Goto Suggestion Tool...hmmmmm

daily disparities in counts

[Michaelangelo]

In using the goto suggestion tool, researching search counts of various phrases performed in January 2001, I've noticed hour by hour and day to day disparities of the search counts, often by massive amounts.

Yesterday, while researching a phrase, it gave me a count of 190. Today the same phrase gave me a count of 30, and two hours later it was 173. Has anybody else noticed this strange occurence?

[Mike_Mackin]

The GoTo Tool can tell you the following about a KW phrase:
1) It is searched for a lot
2) It is searched for sometimes
3) It is searched for not so much

That is enough information to make a determination as to how to proceed.

Late last year we used the tool to choose a new domain name of a client.
We chose something like 4-cool-baby-gifts.com over 4-cool-baby-blankets.com

[2_much]

Hi Michaelangelo, welcome to the forums!
I would suggest using GoTo simply to get an idea of what keywords are popular, and to determine specific words to target. Do not rely solely on this tool, there are many problems and discrepancies with it. The one you pointed out is just one of them.
So it is a useful tool if you understand its limitations and use it appropriately.

[Michaelangelo]

As far as researching what terms are actually being searched, the Goto suggestion tool is only part of my arsenal, along w/ Wordtracker & Good Keywords.

I'm actually trying to plan a monthly advertising budget for GoTo. This may be difficult now, considering that the GoTo results are appearing on a number of other search engines, and the GoTo suggestion tool only lists the counts that are actually searched for on their site.

[Mike_Mackin]

>plan a monthly advertising budget for GoTo

Michaelangelo:
The advantage of PFP initiatives is that they are dynamic. Why not try this.

Let's say you know the sites conversion rate and are able to determine that you can afford 25¢ per paid introduction on average. The keyword tool is telling you that your KW set gets "a lot of action".

Now then, think of this as buying a full page ad in Time Magazine - a weekly publication.
That monthly budget might be say $150,000 and the response may come in on a weekly bases as well as months into the future as the old issue sits in the dentists office lobby. The ad may pull well or it may not and you adjust future ads accordingly.

Plan on spending "a budgeted amount" at GoTo. If you burn thought it in 3 weeks, you got what you paid for. If, on the other hand, you can see that you are not burning the budget at the rate you guesstimated you can then set up a FindWhat and/or Sprinks account and spend the rest of your budget of those programs.

If the traffic converts, great. If it does not, you adjust the program [modify title and/or description and bid amounts] or you stop. This approach assumes you fund your GoTo account on a gradual basis.

Anyone else have a method of planning a budget for a first entry into PFP?