Understanding Relative Search Volume

By Chase Granberry on September 30, 2010

We’ve updated the way we show global and local search volume figures we get via the AdWords API. We’ve decided to calculate traffic data we get from AdWords and give each number a relative value compared to the keywords tracking within a domain or page. There are a couple reasons for this …

  1. We consistently have issues with the AdWords API not returning data, or not matching what people see in the Google Keyword Tool.
  2. Any sort of search volume metric should be thought about relative to the other terms being researched.

I think the way we’ve decided to do this, is a better solution than just showing the Global or Local search volume figures. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Site News, Tips Tagged With: ,

AdWords Search Volume Update

By Chase Granberry on July 26, 2010

We’ve been getting reports of odd search volume numbers over the last few weeks. The AdWords API started having issues with their search volume numbers beginning at the end of last month. From looking at a lot of keywords, it seems as though the global volume numbers are more reliable than the local search volume figures. We have seen some odd global volume numbers though.

We know August is coming up, and we’re still pulling search volume figures for newly added keywords, just beware … they may not match exactly what you see in the AdWords Keyword Tool.

As of today, there’s no word on when we’ll have good data via the AdWords API again. We’ll make sure to refresh data for all our keywords once we can confirm everything is working the way it should.

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: ,

SEO Keyword Suggestions with the AdWords API

By Chase Granberry on February 15, 2010

The AdWords API team has been making serious improvements on their API. We had been using the old version of their API, because that was the only thing available, but we’re now upgraded to the latest version.

We used to not be able to get search volume numbers as you would see them when set to ‘Exact Match’ over on the AdWords External Keyword Tool. With the new AdWords API, we’re now bringing in Exact Match numbers. What’s the difference between ‘Exact Match’ and ‘Broad Match’? Basically, ‘Broad Match’ gives you search volume numbers on that term, and closely associated terms to that one. ‘Exact Match’ supposedly tells us how many people searched for that term exactly on average in a given month.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Housekeeping Tagged With: , ,