I have been doing this (SEO, PPC, Keyword Research, Internet advertising, etc) for a long time and I am still often and pleasantly surprised by what I find. Its pleasant to do work that is not so rote and predictable, like keyword variations and the Impressions they generate and the CTR (click-through-rate) they get.
Here is a simple but interesting, real-life sample that illustrates how easy it is to be wrong when you assume you know what people will search for in order to find a product or business online. You would be wrong with most of your assumptions.
This sample is even more interesting because of the keyword variables – there is more than one way to search for the brand – volkswagen or vw.
It was my assumption that more people would search for “vw dealer” than for “volkswagen dealership” because its easier to type. But this sample proves that assumption would be wrong.
And one would not necessarily assume that the people who search for “vw dealer” are the most likely to convert (click-through) into a visitor to our website – the highest CTR of all our possible keyword combinations and 250% better CTR than our big Impression keyword. Surprised? I was.
There are more gems to find here, but finding those is up to you – enjoy the sample/example.