If you are wondering which words or phrases get you the most bang for your dollars, wait no more! Simply go to Google Labs Suggest, type in the words or phrases you are considering and see EXACTLY how many visitors type in those key words or phrases.
You can use that information and custom tailor your Internet optimization. I found out for example that "Myrtle Beach sc" garners 932,000 visitors, while "Myrtle Beach s.c" gets 940,000 visitors (yes, 8,000 more visitors put a dot between the "S" and the "C"). "Myrtle Beach Real Estate" gets 8,620,000 hits, while "Myrtle Beach SC Real Estate" garners only 255,000 hits. Now you understand why the optimization company you used was so affordable... one extra dot, or letter can make all the difference...
Check it out! Put an icon on your desktop, that way it will always be handy. Do it now, so you don't forget about it!
You're welcome!
Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela Monte Join The Optimist Group!
I know you are all busy with this new 'TOY", but I sure would like to hear from you! How do you like it? Isn't it GREAT?
It seems to me that this tool shows you the total number of sites or entries, not the number of visitors who are searching. Am I wrong?
Wow, I could have used that three years ago with my other busiess. I'm going to check this out....thanks!
good post..thanks for this info..you are the best for sharing this with me...let's make some money!!
Geordie: This shows the number of people researching a particular subject on Google by entering a particular word or phrase. So, if I am looking for real estate in myrtle beach I will type in myrtle beach real estate, or real estate in myrtle beach, or myrtle beach sc real estate.
Optimization companies charge you for exact words or phrases. This way you can compare apples with apples when hiring them. I don't know about you, but to me "Myrtle Beach real estate" sounds the same as "Myrtle Beach SC Real Estate", yet there are 8,365,000 more searches for the first phrase. BIG DIFFERENCE!!!
This is pretty interesting, thanks for sharing with everyone!
I love this! I was quite surprised that many of the keywords that I would be inclined to use did not even show up on the list! Thank you for this tip!
Hmmm...I'm back. I must be missing something. The only numbers I see when I do this is the results of the search. When I googled "Myrtle Beach Real Estate" the only thing I get number wise is 877,000 results. Where did you get the 8.6 million??? I really must be missing something. When I type, nothing happens, so I hit the "search" button. Are you doing something different?
Mirela, good stuff I played with it a bit and I am not sure it is complete but is a very good tool for getting additional info. Thanks!
Nice! Thank you, I, also, love your phone with text abilities!
It's a Good Life!
Fran
Gregory: Did you just click on my link, or try to go to Google labs select?
If you just typed Google labs select in it will NOT get you there. JUST CLICK ON MY LINK. I just gave it a name. My optimization guy got me there in the first place and then I just donwloaded an icon on my desktop. Follow my link; it will get you to the right place. When you see the 8.6 mil for my mb phrase you'll know you're in the right place.
Let me know if you have any further issues with it.
Cool stuff,my virtual tour guy showed me the google search, or I should say research and it helped us go forward with a utube compatible design, because the number of hits don't lie, Thanks for the tip.
Steve
Great tool Mirela! Thank you so much for sharing! Oops i will thank you later!
Pretend you got this later......
THANK YOU!
Great tip! Now, and don't laugh, what's the best way to utilize the information you obtain?
Interesting. I've seen the numbers but never thought that it would of value to me. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Mirela,
This needs investigation and clarification. In your example, there are many more results when SC is not part of the search phrase. However, when I did a similar type of search, there are more results when SC is included as part of the search phrase. That's not logical.
Here are the results I just found:
homes in myrtle beach 490,000 results
homes in myrtle beach sc 919,000 results
I suggest we need more information about Google Suggest. Please ask your optimization guy to explain these differences. Right now, it seems like Google Suggest has limited value as a way to get the most bang for our buck.
Not yet licensed: That's just it: 490,000 people look for property in myrtle beach by typing "homes in myrtle beach". 919,000 people look for property in myrtle beach by being more specific and naming the state as well. It's actually hits, not people, but you get my point.
When you optimize your website, you obviously want to go for the "homes in myrtle beach sc", instead of "homes in myrtle beach", for almost twice as much bang.
I hope this helps.
I LOVE SUGGEST. It is why I bought the domain name lakepowellrealty.net. Lake Powell AZ gets more hits by ten times than Lake Powell Utah. I took that info and passed it on to a Utah senator at a recent convention indicating that maybe Utah is not doing enough to market Lake Powell. Lake Powell is 90% in Utah so why does Lake Powell AZ get so many more hits???? The senator found that interesting as well.
That is great. This one post just npaid for a life time membership on Active Rain.
THANKS FOR SHARING! I love Active Rain.
I like it a lot. I have used other keyword tools that show MSN and Yahoo numbers as well, but with Google getting 65% (or so) of all search traffic world wide, follow them and everything else works out too.
PS, I read an article that said Google will pass Microsoft as the largest Monopoly in the world this year....
Greg: Thank you! I believe it!
Can you give me the sites for checking the stats on Yahoo & MSN? I would much appreciate it! Thank you!
Update: Suggest is still in "labs" stage - testing I believe. Interesting but one of my main search terms has disappeared off the list totally, with over 2 million hits. It is going to be cool when this is up and running 100%.
Mirela - YOU ROCK! Thanks so much for sharing this tool - I am sure that it will keep me busy!
Leesa: Thank you!
Heather: I haven't run into that problem yet; it's worked very well for me every, single time.
I have been trying to research this through Matt Cutt's blog (Google engineer) and everywhere else to see what those numbers represent, but I'm almost positive they are the number of websites that result when you do the search, NOT the number of searches.
