Why does google's autocomplete not align with google's keyword tool?
-
Is google autocomplete based solely off keyword search volume? Or is there some other factors i am missing here?
Here's an example:
Auto complete suggestions for 'storage toronto':
[storage toronto cost] [storage toronto downtown] [storage toronto rates] [storage toronto leaside] [storage toronto prices] [storage toronto dupont] [storage toronto laird] [storage toronto eastern ave] [storage toronto ontario]
Google adwords keyword tool results for these:
<colgroup><col width="151"> <col width="129"> <col width="169"></colgroup>
| Keyword | Global Monthly Searches | Local Monthly Searches |
| [storage toronto cost] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto downtown] | 36 | 28 |
| [storage toronto rates] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto leaside] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto prices] | 73 | 73 |
| [storage toronto dupont] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto laird] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto eastern ave] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto ontario] | 0 | 0 |So here is what i find confusing:
If [storage toronto cost] is the top suggestion for [storage toronto...] then why does google say it has 0 monthly searches? Why isn't [storage toronto downtown] the first suggestion? or better yet, why isn't [storage toronto prices] the top suggestion?
So either: 1) google adwords keyword tool is wrong.
or 2) google suggest isn't based on just volume??
I've run these same keywords through Bing's Excel keyword information spreadsheet query and it came back saying all keywords had 0 searches ever, except for...drumroll:
[storage toronto prices] with 7 monthly searches, once, in august, and 0 all other months.
Now i assume that bing/yahoo numbers are significantly smaller, but this does show that that the same keyword is the most popular, so in some way suggests that google's keyword is accurate. So i guess this brings be back to my confusion, what other factors is google's suggest based on, because it obviously isn't primarily search volume.
And yes, i have made sure to clear caches, and disable personalized search and search history, and tried the query in several browsers, just to double check i wasn't getting a personalized list, so we can rule that out.
Thanks,
Storwell.
-
Using a legal analogy, there are those who make the laws (i.e. politicians along with lobbyists and interests groups) and then those who work to understand the laws in place and use that information to serve people (i.e. lawyers).
That analogy may not be perfect but it is easily applied to this situation. As an SEO, I work to understand the policies and practices of search engines. I then utilize that information to help service the interests of my clients. If I was to spend any time on how I felt search engines should do things, I would lose a piece of my sanity. I try not to judge.
Search engines have a lot of educated people who spend considerable amounts of time researching details and data which we do not have access to. I try to think positively in that if the results don't seem to make sense I presume there is a logical reason for it. That's my approach anyway.
-
Oh thats funny! So it seems that google is judging that a lot on CTR, problem is though with that is that CTR is heavily biased by what the actual rankings are. Nobody is going to page in 5 pages looking for something, they will likely click one of the first 5 results. So in terms of local optimization, where there is an extremely heavy geographical bias towards the city center, you end up with the google suggest of:
Keyword DOWNTOWN.
this is so silly. Google is gaming it's own algo!
Lets take a quick check of my theory: Flowers Seattle ...
flowers seattle wa
flowers seattle restaraunt
flowers seattle downtown
flowers seattle capitol hillLets try another...
car rental chicago...
car rental chicago airport
car rental chicago downtown
car rental chicago midway
car rental chicago train station -
Why does google's autocomplete not align with google's keyword tool?
It's not meant to. It's kind of like asking why aren't search results ordered by PR.
Like overall rankings, Google's autocomplete has an algorithm which offers results based on numerous factors. Popularity is only one factor. Another factor is currently trending topics. Another example is your personal search history. You can read more about autocomplete here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=106230
A detailed study analysis of factors which influence autocomplete can be found here: http://www.beattheautocomplete.com/study-results
-
Here's a guide that gives you some more sites that can help: http://www.seomoz.org/article/keyword-research-guide
It's a little dated, but most of the stuff on there should still exist.
Personally, some of the strategies I used are:
-
Look at my analytics. Where are my visitors coming from? Are there any similar terms using synonyms or different word order that I need to target?
