Simply because of the nature of search engines, it’s extremely important to remember that keyword search data is only, at best, indicative of the actual search volume for any given keyword. For example, when looking at the “Global Monthly Searches” compared to the “Local Monthly Searches” when using the google keyword tool as seen below, you will always notice discrepancies. Sometimes the discrepancies will be larger than others, but it’s important to note the difference, and always go into a campaign based on the local search traffic data, as opposed to the global
(unless you plan on dominating page 1 for every country in the world )

If you are planning on building a website, with the intention of picking up search engine traffic, I recommend that you only use the data given by keyword tools as an indicator of the traffic volume. The best way to do this, is to use the stats that you already have from your existing search engine rankings, and measure the actual results of your traffic, in comparison to what the keyword search data is, according to the keyword tool. Then you use these numbers to compare with data, and therefore get a more realistic idea of the actual traffic that a given keyword will supply.

Also, and this is REALLY important, ALWAYS analyze your keyword search data using the “Exact Match” settings in Google’s or any other keyword tool. I have made the mistake before of building new niche sites, thinking they had really great traffic and low competition, only to realise later that I had gotten confused between exact match, and broad match keyword data. Not good. Please learn from my stupidity

More to come soon.

To your success!

-Nick