Is Google screwing with you?
Gotta love Google, right?
When I started internet marketing a couple years ago, one of the first things I learned was to go after “low competition” keywords.
This meant to do a Google search of your keywords with the term in quotes. If I got under 5,000 results, use it. If not, move on to another search term.
Only problem was, I couldn’t find many. And any keyword I managed to find with under 5,000 results, didn’t make sense. There was no way people were searching for such odd ball terms.
Then I stumbled upon Google’s big lie…and my results started to change after I discovered it…
Want to know what it is?
Lean closer, so I can whisper it to you. I don’t want many people knowing about it…
The results they display are not actually the real search results.
What?!?
In my experience, they are drastically overstated.
How?
Try this little exercise and you will see what I mean:
Go to google right now and do a search for “get rid of tonsil stones” in quotes. When I do it, I get 1,350,000 results. So, if this is the case, I would automatically discard this term as too competitive.
Now, try this. Scroll to the bottom of those search results. Click on the “10″ for the 10th page of results. Keep clicking on the last number until it stops displaying results.
When you get to the end, how many does it show?
For me it’s 416 results!
Does this mean “get rid of tonsil stones” is a slam dunk keyword you will make money off of?
No, it doesn’t, because there are a few other important factors involved, BUT…
It does mean that instead of discarding this as a competitive keyword, you actually probably have a chance at ranking for it with some work. And this can open up a whole new world of opportunity for you.
Try it with your keywords and see what actual results you get, they may surprise you.
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2 Responses to “Is Google screwing with you?”
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Hi Mat, I noticed that Google isn’t displaying the number of results on the page any more but rather they’re just showing the page number. Like Page 6 of about 260,000 results (0.45 seconds). What do you make of that?
Hey Bill, honestly I don’t think it really means anything. Maybe I’m wrong, but this little change has not changed how I do research one bit. It changes the way the results look, but does not change what they mean.