SEO & SEM: Google Puts Another Bullet in the Chamber with Insights for Search
Google has been on a bender this year, rolling out one tool after another that all combine to form a search marketer’s dream. In each case the tool has been free to use – and has been in direct competition with one or another existing pay service.
The latest, Insights for Search (I4S to the kids?) is already a hit around the Reprise Media offices – allowing for quick and easy keyword research by geography and comparative volume. That being said, it’s not an adequate replacement for most of the popular keyword research tools for sale – yet. The difference lies in how far you are able to drill down to hard numbers and demographic data.
A good example of what Insights for Search can do is in comparing terms. Let’s say I had a website that collected film reviews. I might want to see how people actually search for reviews to make sure that I’m using the right keywords in my headlines or in a paid search campaign. I looked at a few similar phrases to see how they ranked: “Film Review”, “Movie Review”, “DVD Review” and “Cinema Review.”
Clearly “Movie Review” is a more common search term than the more hoity-toity “Film Review.” What was really fascinating was to compare them on a worldwide basis. Keep in mind, Google doesn’t show actual numbers (something one of the research tools that charges money will do), they just take the top ranking and give it a value of 100 and everything else is compared to that. The United States wasn’t top ranked for any of the terms. The top territory for “Film Review” was the United Kingdom (United States was only 16 on their scale of 100). Surprisingly, tops for “Movie Review” was India (US was 44). The best country for “Cinema Review” was the UK again (US was 16), not a surprise as “cinema” is a more common term across the pond, and the best for “DVD Review,” again in a surprise, was Australia (US was 73.)
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