Websites that rely on search engine traffic rely heavily on detailed keyword research to reach their target audience. It is irrelevant if the resulting information is used for PPC, SEO, or featured ads. Simply put, if you want to exploit search traffic, you need accurate data on the number of searches performed for each particular keyword.
Some companies will outsource keyword research to a specialized company, and others will tackle it in-house. Regardless of who conducts the research, a large number of people will primarily use the information provided by the Overture Keyword Assistant as the basis for the project. For some time I have felt that the data Overture provides is often inflated, especially the primary keywords. Recently, I have been running tests to determine the accuracy of the Overtures data in an effort to test my suspicions and see how big the problem is. The results so far are far beyond what I expected.
SEO research
About a year ago, I created a new website focused on VoIP phone systems (www.ip-phone-system.co.uk). The website was built to rank high on Yahoo for the search phrase “Telephone System” and a number of other keyword phrases. According to Overture, the phrase “phone system” has 350,066 searches performed each month in the UK alone. The website is currently on the first page of results on Yahoo.com and in the top three positions for the exclusive Yahoo search in the UK.
With the keyword tool reporting this number of searches and the position of the websites, it is expected that the site will receive a large volume of traffic. But simply put, it is not. For example, over the past two months, the site has only received three visits from people searching for “phone system.”
This test is not specific because most phone system searches could be done on another engine from which Overture pulls its results such as MSN. But you should agree that it is not very likely. Especially when you consider that the site ranks in the top three positions for the search phrase “phone system” on MSN.
Overture’s keyword tool pulls its results from various sources, with Yahoo and MSN being the largest in terms of traffic. The site has a large number of the top three listings on seemingly high traffic phrases eg IP phone, business phone system, office phone system, etc. however, it only receives a very small number of visitors.
Phantom traffic
So what is causing the highly inflated number of impressions the tool returns? I can’t say for sure, but I can certainly name a few things that could contribute significantly to the effect. I’m also going to try to coin a phrase here and call the phenomenon “Phantom Traffic,” which simply means non-genuine traffic or searches performed for reasons other than the actual genuine interest in finding a site related to a particular keyword topic. I strongly believe that the following two examples are affecting Overtures data and contributing to phantom traffic.
1. Manual SEO position check
People who manually review search results to determine the position of a website. Search phrases that are perceived as high traffic performers will theoretically lead to more people optimizing and thus more people manually checking their positions. More people checking their positions manually inflates the number of impressions (ghost traffic). This is self-perpetuating; As more people check the results, the number of impressions will increase, causing even more people to target the phrase and manually verify their positions, etc. etc. etc.
I’m sure this is impacting Overture’s keyword suggestion tool significantly enough to cause many sites to chase ghost traffic. I also think this is the biggest source of phantom traffic. Many webmasters manually check their rankings every day and some even more so.
Auto-generated pages compiled from SERPs (search engine results pages)
Spam sites that collect keyword-rich content from SERPs. These sites will automatically query search engines for the most sorted keywords (probably researched via Overture’s keyword suggestion tool). Sites automatically copy search engine results pages, which are highly keyword-focused. Very often, these sites will automatically generate tens of thousands of pages, all focused on a select number of keyword variations. These keyword rich pages are usually buried quite deep in the site because they are of no value to human visitors. Each page will be linked using rich anchor text and then relevancy to one of the main pages via an anchor text link.
The idea behind this SEO hack is to simply produce large amounts of optimized content that links favorably. Some of the programming that goes into these types of practices can be very smart, while others are actually very basic. The problem is that practically every page that is generated or regenerated influences the Overtures data, unless the programmer is using an API key (which is unlikely).
conclusion
This is very concerning to me as there must be a large number of people who base all their keyword research campaigns on Overture data. This can make your entire marketing campaign focus on nothing but Phantom Traffic. So what can be done to avoid targeting sentences that mainly consist of ghost traffic?
Well, first of all, it is advisable to use a combination of data sources. Wordtracker provides similar data to Overture but is collected from different sources. Comparing the two data sources can sometimes highlight phantom traffic. If you’re looking at keywords with extremely high impressions, ask yourself if it’s credible. Common sense can be of great help in this game.
Personally, I’ve always advised clients to target secondary keyword sentences first, and once ranking is achieved, focus on the next child sentence. If you intelligently select secondary keyword phrases that include the main keywords, you are optimizing the main keyword at the same time.
Example
A good example of this is the secondary keyword phrases, “Manchester web design”. The company I work for is currently listed on the first page of major search engines for this phrase. The main phrase is “web design” and it is also being optimized at the same time because the words are contained in “web design Manchester” (we are currently ranked 11th on Yahoo UK for the search phrase “web design”). The search phrase “Manchester web design” is also one of our top performing keywords because it is highly targeted. Anyone looking for that term is specifically interested in web design in the Manchester area.
Optimizing in this way has several benefits. First, the secondary phrases should be less affected by Phantom Traffic and the number of impressions you see should be similar to the number of genuine searches performed. Secondary phrases also tend to be less competitive with fewer people specifically optimizing for them (this is not always the case, however). Therefore, reaching a traffic generation position is easier and faster, which translates into a faster ROI.
Once enough secondary phrases are optimized to rank well for the primary keywords. The campaign will already attract targeted traffic and therefore cause much less pain and wasted effort if the main keyword is heavily affected by phantom traffic.
The other advantage is that secondary phrases are often more targeted and the traffic they bring in tends to convert much better. I have personally seen this over and over again. Sites that have little traffic but enjoy a 1/3 conversion rate because the traffic they receive is extremely specific secondary keyword phrases. These websites often outperform sites that receive ten times the amount of traffic from their top keywords. However, it all depends on the details and what works for some may not work for you. As mentioned earlier, common sense goes a long way in this game. Just don’t get caught chasing ghost traffic.