Googles keyword Tool?

If a search phrase on Googles Keyword Tool is showing an estimated traffic of 368,000 searches a month, how reliable is that figure?

Obivously I know its not going to be exact, or anywhere near exact, but are the chances that that particular keyword has a lot of searches good?

What about the advertiser competition, how accurate is that estimate?

The advertiser competition relates strictly to Google adwords and does not relate to organic results.

As far as the traffic figure is concerned it will not be entirely accurate for competition reasons. However if it shows up a lot of searchers it will be a popular keyword.

Remember to change your keyword matching options to exact in order to get a more realistic figure.