Has the GKT been changed? I'm getting odd results.

Lucky Luke · Aug 27, 2010

Has any one else noticed unusual results with the GKT this weekend? Some earlier google lead-in pages have changed and the ukexacts results results seem odd.

Cheers, Luke

Darren · Aug 27, 2010

Yes i also noticed that several days ago.

Thanks, Darren.

namealot · Sep 1, 2010

Yes not sure if the old interface results are correct or the new or neither…?

fletchbog · Sep 11, 2010

Noticed this today, exact results seem massively lower than the preceding few months

vizzo · Sep 11, 2010

fletchbog said:
Noticed this today, exact results seem massively lower than the preceding few months

Likewise - but doesn't seem to be just due to the change in the tool interface. Massive drops for some keywords using the same tool.

Gut feeling is that it's under-reporting at the moment.

Looked at one 4 word keyword on a subpage on one of my sites.

GKT says 34 exacts per month.

My page is ranked 2 for that term.

Last month Google Analytics says i got 140 visits from google using those keywords.

So GKT says 34 people search for that keyword but Google Analytics says I got 140 visits from Google search for that keyword in a month!

Now I believe that the GKT averages the last 12 months and so I know i'm comparing two slightly different figures but it is a massive difference and it's not a term you would expect to have seasonal variation.

Fabster · Oct 5, 2010

It's very inaccurate and the results can't be trusted at all. Have been like this for a while.

vizzo · Oct 6, 2010

Ok now i'm seeing something that makes sense.

Google webmaster tools, now shows your keywords, number of searches, your search position etc.

In the one website I checked where i'm on page one for a number of particular search terms, the number of searches corresponds with the number of exacts on the GKT.

So maybe the GKT is accurate, presumably they're using the same stats for the GKT as for Webmaster tools. The one thing they say is that they now only include direct Google searches in GKT not Google search partners like they did before

retired_member32 · Oct 7, 2010

has anybody noticed odd performance from this GKT today,i checked a free to reg yesterday and bought it on the strength of it,rechecked again before purchase and now checked again today and it is dropped by about 80%,and no it was already on "exacts"

sowhatever · Oct 7, 2010

Yes i noticed them too,i guess google must have made an update today.It seems low to me ..

retired_member32 · Oct 9, 2010

very weird results.....i had this site at 5,400 local exact thursday and now it has gone off the radar....which contradicts my data

as anybody else noticing this happen ,i was going to buy some domains from off acorn the other day,looked at the results and nice search volume then bang "170 local" from "9000"

Fabster · Oct 11, 2010

I see alot results like these. I had one result with 50.000 local searches previously giving nothing when I checked yesterday.

crazihos · Oct 12, 2010

I've noticed this too and things are set to get worse as google instant is changing the way they track impressions.

https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&answer=6320

Going to be more difficult working out what domains to buy without testing ppc now.

WiganWebs · Oct 17, 2010

I am still relying on SKTool to give me more accurate results lately. The old GKT was 'way' out in terms of searches per month per keyphrase, I have seen more stability using SKTool in recent months (analysing them to top 3 results are far more accurate).

Wish they would really keep it around, I wasn't confident buying domains until SKTool came along

That said, it still isn't 100% accurate because even if you reach #1 for your desired keywords you still have the PPC ads above you that decreases CTR%. If those ads above you are good converters then you can kiss goodbye to a lot of commission.