We SEO people use the Wordtracker Keyword Tool...always have, and it's showing Myrtle Beach real estate to get 4,440 searches a month...nowhere near the number that this tool throws up. Even if it were a yearly figure it wouldn't add up. And Wordtracker is supposed to take into account all three search engines.
Now I suppose that all the reputable SEO's could be using a defective tool, but somehow I doubt it. And Matt has not suggested that we use Google Suggest...which he surely would have if it were that good for SEO purposes. We used to use the Overture tool, which didn't reflect Google...but how different would search terms be from one engine to the next?
Anyway, I don't think I'd base anything major on Google Suggest until Matt or someone sanctions it and says it's the thing to do. The most popular Keyword Tool can be found at this address. http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ It's what we all use the most.
Good find, though. It bears some definate research potential. I'm amazed I hadn't even heard of it.
Jan
Jan: with all due respect, I probably have Googled that term at least 4,400 times single handedly...
I don't know who this Matt guy is, but my optimization expert is top notch and the above blog is based on the information he gave me.
Come on, do you really think that only 4,400 people Googled Myrtle Beach? We get 13,000,000 visitors per year!!!
Sometimes we give a little too much credit to the so called experts... Maybe we should Google this Matt guy and see how many hits he gets...
Mirela:
Thanks for the link. I will be spending some time later today doing the research on my area.
Yes, I always know it is a pure numbers game, the more hits, the more contacts, the more clients, the more refferals
Bob: That's right! I just love numbers; don't you?
Thank you for this post. This is really cool.
Hi again Mirela,
When you started this discussion, you posted: "Myrtle Beach Real Estate" gets 8,620,000 hits, while "Myrtle Beach SC Real Estate" garners only 255,000 hits."
Later you responded to me: "490,000 people look for property in myrtle beach by typing "homes in myrtle beach". 919,000 people look for property in myrtle beach by being more specific and naming the state as well. It's actually hits, not people, but you get my point."
Do you see the problem here? In your example, having SC in the search phrase reduces the results from 8.62M to 255K. Then, in my example, having SC in the search phrase raises the results from 490K to 919K. That's not logical. Adding SC to my search phrase should not increase the results when adding SC to your search phrase drastically reduces the results.
When something doesn't make sense, I dig deeper. I just checked the phrase Atlanta real estate. Google Suggest says there are only 2.77M results. When you compare the population of Atlanta to the population of Myrtle Beach, these results also are not logical. Myrtle Beach real estate can't be receiving over three times as many searches as Atlanta real estate. There is a flaw of some kind. You don't want to build your business on inaccurate information.
Heather has the answer. She mentioned that Suggest is still in the testing phase, so I did a quick search. Google Labs says Suggest is not quite ready for prime time. So enjoy the suggestions you get from Suggest, but please take them with a grain of salt.
http://labs.google.com/ Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time.
Hi Mirela. Enclose the search phrase in quotation marks, such as "official songs of memphis", and you get better results because the search focuses on a specific response based on analog computing which results in an output that is directly proportional to the input, characterized or distinguishing by something particular, special or unique stated explicitly and in exacting detail in your phrase. Hope you had a great weekend.
Not yet licensed: Hurry up and get licensed; you'll be good!
Heather: Thank you!
I get the answers I wrote in the blog; you and Heather get other answers... it makes sense that Suggest is in the testing phase. I just don't understand HOW I consistently get those answers and you consistently get yours for the same words. I wonder is someone could shed some light on just that fact (the different answers to the same question). I guess not working out the bugs yet gives it that inconsistency... Thank you for the clarification!
Thanks for the other link also!
Mirela,
Good stuff.
This is an example of what is commonly referred to as "long tail" search optimization. By optimizing for more of these second and third-tier terms, you will get more of that traffic, while other competitors overlook them.
This is all fully expalined in the keywords analysis section of our Real Estate SEO Guide:
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-content-focus-on-keywords.html
I hope it helps
Hi again, Mirela,
In response to what you said here...
Come on, do you really think that only 4,400 people Googled Myrtle Beach? We get 13,000,000 visitors per year!!!
Sometimes we give a little too much credit to the so called experts... Maybe we should Google this Matt guy and see how many hits he gets...
The term that got 4400 searches was Myrtle Beach REAL ESTATE, not just Myrtle Beach (which actually gets 2754 a day, or 82,620 per month according to Word-tracker.)
I have to smile about Googling Matt Cutts. He is Google's chief engineer over spam, and the most well known go-between between us (SEO's and Webmasters) and Google itself. He is the be-all and end-all of everything to do with Google Search. You might find his blog a great tool. www.mattcutts.com/blog He speaks at the SEO conventions and is followed around by crowds of disciples. His word is the one gospel about Google that you can take to the bank.
I did find some information here - http://www.googletutor.com/2005/04/25/google-suggest/ and it says that the number given is how many RESULTS there are for that term. (not searches) I don't know that website, so can't say it's gospel either, but it does sound like that's probably what it is.
I put Matt Cutts into Suggest, and it came up with 1,180,000 results, or webpages that mention his name. Does it sound reasonable that there would be over a million searches a month for Matt? Everyone who knows about him knows where his blog is...:-) I think this pretty much answers the questions.
I'm not trying to start anything. I just don't think that this is a correct thing for people to believe, and there is enough bad SEO information out there already. I spend half my time explaining to customers that half of what they've read is no longer accurate. Most of the so-called SEO companies are still spam emailing to get reciprocal links.
Jan