Keyword Tool – Massive Drop in Search Volume Numbers Sends Out SEO Shockwaves
ByKeyword Tool – These Changes Slap Everyone
Gone are the good old days when Google used to slap those marketers who were all too obviously manipulating the system in a malicious and black-hat way. Now Google slaps the whole SEO community all at once. Thank you Google.
Crazy ol´ Lady Google has some nasty surprises under her hat for all of us who are doing our SEO to rank for our chosen keywords and drive traffic to our web-pages.
Source of photo: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/36072
Did you check the keywords you are trying to rank for with Google´s Keyword Tool lately?
Google´s Keyword Research Tool has undergone an unannounced change that led to a humongeous drop in search volume numbers throughout all keywords there are. This is not funny Google! This is not funny!
I´m in the middle of producing an in-depth SEO course for my readers as I regard traffic from search engine optimization as being one of the best ways to market services and products online.
I was absolutely baffled when I realized today that the search volume numbers for my keywords have droped by more than 50 % (!!! -WTF) from one day to the other. Holy smoke, Google!
Certainly, fair marketers have always pointed out that the search volume numbers of the keyword tool were far from accurate and only estimated numbers but these new numbers the keyword tool comes up with are a complete game changer.
I first heard about the massive drop from our fellow internet marketer Shane Melaugh and immediatley checked the keywords I am targetting with my niche site. A whopping drop of over 50 % in search volume!
From one day to the other. No warning, no announcement, no nothing from Google. Ahhh!
The pre-change numbers from the search tool must have been terribly wrong that Google enforces such drastic changes.
What exactly they have changed I couldn´t find out yet and I am waiting with baited breath for Google to give us some explanations.
But how is Google going to explain this drastic drop in search volume to those who´ve paid thousands upon thousands of dollars for PPC campaigns all based on entirely wrong search volume numbers e.g., I wonder?
This smells almost like a defraud and I wouldn´t be surprised if Google will have to face some lawsuites based on these new numbers in the near future.
When The Smoke is Gone
But anyway, no matter how devastating these new numbers might be when you first have to wave good-by to 50% or more of the search volume you were hoping to attract to your web-pages once the smoke will be gone we are probably all gonna like these changes.
Why is that?
Well because assuming that the search volume data Google´s keyword tool presents to us is now finally accurate (or close to accurate) it will be a much more viable base from which to operate our SEO efforts from.
I always prefer to rather hear and know the truth than to rely on false numbers and believes.
Please check your keyword´s volume and let me know what you think about these drastic changes. I am curious what your opinion on this mater is.
Talk soon
Mirko
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OUCH!
I just noticed my results dropped by around 70% in some cases.
However, what I noticed is that global and local search volumes were the same. Not sure if its just playing up or something, because those figures seem right for local search, but definitely not for global
Thanks for the heads up Mirko!
Alex recently posted..What the Blog are you talking about
Hey Alex,
Thanks for comment. You are right and to be honest I didn´t even notice that before due to my “rage”. I had recently spend some long hours researching data for some local lawyer firms in my hometown and now the numbers are down 78 % which is crazy.
Just glad I didn´t use the wrong data for these busniness purposes yet, phew…
Talk soon
Mirko
oppeess !!
I not noticed until recently. My results dropped by 15-20% in one of my blog. I think google is playing with keywords
.
Anyways, Thanks for sharing !! Mirko.
Devesh recently posted..4 Ultra Simple Ways To Get More Comments On Your Blog Post
Hey Devesh,
Google is playing with marketers and the marketers´ money by plaing with their keywords. A 15-20 % drop is not as bad as my numbers but still appalling. Thanks for stopping and talk soon, Mirko
I’ll have to check this out and see how it affects my vieo on Google Keyword Tool.
Tom Aikins recently posted..Business Web Site Design Tips
Hey Tom,
I´d be amazed if these changes -provided they are permanent- would not affect your view on the keyword tool. Come back an tell us what you think after you´ve checked it out.
Thanks for taking the time to comment
Mirko
Hi Mirko
Thanks for the heads up. I agree though it is far better to know the truth and have accurate data to work on. Fortunatly for me I have’nt spent to much so far.
The thing is the figures being used so far have produced results for marketers. Why such a massive discrepancy?
Vince
Vince Audritt recently posted..Learn To Write Your Sales Letter Before Creating Your Product
Hey Vince,
That´s the main question “Why such a massive discrepancy?” We are talking about a humongous discrepancy! Will be interesting to see whether Google is going to explain (and apologize) and maybe even compensate marketers who built their Adwords´campaigns based on false numers and definitely paid too much for their ads from what we “know” today.
Mirko
Great post again Mirko (not surprised though)
I am really now looking into other forms of traffic and SEO (I’m waiting for that report) is one avenue I want to go down.
Having some reliable data to base my SEO efforts on would be nice but you never can tell what Google are going to do next.
As a company I fully respect them because they employ some of the smartest people in the world, but things like this should be given warning of, and not just changed and then let their users find out the hard way.
Thank you for the post Mirko and I really need to speak to you about SEO.
