Looking for ideas or need advice in a new market? Keyword research, market competition, size of the market - can all be discussed here.

Which do you focus on - global or local volume?
kurt
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06 Jul 12 8:52 pm

Which do you focus on - global or local volume?

When doing keyword research, the google keyword tool shows both the 'global' and 'local' monthly volume of a keyword. Which do you pay attention to?

I don't understand why you would want to focus on "local", yet I have seen people teach that. Why would they teach that? Do they know something I don't? Wouldn't people all over the world be able to find your website and buy through your link regardless of which country they live in? If the answer to that is yes, then I would think you would want to focus on 'global' right?

Please share your thoughts.
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jimcoe
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06 Jul 12 9:40 pm

 Depends on your market. Some blogs are for local businesses, whose market is only one city or one region. Others only want to sell in the US - perhaps because of currency exchange issues or such. For example, If a keyword is popular in another part of the world, but not in the US, they need to know that.

The fact that people can reach your site from other parts of the world doesn't automatically make them your target market. If your target market is only the US, you wouldn't want to run an AdWords campaign over the whole world. By limiting it to the US, you not only save on advertising costs, but can show your ads only during the times when US visitors are likely to be awake and searching, saving even more. People doing this also need to see the US search volumes.

Mark Ling recommends concentrating on keywords with a thousand monthly searches or more. If a site is promoting only in the US, they also need the US figure for this reason.

Hope this helps....
_jim coe
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kurt
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07 Jul 12 2:46 am

 Wow, good answer. That makes sense. I guess when I get into doing an adwords campaign I'll just stick to the U.S for sure.

Yeah, not only is the currency different throughout the world but so are the languages. Why these obvious facts didn't cross my mind before, I don't know. :)

I'm guessing for these reasons that most of you probably just pay attention to the "local" search volume then, is that correct?
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jimcoe
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07 Jul 12 5:54 am

 Well, I can't speak for others. But I sometimes target just the US in AdWords strictly to save money.

If things work out and the money flows, then I may target all English speaking countries for my English ebooks. If you use the right transaction service, changing those currencies is possible.

I don't take Mark's 1,000 searches a month minimum for keywords too literally. If a key phrase I like has, say 1,200 global and 800 US, I'll still use it - though it won't be my top keyword. And as Mark says, if it's a key phrase with obvious buyer intent, it's more valuable than those without - even if the search volume is under 1,000.

_jim coe
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digiblue
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08 Jul 12 6:17 am

 Jim spot on!

As with the advice about targeting 1000+ searches per month, as Jim said, this is just a rough estimate. You will find the cold hard truth of this when you do achieve a number one ranking and you are checking your traffic levels through analytics. Keyword data numbers offered by Google are often wrong. Sometimes very wrong. So make sure you use this data as a guide. It's not written in concrete.

Alex
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jimcoe
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08 Jul 12 4:50 pm

 Yes, good points Alex.

Never lose sight of your top goal. It's not max traffic you're after, it's max profits (whatever the traffic). So key phrases with high buyer intent are golden.

Also remember that long-term business relationships are more valuable than single sales. So always try to start a dialog with your visitors through your site and build trust. It takes time and effort to build trust, but the rewards are great.

_jim coe
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yougpeter
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29 Jul 12 10:13 pm

 Usually i focus on global but there is products for example in weight loss that usually is local market like UK.so i need to search also local for specific websites.
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