Google has always shown the estimated number of search results above the search listings in the results. But that may be changing… (which would be great)
Here’s how the search results page usually looks with the estimate results shown:
Ever since I started doing search engine optimization (SEO) I’ve disliked the inclusion of this stat because its frequently misunderstood or misrepresented.
Myth #1: The estimated search results are the number of sites competing for that keyword. Therefore, if a site ranks #50 out of 71,000,000 results, that’s really good.
Reality: Most people don’t look beyond the first page of the search results (the top 10) and few go beyond the third page (top 30). So, if your site is #50 for a keyword very few people are going to see. It’s irrelevant whether the site ranks 50 out of 50 or 50 out of 71 million.
Myth #2: The estimated search results indicate how difficult it is to rank well for keywords. Therefore, if a seach for Keyword A says “about 71,000,000 results” and a search for Keyword B says “about 7,000,000 results” it will be much hard to rank well for Keyword A because there are 10 times as many sites competing for that phrase.
Reality: The estimated search results have nothing to do with the difficulty of a keyword. For example, I guarantee it is much easier to get a site into the top 10 for “cuban ski resorts” than “buy MRI machine” even though Google indicates there are 2.5m results for the former vs 319,000 results for the latter. Evaluating the difficulty of keywords you’re considering targeting is a very important part of keyword research and the SEO process, however, the true difficulty of a keyword is determined by the strength and relevance of the websites currently ranking well for that keyword, not the Google estimated number of results.
Rather than display a stat that is so often misunderstood, it’d be better for Google not to display it at all.
It’s important to note that this is just a test. Google is constantly testing new display formats and most don’t get adopted universally. But I for one am hoping this one passes the test.
What’s the point of the number anyway? I think it’s left over from when Google felt they needed to boast about how many web pages they’ve indexed.
Thanks to Barry Schwartz of SearchEngineLand for reporting this.
Discuss it!
- Have you misunderstood the significance (or lack there of) of the estimated results number or seen other people misunderstand it?
- Do you think it would be good to eliminate it? Why or why not?