Rant: I blew $300 on a 'premium' keyword research tool that gave me garbage data

I bought into the hype for this tool that promised to show me exactly what people were searching for in my niche. The sales page said it had 'real time search volume' and 'competitor gaps'. I paid for a full year upfront, about $300. The first report I ran was for a topic I know well, and the numbers it gave me were totally wrong. It said a key phrase got 10,000 searches a month, but Google's own tools and my site traffic showed it was maybe 500. I tried it on three other topics and got the same junk data. It felt like the tool was just making up numbers to look good. I tried to get a refund but they said the subscription was non-refundable after 48 hours. Has anyone found a keyword tool that actually gives you real numbers you can trust?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley1391mo ago

That's brutal, sorry man. The real time search volume claim is a huge red flag, no tool has that. They're all working with months old data at best. I've had decent luck cross checking Ahrefs with the free Google Keyword Planner, their numbers are usually in the same ballpark.

margaretrivera1mo ago

Ever wonder why they even make claims like that? Honestly, it just feels like a cheap trick to get people to sign up. I'd rather trust the old data than a straight up lie.