One of the ways to measure success of an SEO campaign is based on the baseline metrics contained within your Keyword Analysis. Success metrics can include keyword ranking, visitor traffic, and conversions.

You can also measure “share of voice“. In Search Marketing, it’s more accurately called “share of searches”. A straightforward method of calculating the formula is using the monthly [Visits/Universe of Searches], expressed as a percentage.

Naturally, you need keyword data you can trust. It needs to be as accurate as possible. There are a lot of keyword tools out there. Some free. Some subscription-based. So, I decided to compare the term “lyrics” from four popular keyword tools.

Wordtracker:
They state on their site that “All search terms are collected from the major metacrawlers - Dogpile and Metacrawler.” That covers only 2% market of US and UK. Also, the keyword data generated is daily search volume. So, we need to multiply that by 30 to calculate the monthly seardch volume. In this case, the term “lyrics” was searched 407,340 times in a month. I’m not convinced this is the most accurate data.

Keyword Discovery:
KD does not use actual search volume. They state on their website: “The search counts that we provide are best used as a comparison to other search terms in our database. You should treat Keyword Discovery’s search counts as a rank, not actual total search volume.” Furthermore, Keyword Discovery gets it’s data from a few hundred small search engines.

Google Keyword Tool:
The Google Keyword Tool provides you with an actual number of search volume. They state on their website “Global Monthly Search Volume: This column shows the approximate average monthly number of search queries matching each keyword. This statistic applies to searches performed on Google and the search network over a recent 12-month period.”.

Microsoft adcenter Keyword Tool:
The adcenter keyword tool takes from search queries directly from the engine. They state on their site: “The data in the keyword research tools is based on historical performance data from Microsoft adCenter and from historical search queries (exact match type) on Bing and other MSN properties”.

Additionally, adcenter’s adlab has a group of keyword research tools that are definitely worth exploring.

Search Engine Market Share:
If you’re using the Google Tool or the adcenter keyword tool, you’ll need to make a quick calculation to get the “universe of searches”. In order to calculate the amount of the “universe of searches”, we need to know search engine market share:

To calculate a reliable number for “universe of searches” I think it’s best to just use Google Keyword Tool, and multiply that by the amount they are deficient in market share. Depending on the market research you use can alter the amount of search volume also.

For example, if MSN had a market share of 5%, then we’d multiply the number by 20 to get the “universe of searches”. That calculates to 2,717,220.

If Google has 70% market share, then multiply the Keyword number from their tool by 1.30 to calculate the “universe of search volume” for any given keyword.

Conclusion:
The Google and adcenter tools are free, and the keyword data comes directly from them. I think that’s as reliable as it’s gonna get for now. In my opinion, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery are NOT as accurate data.

After all this………Do you trust Google’s Keyword Tool? Yes/No?

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