After Google began revealing estimated search volume for keywords yesterday the first thing that entered my mind was how close the search volume estimates I had been generating for Google based on other sources. I didn’t make a research project out of it, but instead just opened a few reports I had prepared, plugged Google keywords for which I had previously computed estimated search volume and got a general feel for how our fuzzy math held up.
I am happy to say that for the most part numbers computed were roughly within +/- 20 to 25%. There were some estimates that were wildly off (by a factor of up to 2x off for a few keywords I checked) and there were a handful that were very close, but +/- 20 to 25% seemed to generally be the delta.
I’m looking forward to learning more about how various tools (or estimation methods) compare to the estimated search volume numbers now being provided by Google’s Keyword tool. Have any data to share?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
SEO Diva 07.10.08 at 1:39 pm
This is going to save SEO’s so much time and effort! My keyword research number comparisons turned out the same as yours.
Andrew Bailey 07.10.08 at 3:16 pm
that makes a huge difference! being able to choose between two highly competitive words used to be a nightmare, now you can see which one is the most searched for