Google search tool

how to tell who's searching for what

[NexDog]

I seem to remember a tool on Overture that shows what is being searched for. Is there a tool that tells us what peaople are searching for on Google so we can optimise accordingly?

[Webber]

I really would like to know too.

When you have a sponsored link, you can get the figures of those specific keywords.

Otherwise I wouldn't know.

Does anyone have a good answer here?

[DotBum]

NextDog - that tool you're looking for, is this [inventory.overture.com] it?

Hope that helps ;)

[albert]

You may try to get an idea using Google AdWords.

It'll give you no precise figures about how often a keyword is searched in Google. But it gives you an estimation about expected clicks per day.

Try to understand the relations between keywords and CPC ... modify CPC to see how expected clicks per day will change.

Hope that helps.

<edit>typo</edit>

[creative craig]

Google Zeitgeist [google.com] is what you are looking for, it tells you the most popular searched words on Google. :)

Craig

[NexDog]

Craig,

I'm after a tool that I can enter 2 search terms and see which one comes out on top. For example:

shared webhosting
cheap webhosting

Then I could optimise accordingly. The Overture tool is nice but far from definitive for Google....

[John_Caius]

Well the simple way to do it is just to look at how many results come up. If twice as many results come up for one keyword then it's a reasonable estimate that that keyword is twice as competitive. There's no more accurate measure that I know of.

[creative craig]

Search for Googlefight on Google and I think you'll get what your after ;)

Craig

[tedster]

If twice as many results come up for one keyword then it's a reasonable estimate that that keyword is twice as competitive.

Sorry, John but that's really not at all true in my experience. That's the whole reason why services like WordTracker exist. You can't determine anything about SEARCH frequency from how many time writers use a word on pages.

[John_Caius]

Sorry, didn't make myself clear. Obviously looking at the number of results for a word tells you something about frequency with which it appears in pages, not how competitive the keyword is. But it's vaguely useful in some situations - e.g. (made up example):

I sell theatre merchandise worldwide. Should the title of my homepage have theatre or theater in it?

Looking at the number of results for the two terms in Google will give an idea of the prevalence of UK and US spellers on the web. Add that info in as a minor consideration alongside things like 'who is the target market?', 'can I create both a theatre page and a theater page?' etc.

I've found it useful at times and a simple spelling change has sometimes had a big impact on my getting the targeted traffic.

[crobb305]

Search for Googlefight on Google and I think you'll get what your after ;)

Craig, Googlefight only returns the number of webpages containing the search term, not the frequency of searches performed for that term. You will get the same result by searching for the term in a regular Google search. I think he is looking for search frequency similar to that provided by Wordtracker or Overture. On Google, the only means I know of is Adwords.

C

[NexDog]

And adwords costs, right?

[albert]

And adwords costs, right?

You can use adwords as I suggested without paying.

Just start it and try. Just don't submit your order.

[PatrickDeese]

John Caius is right.

If you are trying to decide between the term

"penguin widgets" or "penguinized widgetcraft",

and overture says that the first term had 650 searches in the previous month, and the second had 14.... well you can multiply that number by 10, or 100 or a million for the google count but you still can see that "penguin widgets" is the most popular search.

On the other hand if all your competitors have optimized for "penguin widgets", you might be able to grab a nice piece of traffic by using a secondary term.

[Alphawolf]

Google Zeitgeist is what you are looking for, it tells you the most popular searched words on Google.

Coooooooooooool. I almost learn sumtin' *every* time I log on here.

WW rules.

AW

[albert]

and overture says that the first term had 650 searches in the previous month, and the second had 14....

Again AdWords:
first term = 650 Clicks per day expected, second term 14.

In fact often different from Overture.

But helpful, no?

[Widestrides]

Here's one way to figure out how many searches on a particular term on Google.

Google says they do 200 million searches per day.
Overture (according to SE Watch) does 167 million searches per day.

So use the Overture Search Suggestion Tool to see how many searches are performed on Overture for a particular term and add 20% to get your Google number.

That should be pretty close.

[PatrickDeese]

Overture (according to SE Watch) does 167 million searches per day.

*cough* industry reported figures *cough*

[Widestrides]

Yes, you are right these numbers could be suspect since they are provided by Google and Overture themselves.

Actually, Google reports that it does 200 million searches per day for AdWords ads, but 250 million a day for regular search results that it serves up itself and also provides to Yahoo and others.

So, for your AdWords search terms, add 20% to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool numbers and add 50% for regular search results listings.

These are ballpark figures of course. And yes, this is all based on numbers that Google and Overture are providing, so they both may inflate their numbers for promotional purposes. But, maybe they both inflate at about the same rate, so Google may be 20% or 50% more than Overture, but actual number of searches for both may be lower.

[Emma McCreary]

do you think that the kind of people who use Google to search and the kind of people who use Overture are the same? I would think it'd be a somewhat different demographic and would lead to different search terms being more popular on the different engines. So using Overture would give you some idea, but there's really no way to know about Google without a similar tool to the Overture tool for Google.

[Webber]

I find that the users of Overture and the users of Google are very different. And they search for different keywords. In my case I find that the Google users are searching more detailed. They know what they want.

[darex]

The problem with using adwords to determine search frequency (based on the expected number of clicks per day) is that you are not comparing like with like. E.g. for one term you might have an average position of 8.0 and for another term you might have an average position of 1.0 which means that the number of clicks per day does not reflect the search frequency on the two terms.