Reach new heights
Nathan
p.s. Man, that picture is some scary stuff. (…think I met this lady on a druken night out once…)
Hey Nathan,
A pity that I couldn´t get you on the photo together with our lady …LoL.
Thanks for your comment my awesome friend and be sure to be notified as one of the first people once the course is completed. My head spins like crazy from all that SEO stuff I´m digging through these days but boy is it some powerful stuff!
Talk to you very soon.
Mirko
I also noticed this, so I did some research in Google’s Help Forum and found this, http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=5241a33035617b73&hl=en
“If you use both the previous and updated versions of the Keyword Tool to search for keywords, you may notice differences between the tools for statistics on Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. This is because the previous version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only. We’ve updated these statistics based on user feedback, and hope you find them helpful for keyword selection.”
Regards,
AWP
Hope this helps clear things up….
Hey Jennifer,
Thanks so much for taking the time to add this valuable information to this post. It definitely helps to clear things up – at least a little bit. As I am currently working on my first ever SEO info-product it´d be super cool to see you back on my blog soon to further contribute to the discussion.
Mirko
Hi Mirko,
The wrench is being thrown into the wheels of any seo efforts quite frequently. I have noticed unexpected changes many times.
The amount of search traffic is up and down for no apparent reason. Like from 42 % to 4% to 27%.
But don’t just blame Google. I see a similar pattern with Yahoo too for example.
You can’t be serious about thinking that somebody would actually sue them though. They can do whatever they want. They make the rules and break them at will and nobody can do anything about it.
It’s like opening an account at a bank. They make the rules and have you agree that they can change them. If there’s anything you don’t like they’ll tell you tough luck, if you want an account you have to agree.
Cheers,
Vance
Vance Sova recently posted..Internet Marketing Event- Networking At Canada Marketing Summit
Hey Vance,
Thanks so much for your valued thoughts on the matter. I agree, that it is not very likely that anyone will ever have the guts and stamina to sue Google although I remain positive that the changes the have made do in fact alter the whole contract Google signed with her adwords customers. The advertisers who use Adwords rely on the data Google provides and they pay a certain price for each ad which is largely determinded by the number of searches Google predicts. My argument was and remains this: If Google already knew that their numbers were false and still billed their customers on the basis of the flawed numbers than this is a serious issue – and an issue the customer is paying the (too high) price for. If I had been part of the aggrieved party I would have definitely tried to get some compensation from Google.
Hope to have you back on my blog again. Have a good one.
Mirko
Hi Mirko,
Apologies ….it’s been a long time since we connected.
But slowly and surely I am getting back to normal again.
Very interesting post mate….we also saw some huge changes in the rankings for 3 of our main keywords for our Thai silk site. This was quite a shock for us initially but we now have a much better “handle” on SEO…I think?
However, like many other comments I still don’t understand why there is such a huge discrepancy…this totally confuses me so I will keep looking for the answers on your excellent blog mate.
Do hope your new little baby is healthy and happy
Best wishes Mirko
Peter
Peter Beckenham recently posted..Marketing Reality…Lessons from a Thai Village
Hey Peter,
Good to have you back on my blog and thanks for your comment. I´ve been following up on this Google search volume matter and Google says the huge discrepancy in the results from what we see nowadays and what we got from Google before is due to the reduction of the sources Google uses for their search data. Whilst before they used to take data from various sources within their property network (Youtube and ask.com e.g) now the only use the data from their original search engine. Well, at least now we should have kind of accurate data…
The new baby is doing fine and keeps us all busy. Hope we´ll catch-up via Skype soon
Mirko
There have been reported instances where search results using the new tool actually increased. However, given Google’s explanation, this should never be the case. I wonder.
Hi, Mirko! Nice to see your blog again.
Of course, the point is not that the Big G changes the rules all the time, mostly in random fashion as it seems. It does not even bother to notice its users paying it untold amounts for inferior(?) should we assume services as concerns the search volumes. People used to make serious financial decisions based on its data… Definitely looks like a defraud to me.
Nice post, again. Dmitri
Hey Dmitri,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your appreciated comment on my blog. I haven´t been blog hopping these past weeks because I´ve been too busy with product creation. As soon as I´m finished with that I´ll be around again more often and will pay a visit to your blog again soon.
Have agood one
Mirko
Hey Mirko – I really love this blog – it’s great!
You know what…I think there’s only one solution to what you’ve described in this post. Join me in giving Google the good old two finger salute and get traffic through other means
Joking aside – inflated search traffic volume in a tool that prospects use to determine whether advertising on the Google platform is a viable option….Hmmm interesting…Conflict of interest, much?!
Paul McCarthy recently posted..What Makes People Buy – Emotions v Logic
Hey Paul,
Thanks for stopping by, for your compliment on my blog and for your comment on the latest post. Someone needs to tell me why but I still love this bitchy ol´lady Google and the topic of SEO has got a firm grip on me. But sure, Paul, what is your solution to get traffic? If I´d have to guess I´d say ´article marketing´, right? I already learned that you´ve got some special knowledge in that field and I encourage all my readers to pay a visit to your blog to learn more about it. And me, I am sure that we´ll talk about your traffic pulling techniques in greater detail before too long.
Talk to you soon,
Mirko