Ranking #1 for decent traffic keywords, but not receiving any traffic?

[WhiteHat12]

A site I work on is ranked number 1 for a few keywords. To see how much a keyword is searched per month I rely on Google Adwords Keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). Using this tool I see that the keyword receives 880 local monthly searches and another keyword they rank #1 for receives 1300 local monthly searches. To me these keywords are not the biggest as far as traffic but they are not small by any means.

Now here is the issue. Like mentioned above, the site nmber 1 for multiple keywords. They have been ranked number 1 for these keywords for months. Looking in analytics the other day I notice that on a month to month basis both of these keywords are getting 1, or 2 visits. This past month (October) one of the keywords did not receive ANY visits, and that is being ranked #1 for a 1300 monthly searched keyword. It just doesn’t make sense. I would imagine getting at least 100 or so visits a month from these search terms.

Could someone please help me understand this a little bit better?

[Dr-Pete]

I'll just add that I wrote a post about this topic recently:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/im-ranking-wheres-my-traffic

[WhiteHat12]

Any one else with any information on this?

[RyanKent]

When I originally replied I wrongly assumed the traffic numbers provided were correct. Yannick brought up an excellent point. The exact match searches are 16 and 36 for the two phrases involved. 52 is not a lot of global monthly searches and some of those are likely you or your site owner performing those searches. The bottom line, you have the #1 ranking on two terms without traffic so that is why you are not seeing any traffic.

Even changing the search query from "daytona beach insurance" to "insurance daytona beach" (shows 58 searches which is more then the other two combined) then moves your 1st organic result after all of the Google Places results.

My best recommendation for improvement is to grab a Google Places listing if you do not have one already. If you do have one, optimize it as you are not listed in the results.

[AlanMosley]

I had a look, it is 1300 for broad, but only 28 for phrase, and 16 for exact, now to me, the words daytona and insurance, are not words i would expect to see in the same search term unless the were in a phrase or exact. so something does not seem right here.

[YannickVeys]

Keyword tool = crap.

1. Did you look at the traffic for phrase match keywords? Or broad match?

2. Second thing you have to consider: the data Google uses in the keyword tool is also from search partners. For instance, in the Netherlands (where I live) google also adds keyword volume from a craigslist type of site. So me searching on the site for daytona insurance will add "a tick" in the keyword tool as well, even though google's results page wasn't shown for that search.

3. Did I mention that the keyword tool is crap? (With instant search on) Start typing daytona i... and see what starts apearing. Than compare the keywords that appear before insurance to the data you got for daytona insurance. See if that makes any sense.

Good luck! And remember, especially these days, rankings aren't everything. Traffic is!

[malachiii]

I would highly recommend checking webmaster tools to see real Keyword data if analytics is showing conflicting information.

Additionally, how often are you doing searches for this keyword on your own machine.  are you going to an agnostic computer and doing the search.  Your search settings may be affecting your personal searches.

[RyanKent]

I agree with John. I took a look at your search results. I was checking to see if your title or other aspects of your search result was particularly bad and might lead people not to want to click on your site, but that was not the case. I also wanted to see if there was an advertisement, or possibly the #2 or 3 result was so compelling (i.e. Insurance for $99/yr!) that searchers would skip your result and click on the others. That was not the case.

It seems more likely you are not reading your traffic reports correctly. Perhaps a filter is set to where you are not viewing all the results?

[johnshearer]

Zgraph, you mentioned you use the Adwords Keyword tool..what other tools do you use? webmastertools or anayltics? You are clearly ranked 1st for "Daytona Beach Insurance" when view serp cloaked...it seems impossible that you would not have any visits.