Keyword Tool - What To Believe?

Fellow SEO Aaron Wall, whom I have a ton of respect for, had a great blog post about all the different keyword tool search estimates and how they vary.

Here is a rundown:

Overture: For years I have downgraded this tool because it has been so inaccurate. Especially the fact that it combines both singular and plural versions of the keyword together. Also, it will count bot queries - which greatly throws off the numbers. In other words, Overture returns a ton of “fake queries” which can greatly effect a keyword campaign. You would think that Yahoo! would filter that list.

WordTracker: WordTracker has a smaller data set than Yahoo!, and their numbers can be easily skewed. You can check out both Overture and WordTracker side-by-side with Digital Point’s Keyword Tool.

Keyword Discovery: Aaron view Keyword Discovery in the same light as WordTracker. A keyword tool with a severely limited data set.

In short, don’t put the blinders on with these tools as looking at these numbers as “absolutes”. Remember each one is flawed and the numbers are far from accurate.