Any given keyword or phrase has it’s “search volume”, the number of times people use that keyword or phrase to search. The combined search volume of all the keywords we’re relevant for – the keywords we’ll actually rank for – is essentially the ‘upper limit’ of traffic we can expect.
But where do those numbers come from? For the most part, they come from Google. Obviously, Google knows exactly how many times a particular search is done, through Google anyway. In fact, they’re the only one’s who know. And therein lies a problem – they don’t like to give too specific information about things.
Various keyword tools provide ‘search volume’ numbers, including Google’s own keyword tool. Most get their data from Google, which means that all of those tools are using the same information, and therefor report the same results. There are differences where one tool might report a monthly total, while another divides that number by 30 to report daily volumes.
Then there is the ‘match type’. There are 3 ‘match types’ when we talk about keywords & search: “exact match”, “phrase match”, and “broad match”. “Exact match” is just what it sounds like: the exact phrase in question, no more, no less. “Phrase match” means the phrase in question, not just as it is, but as part of a bigger search as well: any search that includes the exact phrase within it. “Broad match” means any search that includes the words of the phrase in question, in any order.
Examples for the phrase “dog training”:
Exact match = “dog training”
Phrase match = “best dog training”, “dog training books”, etc.
Broad match – “training my dog”, “dog and cat training”, etc.
The ‘wider’ the search (exact to phrase to broad), the bigger the search volume number is going to be.
Google provides 2 numbers for each match type: “global” and “local”. The “local” number is a monthly total for the country that you’re using Google in (usually the country you are in, but you can also query Google’s datacenters in other countries); “global” is a total for all countries combined. Generally speaking, you want to use the “local” numbers of the country for which you expect most of your traffic, unless you can legitimately expect global interest.
Phoenix Education 