Is Google's Keyword Research Tool "Insufficient?"

[lesterj]

Hey Everyone,

A couple of days ago I posted a question about what the “insufficient data” result meant in Google’s new keyword search volume feature. There were some guesses that it is simply meant the Google tool didn’t have enough data. I found that hard to swallow since Google as access to the largest database of actual search data Between my doubts and the fact that everyone I heard from seemed to be guessing, I decided to do a little test.

I did some keyword research using both Google's keyword suggestion tool and WordTracker. There were some interesting results.

The Setup:
What I did for the keyword research was brainstorm a list of keywords and keyword phrases. I then broke down that list into a list of all the relevant single word keywords. Then I created a list of relevant two-word keywords based on combinations of the list of single word keywords. I then entered each of those keywords into the keyword research tools and looked through the lists of suggested keywords.

In the past, when using WordTracker, this system worked well. It's not the most efficient strategy, but it is thorough. The idea is to not miss any keywords that I may not have thought of during the brainstorming. For every keyword researched, WordTracker automatically returns a list of up to 300 keywords that contain that keyword(s). In Google I selected to have the tool return synonyms and return additional suggestions. So, the Google tool returned up to 200 "relevant" keyword suggestions. I also selected the "exact" match type so the search volume info would be most comparable to WordTracker's results.

Results:
1. I found several keywords in WordTracker that I did not find in my initial research in Google. I then went back to Google and entered those specific keywords and got results...sort of. All the keywords that I found in WordTracker but did not initially find in Google had "insufficient data" as the search volume. My guess is that the fact that they all returned "insufficient data" influenced whether Google returned those keywords during the initial keyword research. Though Google did return some keywords with "insufficient data" during the inititial keyword research.

2. Some of the keywords for which Google returned "insufficient data", WordTracker indicated as high a predict as 23 daily searches (about 700 monthly searches), though most were only predicted to receive 2-4 searches a day.

3. I found several keywords in Google that WordTracker indicates get no searches. While Google indicated about half of the keywords were very low traffic keywords (100 searches or less per month), Google indicated that the other half received or were predicted to receive at least 100 searches a month or more. In some cases Google indicated the keywords receive over 1000 searches a month.

4. A comparison of the Google predicted search volume and the WordTracker search volume showed some similarities, but also several keyword predictions that did not agree. In almost every case, however, Googles prediction was either about the same or more than WordTrackers prediction (up to 60 times higher). There were almost no keywords for which Google predicted less searches than WordTracker.


This test wasn't intended to discover what tool provides the most accurate data, but rather to see if keyword research on the Google tool would provide as thorough a list of keywords as WordTracker and whether keywords for which Google returns "insufficient data" were all low or no search volume keywords.

If WordTracker's predictions are correct, then a result of "insufficient data" in the Google keyword tool does not necessarily mean that the keyword gets little to no searches. That said, the majority of keywords that returned "insufficient data" were low search volume keywords and none of the very popular keywords returned an "insufficient data" result. So, you can probably assume the keyword isn't a great one either.


Thoughts? Comments?

Has anyone else done some research that indicate either what to interpret "insufficient data" as or any tests on how accurate the information in Google (or any of the other keyword research tools) is?

LesterJ

[incrediblehelp]

Why would you care. They are GIVING you the data. These tools like Wordtracker and keyword Discovery are never going to be accurate, rather we should use them in guiding us to pick keywords and not as a predictive indicator.

[lesterj]

The point is that they aren't GIVING us the data, at least not for a significant number keywords, thus the "insufficient data" result.

Quote:
These tools like Wordtracker and keyword Discovery are never going to be accurate, rather we should use them in guiding us to pick keywords and not as a predictive indicator.

Is there really a difference? How are you using these tools to guide you if you aren't also using them as a predictive indicator? The whole point of keyword popularity tools is to get an idea of the search volume of the keywords so as to choose keywords that are actually searched for and select the ones that will give you the most relevant traffic. If you're looking at the data they give and thinking, well that's nice, but I don't expect the keyword to have a search volume anything like this in the future (ie. not using the tool as a predictive indicator), then why are you using the tool? I wouldn't expect any tool to be perfect since search patterns change, but good research with useful data should give you an idea of what to expect.

The point of the post was to discuss how to interpret the insufficient data result in the Google keyword tool. If insufficient data means that the keyword isn't being searched for, then you can use that information to guide you in picking keywords. If insufficient data means that you're not going to get any information on the search volume of the keyword whether it has a high search volume or not, then the tool is useless in regards to that keyword. If a significant enough number of keywords are returning no information at all, then the entire tool would be useless. Sure, they are "giving" us data, but incomplete data can be useless or even misleading.

LesterJ

[incrediblehelp]

I guess I dont understand your point lesterJ. I see 1000s of keywords that show 0 in Wordtracker, yet get plenty of hits per month. They are not accurate either, so whats the point?

[freetraff]

About WordTracker, for some reason I was dumb enough not to read this page on their site About Wordtracker ... where they say "All search terms are collected from the major metacrawlers - Dogpile and Metacrawler"

This is the answer!

We can hypothetically pre-suggest that people who use Dogpile or Metacrawler and people who use Google coincide in most of the searches they do. But my personal opinion was that in lots of cases the results will be different.

And your example/test, lesterj, proves that: in many cases the trend for search can be similar, as well as in many cases it can be pretty different.

I have a theory that people who use different search engines use them for different purposes (yes, they are all used to find info, but I do not believe that for example Google surfers and Yahoo surfers are the same in their "searching appetites"; the same about metacrawlers that are used for keyword basis on WordTracker).

As I prefer to get better positions in Google (not in Dogpile or Metacrawler), I prefer to use Google tool to research the data.

[Azher Memon]

If our targeted area is Google and than we should use Google adwords tool for keyword. It can be more effective than any thing for Google traffic

[2fk]

There are certain keywords that the G keyword tool returns to have a small number of searches but it doesn't mean that such keywords will not work..it can bring in hits and potential conversion of this keywords into sales..These tool suggest keywords which are in the trend (users query) to help us get competitive keywords and a guide as well in targeting our audience's searches..using different keyword tools will give you more choices and then compare this keyword tools to obtain keywords that will work for you..

[paul.e]

Those tool are only guidelines. I am using a combination of 3 tools for my keyword research.

[Bohak]

Any chance you might share this information with us?