Google Suggest: What do the numbers mean?

[Brado12]

Hello

Can anyone tell me what the results in Google suggest mean?

Do the numerical results next to the keywords refer to the amount of searches done within a certain period of time or do they refer to the amount of competing pages for that keyword?

Thanks.
Brado

[Receptional Andy]

Do the numerical results next to the keywords refer to the amount of searches done within a certain period of time or do they refer to the amount of competing pages for that keyword?

It's the (estimated) total number of results returned for the suggested keyword.

I'm unclear on how the ordering is achieved, although it seems like a worthwhile subject to look into further.

[Brado12]

So it refers to the amount of pages that contain that keyword or which is optimized for that keyword?

Because the "estimate" differs from what you see if you go to Google and actually type in the keyword and do the search.

[Receptional Andy]

So it refers to the amount of pages that contain that keyword or which is optimized for that keyword?

The amount of pages deemed relevant to the query, for that particular search.

the "estimate" differs from what you see if you go to Google and actually type in the keyword and do the search

That's a separate topic with prior discussion in the Google forum [webmasterworld.com] - there's no authoritative number of results for a query: it depends on factors like location, the details of the query and which data is accessed to determine the result.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 10:52 pm (utc) on July 8, 2008]

[GeeKumar]

Its a search volume done in that specific month.
Google always gives an estimate value. It wont be the exact result.

[Receptional Andy]

GeeKumar - I think you might be confusing the Google Suggest numbers with those from the Adwords Keyword tool [webmasterworld.com] which does indeed show estimated search volume. Google Suggest gives numbers of results.