Observant users of Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool have noticed something odd in recent days — when you do an exact match search on certain terms, the volume reported is zero. Surely someone has been searching on terms like wine, iPod, and dogs. Indeed, a Google spokesperson confirms that it’s a bug.

“We’re aware of a potential issue that is affecting the keyword tool in AdWords, and are working hard to fix it,” said the spokesperson in a statement.

We first saw news of the bug on SEO Consult’s blog, where one commenter says he’s seen similar results for a couple of weeks. The problem has also been reported in AdWords help forums as early as November 23.

There appears to be little pattern to what terms are affected and which aren’t, and both global volume and local volume are currently showing as zero.

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Top News

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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