When you’re doing keyword research and trying to find those hidden micro niche topics to build websites and blogs on, one of the elements that poses the biggest challenge is figuring out exactly how much traffic these damn keywords really get! Right? I’m sure you’ll agree. At times, it can be really frustrating to have programs tell you one thing, and then live results reflect something different. The part that sucks the most is that there’s really only ONE WAY to find out. You have to build.

Honestly, keyword research is largely a talent that comes natural in your way of thinking. The best way I explain this is using the movie Twister. I hope that you have seen it… if not, you should. It’s a classic. Basically, in the movie there’s a guy named Bill. He’s a weatherman, but has a natural instinct to predict when and where tornados will land. The plot of the movie was basically about a race to see which one of two teams could successfully drop their weather machine in the path of a tornado to collect untapped data. Bill and his team was very raw, intuitive, and broke. The other team had boat loads of money and technology at their disposal. Not trying to spoil the movie, but long story short, Bill’s team won! And that’s largely how keyword research is.

The free tools, many provided by Google, are largely vague, and other tools that cost money, such as Micro Niche Finder, tend to vary quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I am not DOWNING any of these tools, especially the free ones. But, it’s definitely a problem that I have noticed over the years. And it’s a problem that could either make you or break you, depending on how much of buffer you have for building sites that fail to generate decent money. And just like Bill from Twister, you really have to have a natural instinct for knowing where to drop your weather machine. In other words, which keywords you’re going to choose to invest your time and money on developing sites.

That said, I really can’t teach you how to be intuitive, but what I can do is teach you a little trick that might enable you to start seeing the bigger picture about keywords and the amount of traffic you can predict to receive if you build. The tip is really SIMPLE and it will deliver a personalized and unique metric for how much traffic certain keyword phrases and topics receive in Google. The trick, however, is to actually KNOW or feel CONFIDENT of the amount of traffic a certain keyword phrase already receives. When you have that, then you have established what I call a constant in the keyword traffic equation. The only thing you need now is a tool that allows you to graph out and compare the keyword phrase against the constant. That tool is called Google Insights.

Now here’s the thing though… Google specifically states that Insights does not reveal the number of searches for keywords queried. Instead they compare the number against the total number of searches for over time, and compare the results on a scale graph from 0 to 100.

The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don’t represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. When we don’t have enough data, 0 is shown. The numbers next to the search terms above the graph are summaries, or totals. — Source: What do the numbers on the graph mean.

Google kind of screwed up a little bit though, because all that’s needed to figure out the amount of searches keywords receive is a constant. Once you have a constant, you can enter that into the graph, then enter the terms you want to discover, and then compare the difference using the 0-100 scale. Does this make sense? Again, this will not be precise, but I believe the results will give you a more accurate representation of what to expect, compared to the results other tools give you. Here’s a few examples.

Let’s use John Chow as the constant. We all know that he’s popular, and can easily generalize how much traffic he has. Also, quickly I want to address something. Some people might say that using John Chow as the constant isn’t a good idea because it’s possible that his ranking in Google suffers from a banning a couple years ago. But here’s the thing… it doesn’t matter if he’s banned or not. We’re not concerned with that. What we’re concerned with is the number of times people search for John Chow on Google. Based on his level of popularity, we can’t really predict an actual number, but instead we can “feel it”. We know him well, we know the amount of daily activity his blog receives, therefore we have a general “felling of what to expect” from his blog. This is what I call the intuitive control or instinctive constant. Now, let’s compare John Chow to something. How about Salt Water Fish Tanks?

John Chow vs Salt Water Fish Tanks

On a scale from 0-100, John Chow scored a 30. On the same scale, Salt Water Fish Tanks scored 33. So basically, if you were to build a website targeting the keyword phrase Salt Water Fish Tanks, and assuming you were successful gaining top rank, you can assume or expect to receive as much traffic to your website as John Chow receives to his. Again, while this isn’t true science, it’s more or less “feeling” your way through the data.

Just how popular is the search term John Chow? Well, that all depends on what search term you’re comparing it to. If compared to Salt Water Fish Tanks, it’s about the same. If compared to George Bush, it doesn’t even register on the scale.

Using Google Insights with this mentality will give you a very accurate scope on search traffic, and which keywords you should invest your time and money on, and which keywords you should drop off your list. The great thing about this tool is that it allows you to see the big picture on things both big and small. In other words, we all know that John Chow is popular. But in reality he is only as popular as a salt water fish tank and doesn’t even register against George Bush. This is Google Insights… a tool if used correctly, can significantly help you in your journey towards building profitable websites and blogs for profit based on keywords you research.

Tags: Building Blogs For Profit, Building Websites For Profit, Google Insights, Google Search Traffic Tools, How Much Traffic Do Keywords Get, How To Determine Search Traffic, How To Figure Out Keyword Search Traffic, How To Use Google Insights, John Chow Banned, John Chow Search Traffic, John Chow Traffic, John Chow vs George Bush, John Chow vs Salt Water Fish Tanks, Keyword Research, Keyword Research Tips, Micro Niche Finder, Profitable Niche Blogs, Search Count Keyword Analysis