#1 – Relative Search Volume from 3 Sources

There are three sources on the web that I’ve found to work best for comparative numbers research. These are:

1. Google Ad-words: Keyword Tool - enter any term or phrase and get back data about both the average search volume and the volume from the previous month.
2. MSN Ad-Center: Research Keywords Tool - you need to be logged in to use this, but the data is solid and shows actual counts.
3. Word-tracker: Keyword Tool - although the numbers Wordtracker shows are frequently less accurate than the two above, they are reasonably decent for estimating comparative search volume. Unfortunately, due to the declining share of Wordtracker’s data sources (the Infospace owned search engines – Metacrawler, Dogpile, DoGreatGood, etc.), niche and long tail term volume estimates can be way off.

Here’s why I don’t use Yahoo!:

From there, rather than build a spreadsheet just showing raw numbers, I like to work in comparative sizes (the real numbers rarely prove accurate anyway). Thus, rather than having a graph of data like this:

I can have one like this:

Note how, in this view, I’m showing the relative volume percentage of the demand for keyword “SEO” made up by “seo services” and “seo tools.” This graph tells me that while Google thinks “seo tools” and “seo services” are tiny fractions of the volume that comes in for the broad term, “SEO,” Microsoft & Wordtracker both say these phrases make up a more substantive percentage. Since keyword targeting is really about choosing one keyword over another and much less about trying to estimate exact traffic, the latter system makes much more sense to me.

#2 – Temporal Fluctuations

When are your queries in highest demand? Knowing the answer can help you predict when competition may ramp up and additional SEO efforts are needed as well as provide insight into your market overall (if demand has been dropping steadily over the last few years, you might want to target some different terms, or even shift product focus). Two sources of data are solid on this front:

#3 – Top Ranking Domains

In order to get a full understanding of the competitive landscape, it’s essential to know who’s ranking for the terms you’re targeting. A basic query is a great start, but I like to append those with a bit of extra data, as I’ve visualized below:

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