Why all of your predicted search numbers are down – and no it’s not Google Instant
Recently, we started noticing a decline in search queries for keywords when using the Google Keyword Tool. Wondering what might have happened, we started asking clients about their own results.
After looking into it, almost all of our clients responded with a simultaneous “holy crap!”. Numbers are down a good 50-75% on many keywords. Are people searching less? Did Google change their algorithm?
Our initial suspicion was to blame Google Instant, the new “display results as you type” feature of Google Search. After all, it just rolled out a couple weeks ago, and the new tool is undoubtedly changing the way people will search in the future. However, it’s not the reason why people are searching less for certain (most) keywords.
And another thing. Google hasn’t changed it’s algorithm. This was confirmed last week in a webinar I attended from Hubspot on How Google Instant Affects SEO, adding that “Google Instant makes no change to ranking algorithm, but significantly affects user experience”.
One particularly interesting bit of information that came from the webinar was what Google now deems an “impression” in PPC. You’ll learn further into the article, that this isn’t the reason for the drop in search traffic, however it does tell us that Google may also be reconsider what is considered a “search”.
This is how Google now defines an impression:
- The user begins a search query and clicks anywhere on a page. This is regardless of whether they’ve finished typing in their original query or hit the “search” button.
- The user chooses a particular query by clicking the search button, hitting enter, or selecting an auto-complete suggestion.
- The user stops typing and results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds. Also regardless of whether they do anything after this or not.
In other words, Google Instant is now a kind of “interrupter” of search, by impatiently trying to solve a problem before the question has been asked. Or as one of the speakers on the webinar put it, “Google is now taking a more active role in leading searchers to not just the answer, but also the question itself”.
Again, this isn’t the reason for the significant decrease in search queries for particular keywords. Though as it rolls out further into mobile devices and people start to use it more, we will see fluctuation. After asking around, most people haven’t noticed a difference in search traffic since Google Instant rolled out, so let’s not worry about that just yet.
We type "W", Google thinks "Weather"
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The real reason why search volume is down 50-75% – Google’s search partners
That’s right, Google up and eliminated their search partners from the results of search traffic. You see, Google has relationships with other websites in terms of AdSense. Google agrees to show ads on their site in response to the search queries made on said sites.
These include any website that has the Google Custom Search built-in. It also includes parked domains that have opted into the plan.
On a more official and important level, these partners include giants like AOL, Shopping.com, AT&T, Ask.com and Mahalo.com amongst others.
Did you ever wonder why you were ranking in the number one slot for a keyword that predicted 50,000 searches per month and only got, say, 9,000?
This is why. Because the original results were somewhat inaccurate. There is no way for you to get the traffic from sites like AOL.com if someone is searching from Google.com. Make sense?
Does this mean we should not have been targeting those keywords? Certainly not. All of the search numbers are down for all keywords. So in most cases, it won’t skew what you should be looking to rank on.
So let me repeat. Where the Google Adwords Keyword Tool used to show ALL Search traffic – Google, major search partners and all the miscellaneous sites with a search tool installed, now it’s just from Google.com. The numbers are now actually correct. It’s a good thing.
Also, word on the interwebs is that in the next month or so, Google may in fact release another version that would show a “total” column where you could decide to see the aggregate number. We sure hope so, because it will allow us as publishers to make the decisions ourselves on how we want to track the data.
Social media kill Google?? Never!! 🙂
I’ve always used the volume in keyword tools as a relative volume rather than absolute, and so this explanation of what has happened fits this bill.
I must admit for one minute I thought you were going to launch into a social media kills Google and here’s the evidence type article, but glad to see you didn’t fall into that interpretation trap.