Most keyword research is done using tools to estimate the number of searches there are for certain keywords. But there is a way to get at the real numbers of how many searches there are.

By running a short adwords campaign for all your potential keywords, you can use the campaign statistics to see how many impressions (=searches) there are for those keywords. You can also see how many searches there are in very specific geographic regions – something you can only do at the country level with keyword estimating tools.