As has so often occurred when I stumble across another piece of
Google e-real estate, I wonder how I could have ever obtained such
valuable information BG (Before Google). As an
engineer, a continuous improvement denizen and Business Intelligence
“addict” - data for me is Gold. In fact, when I was in “consulting
mode” in the late 90’s, I can recall one workshop session I facilitated
where I had placed a big banner across one side of the room - it read: In God I Trust, All Others Bring Data.
It raised a few eyebrows, but the point was well taken, and noone ever
needed clarity on where I stood on this issue of “facts vs.
qualitative, anecdotal heresay”. Google Insights is another game
changer in my opinion, and it’s amazing that while it took me several
months to discover it since it was launched, every one I have approached with this since have been completely unaware this even exists. Incredible…
Google Insights - Information Is Power. Ignorance Is Inexcusable.
So what is Google Insights? Well, as you
may have already gleaned from the image above , Google Insights allows
you to analyze specific search terms by exposing the aggregated
statistics of searches against those search terms, by geography or
time. This information, in the hands of advertisers, marketers,
bloggers - really anyone who is looking to monitize or better
understand search traffic, is just mind blowing. As if this isn’t
enough (and you can see above what I have done for an analysis of Susan Boyle as
a search term; Google will show you not just the breakdown by regions
within a specific geography, but you can compare that against other
locations, as well as see what the top searches are which contain your
search term. In typical “jump the shark” Google style, we then even
get an indication of “rising searches” - searches that are seeing such search volume, that movement or “breakout” into the top searches. You can try it yourself right now.
It is interesting that until last Wednesday, interest in the US and
Canada were tracking close together - since Wednesday however, Canadian
search interest continued to grow, while our neighbours south of the
border appeared to start losing interest. Also perhaps not surprising
that Newfoundland would top out at the top of the list, with Quebec at
the bottom when looking in at Canada - and as usual, it appears we need
to get the telco’s to do a better job penetrating The NorthWest and
Yukon territories who aren’t even on the radar.
What is perhaps more incredible is that Google is offering to teach us how to use Gogle Insights
- for free. If you are in Marketing, or better yet, trying to figure
out what Strategic Marketing is all about, you should be all over
this…like bees over honey folks. For example, with Google Insights you
don’t even need to search by keyword - you can analyze by category.
Heretry this search.
This is where it starts getting even more interesting. Here I am
taking a look at what keywords have been searched most often within the
category of Health related web sites and resources.
You can tell from the very regular pattern, that there is a “weekend
hiatus” when we don’t worry about health “so much” as we do during the
week. Interesting also that Diabetes appears in the top 10 - a trend
that will no doubt see this search term/keyword increase with what we
are seeing in our children and younger generation around eating habits
and sedentary lifestyles. Drilling into the “searches” gets back to
the more familiar “keyword breakdown” view we saw earlier.
Search results can be analyzed at any time - the ability to export
to excel is a fantastic feature. There are many marketing related
sites that have caught on to this tool and have written about it, with good tutorials about how to harness this to further your business and marketing needs.
In this “now true” Information Age, Information is Power. You
don’t want your competitors to have you at an advantage, so take the
time. Learn the tools. Reap the rewards. Be an Information Maven.
