Keyword Research Tools With Conflicting Data

Many of us have been frustrated with the lack of consistency when it comes to keyword research tools.  Particularly the search volume data is what has created more questions than answers.

The beginning of any good search engine optimization plan starts with quality keyword research.  I check out competitors and try to go after the terms they are targeting.  There are some tools that work well for finding out this information (or we can just check the source code.)  I find variations of the key phrases to see what market we could be missing and there are several good tools for this.  Finally I check the search volume and suddenly I run into a wall.  Case in point:  I recently decided to do some research on a particular key phrase.  I went through several keyword tools and the disparity in results was more than a little discouraging.  The numbers were so different that by the time I had finished the research, I couldn't tell if the key phrase was worth targeting or not.

Google.com offers two tools, the keyword selector tool (beta) and Adwords.  Both tools offer search volume results, but when I entered the key phrase into both of these tools, I got two completely different results.  In other words, the results were useless.

I recently called into a talk radio show called blogtalkradio.com because they were discussing keyword research tips.  I asked them why there are different results from different research tools for the same phrase?  Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to know either.  They explained that there is no right or wrong tool.   I then explained to them the dilemma I encountered with Google.com’s research tools.  They responded, "Some search engine companies like Google.com keep their info close to the vest.”  Google.com does not want to give out exact information for some reason but I’m not exactly sure why that is.  I would think they would want to give accurate information to help Adword consumers choose the best key phrases.

I’ve been using the same keyword research tool for the past few years on my my search engine optimization projects and it works for me.  I did the comparison to see if there was something out there that was better.  Here is what I have learned from this:  It’s a good idea to find one keyword research tool that you like and stick with that one tool.  The data may not be completely accurate but you will have some consistency.  If you start comparing results with other tools, it’s just going to get confusing.  Your traffic results will help you determine the best course of action.