Found out my 'pro' SEO tool was showing me fake keyword data

I was tracking a keyword that supposedly had 2,000 monthly searches, but after digging into Google Search Console I saw the real number was 47. Turns out the tool was estimating based on old clickstream data from 2021. Has anyone else caught their analytics tool being way off like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey68223d ago

Oh wow, that is super frustrating! I've had something similar happen with a different analytics tool actually. I was checking how many people visited a specific page on my site and the tool said 1,500 but Google Analytics showed like 82. It made me realize these tools are just guessing most of the time, especially if they're using old data. Now I always double check with Google Search Console or Analytics before making any big decisions based on those numbers.

the_viola23d ago

Double check everything against Search Console, those numbers have saved me more than once from making a bad call.

diana_west2723d ago

Used to think those tools were basically accurate, not going to lie. @casey682 I had the exact same wake-up call you did. Was running a site where a keyword showed 1,800 monthly searches in my tool, but Search Console said 63. That's not an estimate, that's just a guess. Changed my whole view on relying on those numbers for content planning. Now I just treat them like rough hints, not facts.