Question for SEO Experts
 

Right now I am using the Overture keyword suggestion tool to get search volume on some keywords and some variations to work with.

What % of overture feeds do you think are out there? For example if Overture says the keyword "Fishsticks" gets 100 hits a month, is that 30% of searches on the net? 20%? What would you say?

Thanks.

Overture says up to 90%

but with the sources being: MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace, AlltheWeb and NetZero...

I say bullshit. 30% tops.
Also, Overture has its own business agenda and isn't interested in providing a true picture of actual keyword use.

overture groups their results
so they will combine keywords such as Fishsticks and Fishstick.
two seperate keywords but they only show results for one.

I use this to give me a comparison between Overture and Wordtracker - it works well to sort out those types of discrepancies:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

This is a good one too, thank you.

I would say that Overture now yahoo search marketing accounts for over 45% of the total traffic..

also, look over these reports...

The Adult Profitability Report
Adult Keyword Assessment Report
http://www.wedid.com/keywords/adult/


;-)

I also use this tool for comparisons.

Cheers. I too use digitalpoint.com. It gives much better information.

3 chhers for http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Very important point - Overture only shows the results for the singular, not plural, of a keyword. And as I'm sure everyone knows more people search the plural for the majority of generic keywords:

Generic:
cheap computers
live sex cams

Specific searches:
Next Door Nikki
Paris sex tape
Ford Mustang GT

So when they combine plural and singular it can really skew the resutlts. As mentioned above, use Digital Point or several tools together for a more realistic estimate.

Also, there are several services that monitor ISP traffic - likely the best source of real data on user searches. They offer highly detailed keyword and industry reports, however, the cost is a premium and suited for big businesses with serious trends and metrics requirements.

Overture's keyphrase compression makes results nearly useless for choosing SEO keyphrases, but as far as their traffic estimates - Overture's properties account for about 30-35% of daily searches. Multiply the number they give you by 2.8 or so, to get an overall estimate. However, different "types" of people use different engines. One top query (paris hilton) will be much more popular in yahoo/msn, than another (linux) in google.