GoTo Tool Question

[grnidone]

OK.

You know how to use the GoTo tool to find words that are searched upon and how frequently for the previous month.

You type in a phrase, and then the tool will spit out how often that phrase was searched upon and different variations of that phrase and how many times those were searched upon.

OK..Since GoTo is now affilliated with AOL, etc, do the word counts for the search phrases include the number of times those words were searched on on the partner sites as well as goto.com?

My guess is "no", but I'd like to know what you guys think.

-G

[tedster]

I'd say absolutely no. Unfortunately. The numbers are much too low to include partner site searches -- they're maintaining the approximate levels from back before there were any partners.

The thing is, the GoTo tool reports total searches, not clicks. I can't imagine their partners giving up that kind of data (total searches), so all GoTo really could report is total clicks on any term in their system. That would be very interesting, but I don't think we'll see it.

I'd at least like to see the click report on each account broken down by partner site. I had some correspondence with them that hinted such a thing may be in the works.

[WebGuerrilla]

I'm pretty sure it only shows searches from GoTo. If they did start doing this, you would have seen a huge increase in the search counts. I haven't run across any noticiable increase since the partner deals went into effect.

[minnapple]

Showing a break down by partner could reveal each partners relative traffic.

This is something that a partner may not wish to have published so readily.

minnapple

[tedster]

Good point, minnapple. Maybe it's time to get very serious about tracking GoTo referals and have my own traffic reports, using that ?src=goto trick on the end of the url.

With the price increase, though, I really think that account holders deserve some more detailed metrics.

[WebGuerrilla]

They'll never make available partner search information, even if the partners would give it up. They also won't ever allow you to submit a unique url for each partner. That would enable you to accurately track conversion rates on a per-partner basis.

The only way they can keep it afloat is to lump everything together so your conversions appear to be tolerable.

[physics]

What percent of the 'search market' does GOTO.com itself hold (excluding partner sites). I have heard that 5% of all searches done on the web are done on GOTO.com ... is this accurate? I recall a thread here on this ... can anyone point me to it? What I want to do is figure out how many searches are done on all engines combined based on the GOTO numbers (I know .... this probably won't work but I have to try -- peer pressure ;D)

[bigjohnt]

Good observation WebG. Aggregate reporting allows a lot of "fudge" in the figures. I would not rely on the GoTo numbers for searches across the web, at all, due to "webmaster skew". Searching and researching bids. Not all of us use the bid tool, and do searches using the regular search box. The more competitive the term, the higher the skew.

[physics]

OK, I agree ... It probably is garbage due to robots, etc ... However, if someone had to make a wild guess what would it be? I have no choice but to come up with some sort of number.

[physics]

OK, in case anyone else has been wondering the same thing I'm going to base my calculations off of:

[searchenginewatch.com...]

[WebGuerrilla]

Just a quick follow up on the original question. According to Tim Cadogan (Director of Search Products for GoTo) the GoTo results DO include searches conducted at partner sites.

IMHO, this has made the GoTo tool completely useless as far as researching search behavior goes. The automated skew is now so great that there is no way to get an accurate idea as to the true popularity of a given set of terms.

Take a look at recent results for terms relevant to most of us.

1. 41043 search engine optimization
2. 34397 search engine placement
3. 34001 search engine ranking
4. 20821 search engine positioning
5. 4172 search engine placement service
6. 3543 search engine top ranking
7. 3094 search engine placement services
8. 1843 top search engine ranking
9. 1228 search engine positioning services
10. 1193 search engine top ranking service
11. 1028 high search engine ranking
12. 1010 search engine optimization services
13. 984 improve search engine ranking
14. 885 top search engine placement
15. 862 top search engine positioning
16. 700 search engine ranking report
17. 697 search engine ranking services
18. 641 improve my search engine ranking
19. 638 search engine optimization detroit
20. 637 search engine submitting and positioning
21. 628 guaranteed search engine positioning
22. 615 guaranteed search engine placement
23. 594 increase search engine ranking
24. 559 search engine positioning submission
25. 551 top 20 search engine ranking
26. 539 web site search engine positioning
27. 462 orlando search engine placement
28. 458 search engine ranking improvement
29. 457 orlando search engine optimization
30. 457 orlando search engine ranking
31. 455 orlando search engine ranking report
32. 452 orlando search engine placement services
33. 444 search engine positioning specialist
34. 437 search engine ranking tip
35. 399 search engine optimization strategy
36. 398 guaranteed search engine ranking
37. 382 high search engine positioning
38. 377 search engine ranking optimization
39. 365 search engine positioning stratigies
40. 343 search engine optimization company
41. 328 improve your search engine ranking
42. 306 top search engine placement services
43. 283 improve search engine placement
44. 283 search engine positioning company
45. 277 free search engine ranking
46. 259 san diego search engine placement
47. 258 search engine optimization service
48. 251 higher search engine ranking
49. 249 seattle search engine placement
50. 241 improve your search engine placement

Notice how many people in Orlando seem to be looking for SEO companies? :)

[Mike_Mackin]

>Notice how many people in Orlando seem to be looking for SEO companies?

And how it appears that not a soul from the UK searched for "sereach engine optimisation".