Use of Keyword Analysis Tool (espcially regarding search volume)

[Marketing_Dept]

Hello!

I am fairly new to Moz and just starting to explore the available Research Tools. At first glance, I was very excited about the Keyword Analysis tool, but I quickly realized that (a) I wasn't receiving the information I needed and (b) I didn't know what to do with the information it gave me. So...

Two specific questions:

• Is there any way to see the Google Search Volume instead of the Bing Search Volume? The overwhelming majority of our organic site traffic comes from Google, so it seems silly to look at the Bing search volume.

• How do you deal with the fact that this tool only returns search volume based on an exact match? As we know, there are some many ways the same general query could be entered, but it seems ridiculous for me to sit there and run the tool against every iteration I can think of just to get a general sense of the search volume.

Two general questions:

• What do you find helpful about the Keyword Analysis tool and how does it inform your SEO work?
• What other tools do you recommend to help determine Google search volume for keywords?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

[Ray-pp]

Hi World_Learning,

Welcome to the Moz community!

• Is there any way to see the Google Search Volume instead of the Bing Search Volume? The overwhelming majority of our organic site traffic comes from Google, so it seems silly to look at the Bing search volume.

I prefer to go straight to Google to get the search volume, tbh. That tool is located here. Unfortunately, I only show Bing traffic volume as well, but maybe someone knows of a setting that I've overlooked.

With that said, you do not want to disregard Bing traffic. It does only account for a small portion of traffic, but the search behavior (and conversion behavior) could be wildly different from the traffic it brings to your website. You might be able to identify some very important terms that drive your KPIs and have them be unique to Bing.

• How do you deal with the fact that this tool only returns search volume based on an exact match? As we know, there are some many ways the same general query could be entered, but it seems ridiculous for me to sit there and run the tool against every iteration I can think of just to get a general sense of the search volume.

I've found Keyword traffic estimates to be very limited with almost every keyword tool out there. Again, I prefer to go straight to the source when analyzing a keyword's traffic volume, which is the Google Keyword Planner. Where Moz Pro adds value, I've found, is around the competitive SERP analysis - what sort of difficulty am I looking at, who are the people in the top 10, and how did they get there so I can emulate and out-perform. However, the initial traffic estimates are more accurately received from Google themselves.

• What do you find helpful about the Keyword Analysis tool and how does it inform your SEO work?

The competitive an difficulty analysis. Their tools will help you identify what a SERP has done right to get there, what the sources of links are, what their linking profile looks like, and then you can deduce how to out-perform your competitors to get above them in the SERPs.

• What other tools do you recommend to help determine Google search volume for keywords?

Only the Google Keyword Planner - there isn't much of a reason to use any other tool. It comes straight from Google, they give you additional, related keywords and volume, and help you group them into common themes. This is my first and sometimes only tool for keyword traffic analysis.

[Linda-Vassily]

Google does not allow Moz to use their data for this, which is why Moz uses Bing data.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hey World Learning!

Check out this Q&A from a few months back about the same topic. Might help you understand better but Ray-pp and Linda are absolutely correct!

http://moz.com/community/q/why-is-moz-and-google-search-volume-so-different#reply_273733