Keyword research, much like national opinion surveys, can illuminate the perils and opportunities for a client or completely lead them astray, plummeting what once was a promising opportunity to the land where poorly researched search campaigns go to die. Let there be no mistake, everyone manipulates data to tell a story (usually a story that is favorable to your POV). As search is so heavily data driven, it does not take a far stretch of the imagination to see how illogically concocted paid search strategies coupled with incomplete search data can result in misleading information.
To illustrate my point, I have a few scenarios from practical applications to the impractical which validate how incomplete or illogical assumptions, disguised in data, can change the very essence of the issue at hand.
All data were pulled using Google Search Insights, US only.
Example 1: Fuel Efficient Vehicles
With the cost of oil ramming $4 a gallon last year, the search for conserving commuting costs became a hot topic. A quick look at the search space shows that since 2004, people’s interests in gas guzzlers diminished while interest in “hybrid cars” increased, with the highest peak being during the great Gas Depression of 2008.
If the report on the search space for this topic ended here, the client with the new hybrid car coming out would be thrilled, thinking that they are going to make easy money like Eli Manning. Well, not so fast. With the addition of just one more data set, the entire picture changes.
I know. OMG, right? When I saw this picture appear while sipping piping hot Arabica coffee in my super stretch Escalade limo that’s been idling in traffic for the past two hours, it became clear to me how not having a full view of the search space can significantly impact your search campaign.
Example 2: American Family Values
These days, there seems to be a lawyer and a lawsuit for everything. Just like how there are ambulance chasers, there are also wedding chasers. Lawyers who specialize in nothing but the unhappiness of couples whose dream of lifelong matrimony disintegrated with the reality of extended cohabitation.
As the data shows, starting in 2006, America began giving up on making things work and decided that the Courts made better bedmates than soul mates. By the time the beginning of 2008 came around, searches for divorce lawyers outnumbered searches for wedding chapels. Now, is it a coincidence that high profile divorces like Britney Spears’ in 2006 began to mainstream the idea of divorce for Americans? I can’t say for sure, but it certainly is sobering to think that America has lost its love affair with being in love.
Not so, fellow readers! I don’t think anyone can sanely say that two words can capture the pulse of the country. In this instance, it’s a failure not to look at all aspects of courtship behavior.
As you can see, by adding just one more data set, the picture has changed. This graph now shows that Americans have not just lost their desire to be in love, they’ve also increased their desire for expensive worldly possessions that are symbols of love. So derived from this data, we can see that the monetary reward from the idea of being in love is more attractive to us than the actual act of being married.
Example 3: American Fears
Don’t let the name of this example fool you. This is an exercise in the supernatural. My previous two examples were based in the realm of day to day human existence. I decided to take this along the supernatural route to show that the need for a comprehensive picture of search extends to all things. In this instance, I’m talking about what Americans fear most in the supernatural. What ghoulish creatures keep Americans up at night. When they’re in the shower, what makes them afraid to wash their hair? When they open their eyes, who do they worry they’ll find standing there? (Okay, that’s my homage to an awesome ’80’s song)
With the mass proliferation of vampire entertainment and America’s voracious appetite for these sultry bloodsuckers, one would think vampires would dominate the American psyche. But alas, it is not. The search data shows that your standard issue ghost, the translucent incarnation of spirits unable or unwilling to give up a residence or a timeshare, lead the number of searches. And only in recent history have vampires surpassed ghosts, only to have that glory ripped away by demons. Does this sound like a terrific B movie or what? Word of caution – without proper research, this poorly conceived B movie could very well go straight to DVD. Why, you ask? Well, see the graph below:
Our misconceived notion that the scariest things for Americans are ghosts is quickly put to rest by the raw data that shows without deniability that the most searched on harbingers of fear for Americans are in fact, members of Congress. The data does not lie, Representatives are a scary bunch and that’s why watching C-SPAN is like watching a mind numbing zombie movie marathon.
Without careful strategy, research and planning, a search campaign can quickly become a marketing campaign’s worst nightmare. Illogical jumps in logic, incomplete keyword research and the desire to provide fresh new insights at any cost, especially for a blog entry, can lead you down the wrong path. So take time to think your keyword strategy through before moving forward.
