As SEOers we’re constantly weighing the value of one phrase against another to determine which phrases to write & optimize around. There have been a number of tools out there which have helped us in our quest to find the best phrases – in fact we’ve probably all used the now defunct Overture Tool, or Word Tracker with it’s wonky multipliers, or even Keyword Discovery - but let’s face it they all have their flaws.
With-out official, reliable data directly from the search engines we do the best we can with the tools available to us – but our keyword research has always been plagued by one question – how good is our data?
Hope may be on the horizon as Barry Schwartz reports on SearchEngineLand.com that “Google has added search volume numbers to the external keyword tool.”
I haven’t been able to recreate the effect myself as I’m still seeing the regular old generic bars with “Average Search Volume” or “Low Search Volume” alt text. However, Barry did include a screenshot to show what he’s seeing, and it’s pretty exciting!
While there are a number of great tools out there for keyword research, we’ve all though to ourselves at one time or another “wouldn’t it be great to get actual or even estimated search volume directly from the great leviathan itself”.
The community is buzzing – Collin Cornwell, Director of Natural Search at digital marketing company iCrossing said “This could change everything!” However, others are already questioning the validity and reliability of the data itself. As for me, I’m cautioisly optimistic – it would be fantastic to get some, as SearchInsider & iCrossings Rob Garner puts it “quantitative data” directly from Google.
Ongoing Discussion
Digital Point Discusses “Google Tool Shows Numbers”
Webmaster Word Discusses “Google Now Giving Keyword Volume Data“
I cannot have believed it after all these years BigG decide to give us keywords I like keyword dicovry but google isbetter I think yes?