The free resource programme from Google allows you to chart the rise ir fall of a search term from anything from a month to 5 years. First you enter a keyword or search term you would use for your business, in this instance “composite door” and the results show a huge rise in search volume over the last 5 years, representing the growth in popularity in this time. It also sows that compared to the UK, the USA only searches for composite door to a 8 to 100 ratio, proving that the UK is delievering the growth in tthis ype of business. This is all great stuff until you start researching customer behavior on the internet. a representive from MSN a few years ago claimed that up to 50% of search terms were new or very rearly used and that as time goes on. more and more of us use longer search terms (long tail).
So what has this got to do with Google insights? Well loads really, because when you use the tool for the search term “car parts” you see a drop over the last 5 years in volume of searches suggesting a decline in the industry. But being based in the car part industry we just know this is not true, so even though the Insights info suggests a drop, the market has increased.
What has really happened is that searchers are using more detailed search terms rather than generic terms like “car parts” and so insights only really measures search term usage, not growth in business.
With the composite doors market being so new, long tail searches are just now being used that much yet, but of course as awareness of the product increases, so will the varuation of search terms. So is Google insights flawes? The answer is no, if you know how to understand and use the information delivered.
For reference composite doors www.globaldoor.co.uk