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I have used it quite a bit... and I frequently come across terms that seem too long to be entered the same by two different people... yet alone hundreds.
For instance, the term "red cross org donate donate now html" is said to have been searched 164 times last month.
"red cross org donate donate now html" is a term that includes the word donate twice, and an unrelated word, html.
What are the chances that several people typed in these exact words?
I have seen longer phrases other times, with even more searches listed.
I am not a math guru, but it seems to me that the more words you string together, the less likely the odds that people are going to type them in exactly the same.
I think it is a useful tool, even if it is only a certain percent accurate.
What do you think?
:) Brett
I often question the validity of some of the weird terms that have been searched for a number of times, too.
For example, while searching for phrases related to my site, I typed in "keywords" and all the results that come up are a total mess.
I seriously doubt that "type search words keywords or web address her" was searched for 9,394 times last month.
I wonder whether people are doing this on purpose, or whether some software that they are using is doing it deliberately or even without knowing.
Surely the system that GoTo has in place to catch fraudulent clicks would also catch out repetitive software searches.
I would also agree that it is a very useful tool but, it may not be one day if it is over run by rubbish results like these.
>I seriously doubt that "type search words keywords or web address her" was searched for 9,394 times last month.
I think this is probably from affiliates that have their search box pre-filled with this text to get the surfer to put their keywords in. That is probably how many just hit the submit button without entering any KWs.
My big question about this tool: How about partner site searches, are they going to be included in these search counts in any way? If not, the terms will be searched much more than listed, and will be shown if you are in the top 3-5. If they DO add partner searches, it could really skew the numbers for positions below #5.
My feeling is in non competitive terms, say where the top bids are .1 to .5 cents or searches are low, and the general kwywords are getting say 1 to 100 hits a day/week the keywords listed are pretty meaningless.
No fault of the tool. its just reporting the data its getting.
As GoTo and other companies like them grow in popularity, bots are inevitable for automating/simplifying price checking and positioning. As it stands, GoTo *does* provide a "Check Current Bids" tool where folks can check bid prices *without* inflating search numbers, but the tool is an https page (SSL). That makes queries both slower to execute and more difficult to set up.
Given both choices (querying the main GoTo search results or using this tool) I think most programmers will just use the search results - which defeats the purpose in offering the tool in the first place.
Anyway, I'm back from that tangent... To summarize my thoughts:
(a) it should be used as starting point for terms
(b) you should use your brain to pick between the suggestions you dig up using the tool
(c) keep in mind that the numbers we are seeing now (from November traffic) are *much* lower than actual December searches, given the *massive* expansion in partners. So a (legitimate) term that only got 80 searches last month might get 800 searches this month...
-seoboy
Good advise :)
Brilliant! Thanks Drastic! You have just solved a problem that has had me scratching my head for months. In one of my keyword databases, the #1 word is totally out of place. I have been talking to a lot of people about it and so far, the dominant theory has been that it must be a programming error in one of the more popular rank-checkers, that caused the word to be entered as a search. It simply did not occur to us, that somewhere - on one or more heavily trafficked sites, there might be a search box and button for the engine in question (which they encourage), where this word might have been pre-filled in.
I also seem to recall some sites that effectively use GoTo search results as content. See [dotzup.com ] as an example of something vaguely similar...
Some sites have "directories", where the the directory link is actually a link to a KW results page on GoTo.
This might account for some funky but targeted traffic also.
seoboy
NOTE: I'm not so sure these sites and/or strategies are "legit" in terms of the GoTo affiliate contracts, but I know folks are doing this...GoTo may disapprove, however, and pull these types of pages once they are found....
I think itīs very simple:
when you search for
red-cross.org/donate/donate-now.html (done with copy and paste)
you donīt get the points and slashes but all of the characters.
on a related question, has anyone taken a close looks at the clicks that GoTo is billing for? do they make any effort to filter out "tappers" -- folks who repeatedly hit a link then back up then hit a link again. definitely happens where folks will hit a link 5 times in a minute for no apparent reason.
in this instance, is GoTo billing for all 5 clicks???
GoTo uses a number of methods to ensure that all clicks that are reported to our advertisers are genuine. For security reasons, we do not disclose details of this protection methodology, nor do we give visual or system clues that click protection is active. Rest assured that "invalid clicking" is one of the most important issues at GoTo. We realize that it is mandatory to ensure the integrity of our marketplace.
I am sure a determined abuse-user can get by their monitoring.
Close admin on your account is important if you are spending ++$$.
They will respond to you and refund if you see a problem and have a log file to back up your claims.
Keep a close watch and have good documentation.
