Google Adwords Keyword Tool Broken! Exact Match Volumes are Zero
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool seems to have the winter blues, and is reporting ZERO volume for a large number of head terms when using the Exact Match match type.
- Not all keywords are reporting zero for volume, just a random selection it seems.
- Head and middle tail keywords are affected. Long tail may also be affected but volume is very low for those anyway (obviously) so I can't make any real conclusions on that.
- Both global and local volumes show as zero, even changing my location to another country does not produce numbers.
- There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the error and no particular 'type' of keyword/industry that it affects.
Any experienced SEO knows to take the volume Google's keyword tool produces with a massive pinch of salt, but it's long been considered that even though the actual numbers given shouldn't be taken as absolutes, their relative volumes are probably more-or-less correct. That means that if [dog] has an exact match volume of 3,000, and [cat] has 6,000, then twice as many people probably do search for [cat] as they do [dog].
I first noticed the issue last Friday 25th and thought I'd give it a weekend to recover, but it hasn't. Others have reported the problem a couple of days before this though.
Have you noticed this issue, and is it affecting your day-to-day SEO or PPC tasks?
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
