Curious about Adwords keyword tool results.

[gerardoH]

Why the Google Adwords Keywords tool says there are 0 local monthly searches for a keyword or shows a dash, but in spite of this there's competition for those keywords (up to 0.42 in some cases) ?

Thanks!!

[AlanBleiweiss]

There are a couple possibilities.

First, Google doesn't record and display data when there are very few (in their opinion) searches for a phrase.  Also, they only show data for phrases that their system deem valuable from an AdWords perspective.  Even if some people compete for them, if it's not a lot of competition, or if there's not a lot of actual AdWords clicks on a phrase, the Keyword tool won't display data for count.

Then there's the reality that some businesses compete on phrases regardless of what the Google system shows as "valuable".  I've seen a lot of businesses compete for phrases that are bizarre and useless.

The bottom line is this - the only real way you'll know if it was worth going after those phrases is if you do so and then look back over time.  If you get clicks, it was worth it.