keyword tools

thoughts about keyword tools

[unknownsoldier]

Just a thought a have had for a while.

I have sneaky suspicion that the keyword tools that Overture, Espotting Google and Wordtracker provide could be seriously distorted from people checking the search engines and directories with automated software on a regular basis.

Seam to remember some ridiculously high figure quoted by one of the engines for the number of automated queries Vs actual queries that were generated from position checking software.

Another reason to stop checking for those positions automatically?

It seams that if the software does effect the results then search engine marketers could be / are chasing their own tails as well as clogging servers.

Does anyone agree or disagree with this theory?

[Dante_Maure]

It's been long observed that Overture's suggestion tool shows many results that are skewed by marketers conducting searches, but with all of these tools the benefit is in discerning relative popularity as opposed to making definitive predictions.

WordTracker has the benefit of using Metacrawler and Dogpile's search databases for it's results. This offers them some protection from the skews the others display... but has the drawback of sampling a different demographic than the more popular engines.

[unknownsoldier]

Cheers Dante - I had discussed this in the past with colleagues who agreed - and I think I do remember now some discussions on this here a long time ago.

Looks like it is a a case of ever decreasing circles - or is it increasing?