-
Look at competitors. What keywords are they targeting? You can find hints by looking at their content, title tags, meta tags (if they're well-optimized, that is).
I think another important question to ask is Am I ranked as highly as I can be for the higher-volume terms? To me, I'd rather effectively target the terms that the most people are searching for rather than attempt to target a lot of low-volume long tail terms.
-
-
Hmmm...
Well my initial attempt here was to try to expand on possible keywords that I am missing out on. I feel i have been putting too much stock in google adwords' keyword tool. I have started to use the Bing keyword suggest excel tool but generally the numbers are so small in Bing/Yahoo that it is hard to get good results out of it.
Do you have any suggestions to help find more long tail keywords?
-
Interesting analysis, but I doubt the auto-complete is as calculated as you are trying to make it here.
Have you seen the sites and jokes like this?: http://www.autocompletefail.com/
That pretty much says to me that you shouldn't put a lot of stock into Google auto-complete ranking the order of terms in relation to search volume.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Optimizing for close keyword variants
I am planning my seo project using Moz tools. I am finding keywords that are close to each other. What is the best way to optimize? If I made a page for each of the close words, it would pretty much be duplicate content. Is it best to go ahead and make a page for each and try to make content a bit different? How different does it have to be? Or, would i try to use the different versions of the keyword on one good page. Thank you!
Keyword Research | | bhsiao0 -
Selecting keywords
hello, i am using google adwords search terms to find keywords, first of all is that a good practice? If it is then i have the below question: What is most important to take into consideration when thinking of a better keyword: a) impressions b) Most conversotions c) Both in a combination i want to import that keywords in moz pro to see search visibility is that the right way? Which keywords are the most important and how can i chase them? i have to mention here that my adwords account is from 2010 so the data are very much!! Please be specific in for answer thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | anavasis0 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
Keyword Research | | Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
Used 'wrong' keywords in blog posts, should I go back and edit?
I have a bout 70 blog articles spanning about 2 years. Because I hadn't done proper SEO research, I used the term I thought made the most sense when talking about my services. However now that I have done my homework, I realize that the term I like, is not actually the term most people use to search. Very few of these articles are time sensitive and mostly generic best practice kind of stuff. I'm not talking about keyword stuffing, simply going back and replacing one poorly chosen keyword with one that people are actually searching for where it occurs naturally in the course of the article. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Keyword Research | | sea2dca0 -
How to get search volume in Google's keyword planner
I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches). I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
Keyword Research | | theLotter
Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?0 -
Will words added to the end of my title make the page in question less relevant in Google's eyes?
Hey guys, I've always wondered about this. Say I'm targeting the keyword "how to sell your house" but I find it a bit bland or generic and my client actually offers a service more in line with "how to sell your house quickly" - say that's their USP for example. I still want to rank for the broader version however, because far fewer people are searching for the "quickly" version - and it stands to reason that if searchers can solve the same problem quickly, they'll want that version of the solution anyway. So will adding the word "quickly" to the end of the keyword I'm targeting (and using that in my Title, H1, URL, description tags etc) make Google see my client's page/site as less relevant to a broader search term like the more generic "how to sell your house", that I'm trying to rank for? Thanks 🙂
Keyword Research | | makeshiftyy0 -
Google Keyword Tool - Competition - How does it compare to SEOMoz Keyword Difficulty?
Hi, Many times, when I look up a keyword in google using their Keyword Tool, the competition might be low or medium, but, it doesn't seem close to the keyword difficulty on SEOMoz. For example, I looked up fantasy sports. It's low competition on Google. I thought, wow, that's amazing. How can that be when it's so popular? Huge search volume, low competition. Then, SEOMoz says 76% difficulty. It sort of shatters my enthusiasm all of a sudden. Maybe I have to change the order of how I look at it 🙂 What is the difference that's going on? What would be considered low keyword difficulty on SEOMoz? How about medium and high? I know someone might argue that for some guru, what's hard for one person isn't hard for the guru, but, for the average webmaster who does some seo, uses SEOMoz, and some other SEO tools, is there some general breakdown? Thanks.
Keyword Research | | webtarget0