Using Google Trends to Compare Keyword Search Volume

Let's say that you work for a company that sells satellite navigation products. Your first bet might be to optimize your site and buy pay per click (PPC) ads for the term "satellite navigation". Is this what the average web surfer types in when they want to buy a product such as yours though? Here is where using keyword suggestion tools and keyword search trend tools such as Google Trends comes in handy -- the results may surprise you.

First lets look at the trend data for "satellite navigation" by typing it in to Google suggest:



Looks like it has a good search volume -- meaning that lots of people are typing this word into the Google search engine everyday (the fact that data shows up on Google Trends at all indicates this). Also notice that the trend is going down though.

If we were to use some keyword suggestion tools such as the Google Adwords keyword tool or Keyword Discovery, we would find that there are related terms that people appear to be searching for more often than "satellite navigation". One of them is the term "satnav". This means exactly the same thing as "satellite navigation", it is just an abbreviation.

Let's now plot "satnav" against "satellite navigation" in Google Trends to see what the difference in serach volume is:



You can see that at some point in 2005 people began using the term "satnav" to refer to satellite navigation products and over time this term has surpassed "satellite navigation" in the amount of times it is searched.

But can we do any better? What about trying "sat nav" -- the only thing different being the space. Let's plot all 3 against each other and see what we come up with:



The difference is huge. And just think, you may have never thought to use these other terms on your own. If you were to dig a bit deeper you would find that "satnav" and "sat nav" are primarily used in the UK which is also very useful information to have.

Google Trends is great for experimenting with different keyoword combinations. Check it out for yourself at www.google.com/trends and let me know if you find anything interesting.

The State of Search Engine Marketing

A nice post with some useful stats

http://searchengineland.com/080317-055110.php

Metrics Based Copywriting

As marketers we constantly try to write compelling copy that motivates people to take some sort of action. The trick is to write in the voice of our target audience; speaking to them using language they respond to. Sometimes we use focus groups or A/B testing to help with this; getting out in the field and talking to prospects/customers also helps. In the end though, the words we choose often amount to best guesses.

There is a better way to get into the heads of our target market and it's surprisingly easy. Approach it as a search engine specialist would approach starting a new search engine optimization (SEO) campaign -- by using keyword research and trending tools.

Keyword research tools like Wordtracker, Google Trends, and the Google Keyword Tool provide a wealth of insight into the voice of our audience. Using search data and trends can give excellent clues to the words people use to describe things. Talking to your audience, using the same words they search for themselves, puts you at a major advantage over competition. For example, the other day I was crafting an email to promote a new webcast. Problem was, some people were calling it a webcast and others were calling it a webinar – which was it? What would more people respond to; a webcast offer or a webinar offer? I decided to use Google Trends to compare the search volume of both words. I figured the term that is searched more often will also be the term used more commonly in conversation. This term should also spark a higher interest if used in my email. So I quickly pulled up Google Trends and here is what I found.



This obviously made my decision easy. Split testing my email offers confirmed that using “webcast” got the better response.

Now, this is just search-driven copywriting in its simplest form. If you want to take this further, you can use the Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker almost like you would a Thesaurus. For example, maybe you are promoting a “golf strategies” guide. If you plopped this keyword into the Google Keyword Tool, it would offer you numerous suggestions for related terms people are searching for. In this example (shown below) maybe you would be better off promoting it as a “golf tips” guide since that term is searched more frequently.



Hopefully by now, you are starting to get the idea. This stuff really works – I have personally seen higher conversion rates on landing pages and emails by using this strategy. If you are interested in reading more about similar ideas, Aaron Wall has a very interesting article on keyword research that is definitely worth a read.

Walls Article

Apparent Google Slap for Buying, Not Just Selling Links

While I don't believe in buying links soley to boost rankings, there are many competitive keywords out there that are almost impossible to rank on the first page of results for without buying links - especially when your competition participates in the practice. If you get caught though, the results can be disasterous. Just check out what happened to GoCompare.com (a UK based insurance provider) when Google caught on.



Full Story

I don't agree with what GoCompare did to up their rank, but maybe that is just because I am not in the extremely competitive insurance space. The bigger question for me is why this one site was singled out and how Google made this determination. If having bought links pointing at your site can get you penalized then what is to stop a competitor from buying links to your site in order to hurt your rank -- maybe there is more to the story than I know. Check out the other coverage below and let me know what you think.

Other Coverage:

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/02/this-is-what-ha.html
http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=369464&c=2
http://searchengineland.com/080214-084542.php