Google Changes the Adwords Keyword Tool – For the Worse

Google has changed its Adwords Keyword Tool so that it now provides less data when looking at search volumes in particular countries.

In the past, the Tool would provide the most recent month’s search volume and the average month’s search volume for that country.

Now Google has replaced the average month’s search volume with “Global Monthly Search Volume.”  You could already get this information simply by selecting “all countries and territories.”

That’s a real issue because search volumes fluctuate from month to month, in some cases dramatically – for instance, for anything seasonal.

This is particularly hurtful for cctlds, such as .in and .co.in, where what domain investors care about are the searches in one particular country rather than searches done on a global basis.

You could lose a lot of money if you bought a domain based in part on the most recent month’s search data and it turns out that there was a large spike in search volume that month that is unlikely to be repeated.

When the Adwords Keyword Tool first came out I was surprised to see Google giving away so much information.  Now, Google seems to be going back to their old ways and hiding that information.

Unfortunately, the Google Adwords Keyword Tool has just gotten a lot less useful for anyone buying and selling cctlds.