What does it mean when two keywords in Google's Keyword Research Tool have exactly the same amount of searches?

[davhad]

The two keywords are [publicity] and [product placement] (both in exact search - not broad) and have 22,200 searches each.

Is it purely coincidental or are the two keywords kind of related in Google's eyes and that's why we're seeing the same amount of searches for each?

[TomRayner]

The Google AdWords keyword tool only provides an estimation of monthly search.  The figures are rounded up/down, so it's very unlikely that both would have an identical number of searches.  In addition, the number is based on PPC data (although you would still suspect that the user behaviour would be the same for organic).  Incidentally, Bing's keyword research tool provides exact figures.

The general takeaway is that there are roughly the same number of people searching for both terms month on month.  That's all you can really take from the keyword tool, as competition relates to PPC as well and not for the domains currently ranking on page 1. There is usually correlation between an increase in monthly searches and the competitiveness of the term, but sometimes you might just unearth a diamond in the rough.

Hope this helps to clarify some issues.