Workings of the Google keyword tool

[Systreg]

Hi all, another question, I need to get things straight in my head regarding key word figures before I buy some domains today, to use an example, when using the Google keyword tool, if you type in "footballkit", you get these results:

[B]Keywords[/B] - [COLOR="Red"]Approx Search Volume: September[/COLOR] - [COLOR="Blue"]Approx Avg Search Volume[/COLOR]
[B]footballkit[/B] ------------ [COLOR="Red"]590[/COLOR]----------------------------[COLOR="Blue"]590[/COLOR]

Searching again with a space between the words "football kit", you get:

[B]Keywords[/B] - [COLOR="Red"]Approx Search Volume: September[/COLOR] - [COLOR="Blue"]Approx Avg Search Volume[/COLOR]
[B]football kit[/B]------------[COLOR="Red"]135,000[/COLOR]---------------------- [COLOR="#0000ff"]135,000[/COLOR]

My question is, how exactly does that work, obviously, when typing in a search term on Google, people will put a space between the words, but if you owned the footballkit.xxx domain, what sort of traffic could you expect from people typing in football kit with a space on Google?

The reason I ask is that the domain names I want to buy today, have high search terms from 300,000 - 800,000 per month, those are for where there is a space in the search words, the domains I'm after are shortish 2 word names, and obviously there will be no space in the domain name, so will I benefit from those high search word volumes, hope you understand what I'm trying to say, having problems wording it.

 

[ratboy]

If you own footballkits.com then you will be more likely to rank highly for the nonspaced search (footballkits), as G will find the nonspaced searched term in your url.

However, the spaced search (Football Kits) is more competitive as the words in that order will be used across a wide variety of sites - and some very highly ranked ones at that.

If you can get the non spaced version of eg footballkits.com, then go ahead but make sure you give the site title tags of "Football Kits" only - that will help you tie down the main keyword for the site. Sites like Acorn automatically pull title tags in for hyperlinks as linking text now so it's all good.

The problem comes with the interpretation of the results from the keyword tool. Make sure you have selected EXACT so that the real figure for those combinations is given not the searches for "Manchester Football Kits UK" or whatever. Best of luck!

 

[ratboy]

To add, looks like your results are the APPROX not EXACT :?

 

[Systreg]

Cheers RatBoy, that helped a lot, also, I didn't even see the drop down menu for exact, broad, phrase or negative, I didn't realise it was set to "broad" by default as I have seen other posts on here where it had approx search results, so I thought that was what you looked for, having seen the other options, that put's a whole new spin on it, back to the drawing board again.

 

[ScottJ]

'Broad' would incorporate all the searches for things like
Man Utd football kit
Arsenal football kit

When you choose 'exact' the numbers usually get much smaller and you get exact info for the term 'football kit'

 

[jwm]

I would bet that many new domainers have been caught out by the Google Keyword tool automatically defaulting to a broad match rather than an exact match. Definitely something to watch out for

 

[Systreg]

Cheers for all the input, looks like I have a lot of domains to recheck again over the next few days, because I have been through thousands of names over the past week, checking them one at a time to see if they are available and then copying them to notepad if they are, I have about 800 available names on notepad so far, and not having much money, I can't afford to make a mistake and buy a pig of a domain, that either wont get much traffic or have no resale value, more research needed on my part with all this being new to me, glad I asked here first before bying today!

I would bet that many new domainers have been caught out by the Google Keyword tool automatically defaulting to a broad match

Yeah, it got me good and proper, and I bet I'm not the first

[edit]

Something related that I wanted to ask, when you research a domain name, what's the minimum "exact" search term number you would want before buying a domain?

 

[ScottJ]

Something related that I wanted to ask, when you research a domain name, what's the minimum "exact" search term number you would want before buying a domain?

There is no answer to that, remember you would really start having to also show the Est Average CPC although it seems to be high it's a good guide.

So 2000 searches per month with an Av CPC of £4.00 may be more appealing than 4000 searched per month with an Av CPC of £0.50

 

[stevebrowne]

I'm making money off search phrases with low xxx exact searches and even some high xx exact searches.

Remember that Google is just one metric to base decision on.