500% Difference In Search Term Performance

The usefulness of keyword marketing intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking. However, subtle changes in terms and keywords can make a dramatic difference in performance. In this article we correlate a selection of search terms to reveal a surprising trend in Interest Over Time.

Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the field of Internet Marketing. Marketers are familiar with measuring the frequency different terms are searched for in identifying which terms to optimize around. By researching your market’s keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole. Content Marketers use a similar approach in identifying subjects for content, and the titles to use with that content. The idea being that you want to optimize around terms that get searched for frequently, or have the highest interest among your target audience.

We analyzed a collection of 40 search terms for the tourism industry. The collection of terms followed two different patterns. One set all began with the phrase “top 10…”, and the other set all began with the phrase “10 best…”.

The line chart below (figure 1) is the terms correlated with their search frequency over time.

It seems like a minor difference, and you might assume that the terms “top 10” and “10 best” can be used interchangeably.

However, terms beginning with the phrase “top 10” had over 500% more searches than the terms that began with the phrase “10 best”.

This simple example demonstrates how important it is to use data to drive your marketing decisions.