Online Search Inventory Tools

How much do they get skewed by automated queries?

[jcoronella]

I was poking around Overtures inventory tool, just fishing for keywords and investigating potential new keywords. I came accross a class of keywords that gets a lot of hype around here and was surprised at how high the search numbers were.

Surprised at how evenly distributed the searches per month were as I scanned down the list, it occured to me that automated queries could be skewing popular SEO target areas.

How much do you think this is happening? What percentage does it skew "generic widgets"? "diet widgets"? "widget refinancing"?

What alternatives are there to determine REAL search popularity?

[keeper]

I personally dont trust Overture's search suggestion tool. The data seems a little odd, most likely from ranking checking as you suggest.

I think it would be a no-brainer to change the figures to *what people actually clicked on* rather than impression data. That would be a lot more useful to me.

Danny Sullivan writes a good article about it's downfalls here: [searchenginewatch.com...]