As has so often occurred when I stumble across another piece ofGoogle e-real estate, I wonder how I could have ever obtained suchvaluable information BG (Before Google). As anengineer, a continuous improvement denizen and Business Intelligence“addict” – data for me is Gold. In fact, when I was in “consultingmode” in the late 90’s, I can recall one workshop session I facilitatedwhere 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 everneeded clarity on where I stood on this issue of “facts vs.qualitative, anecdotal heresay”. Google Insights is another gamechanger in my opinion, and it’s amazing that while it took me severalmonths 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 youmay have already gleaned from the image above , Google Insights allowsyou to analyze specific search terms by exposing the aggregatedstatistics of searches against those search terms, by geography ortime. This information, in the hands of advertisers, marketers,bloggers – really anyone who is looking to monitize or betterunderstand search traffic, is just mind blowing. As if this isn’tenough (and you can see above what I have done for an analysis of Susan Boyle asa search term; Google will show you not just the breakdown by regionswithin a specific geography, but you can compare that against otherlocations, as well as see what the top searches are which contain yoursearch term. In typical “jump the shark” Google style, we then evenget 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 andCanada were tracking close together – since Wednesday however, Canadiansearch interest continued to grow, while our neighbours south of theborder appeared to start losing interest. Also perhaps not surprisingthat Newfoundland would top out at the top of the list, with Quebec atthe bottom when looking in at Canada – and as usual, it appears we needto get the telco’s to do a better job penetrating The NorthWest andYukon 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 figureout what Strategic Marketing is all about, you should be all overthis…like bees over honey folks. For example, with Google Insights youdon’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 amtaking a look at what keywords have been searched most often within thecategory of Health related web sites and resources. You can tell from the very regular pattern, that there is a “weekendhiatus” when we don’t worry about health “so much” as we do during theweek. Interesting also that Diabetes appears in the top 10 – a trendthat will no doubt see this search term/keyword increase with what weare seeing in our children and younger generation around eating habitsand sedentary lifestyles. Drilling into the “searches” gets back tothe more familiar “keyword breakdown” view we saw earlier.
Search results can be analyzed at any time – the ability to exportto excel is a fantastic feature. There are many marketing relatedsites 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. Youdon’t want your competitors to have you at an advantage, so take thetime. Learn the tools. Reap the rewards. Be an Information Maven.
