MSN/Yahoo Traffic Estimation
Today's question is from Gary. Gary asks:
"Does MSN have a traffic estimator like Google, and if so, where is it located? If not, how does one estimate traffic on MSN and Yahoo as well?"
There are two MSN traffic tools I'm aware of, one "internal" and one "external". Internal meaning you have to have an adCenter account to access the tool and external meaning it's available to anyone.
You can get a ton of keyword related information at adCenter Labs. It's an external tool that anyone is free to use.
You can get more specific keyword counts from within adCenter itself.
1. Log into adCenter
2. Click the "Research" tab at the top of the page.
3. Type in a keyword and select the region you want estimates for.
4. Check out the results.
You'll see last month and current month results for the keyword you typed as well as results for similar words and phrases.
Regarding Yahoo...there are a number of tools out there for Yahoo data...I normally just use the DP keyword suggestion tool since it shows wordtracker keyword data as well.
comments: 9 so far
posted by: Jeremy Mayes
permanent link: MSN/Yahoo Traffic Estimation
9 Comments:
Adwords gives you the estimated clicks and cost per day for keywords. Is there a formula to calculate the same for ppc in MSN and Yahoo?
The estimates AdWords provides in terms of click/cost data should come with a disclaimer -
"These estimates are for entertainment purposes only"
Seriously...the AdWords cost/click estimates are far, far from accurate. The number of clicks you can receive is dependent on so many factors (ad copy for one) I never go off estimated data. You can get just an accurate of an estimate by writing random numbers on a few thousand pieces of paper, throwing them in the air, then picking a few up.
If you need an estimate for work or a client my suggestion is to run a small campaign using the keywords & cpc you want to put in the estimate. Take the data from that trial campaign and multiply it out to arrive at a somewhat accurate estimate. It's not a perfect science but I've found that method is far more accurate than relying on the estimation tools provided by the PPC engines.
MSN exposes an estimator in their API. Yahoo provides search count, which should be sufficient as an estimate if you are cionsistent in using only that count.
Hey Florian,
One issue I see a lot of people get themselves into trouble with is taking the total search count and somehow equating that to the total number of visitors a site could expect to receive if they were in the top spot.
"So if a term gets 50,000 queries a day and I'm number 1 I should get at least 40,000 visitors a day."
There are so many elements for people to click on after searching that using the total number of searches as an indicator of potential traffic volumes is a sure fire to over estimate the true potential. When speaking with clients (or potential clients) I always try and underestimate things. Clients tend to be happy with under promising (call it being conservative) and over delivering:-)
Always take estimates based off other people's data with a grain of salt.
Good tip regarding the MSN API. I haven’t done anything with it yet so I didn't even think of mentioning it.
Click on!
Hi Jeremy,
I agree that using Yahoo's data is not very accurate. It really depends on what you need the estimates for.
I usually lie to look at the Yahoo data to get a feeling for which keywords are higher traffic relatively to keywords in my portfolio. So if I have Yahoo's search count for all my kwds, I get a pretty good sense which once are potentially the volume drivers. For example, say you automatically generate 100,000 keywords. If you don't have Yahoo'scount it will be extremely difficult to identify broad, high volume driving keyowrds you may not want to bid on.
I usually don't try to predict "true" volume, since google's estimator was more or less a bogus tool in the past :) But when you have clients that demand an accurate prediction of traffic, I agree that Yahoo's data is probably not the best estimate.
Would this tool work for estimating clicks and cost for client http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
That tool is just combining data from the other free keyword research tools out there. Handy to have it all in one place but it's limited in the fact that it's working off the same data/estimates as the other tools.
The MSN Small Business Directory also has a traffic estimator which is quite useful.
I use the WordsFinder.com API to identify keywords from pages on the website to use as metatags to increase my page rankings in search engines. It's not a fast API to use, but it works extremely well!
Try it on
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