salt” as they are only useful to give you an idea as to what the search volume might be like for a particular keyword (high, moderate or low). With each tool obtaining its results using different algorithms, in some cases their results will not support each other. Provided you use two of the keyword tools to investigate the search volume for keywords, you should be able to make a good decision as to whether a keyword might be worth optimising for. With that in mind, it would also be wise to use your common sense to determine if a keyword is one that you would actually use in a search. Otherwise, what would be the point of optimisation in the first place?

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Related Articles :

• Keyword Elite 2.0 Review
• Google AdWords Keyword Research Tools
• Keyword Country – A Review
• Keyword Research Terms
• Niche Keyword Competition Analysis

Posted on February 13, 2010 in Keyword Research Tips, Keyword Research Tool
Tags: adwords keyword, adwords keywords, google adword keyword external tool, google keyword, google keyword research, google keywords, keyword elite, keyword elite 2.0, keyword generator, keyword optimization, Keyword Research Tool, keyword search tool, Keyword Software, keyword tool, keyword tools, keywords tool, search volume, suggestion tool