This is the final installment of the Insights for Search blog. The first section covered how Insights operates, the second concentrated on the pros of the site and the third section addressed some concerns about Insights for Search. This last section will help the bewildered user master Insights and reap all of its benefits.
Let’s Get into the Mindset of Insights Users: A ‘How to’ Walk Through of Google Insights for Search
For any overwhelmed Insighters out there, lets do a little role playing and hopefully that light bulb will go off for you…”A-ha! I get it! Insights is awesome!” Maybe you won’t get that excited, but at least you’ll understand the site and how to go about utilizing it.
So let’s just say you’re a business owner. You own a Trailblazer, you know one of those hiking, camping and outdoorsy stores. You sell everything from mountain climbing gear and running sneakers, to kayaks and bathing suits. So with the economy being on somewhat of a low these days, you decide you can’t sell all the products you once sold. You have to make some eliminations in your inventory and you have decided that it’s between Sigg bottles and Nalgene bottles. (Both are containers that carry fluid in air tight, unbreakable bottles). It’s hard for you to make a decision and you recently heard about this Google Insights thing that compares the interest in certain products around the world…so here goes nothing.
A Walk Through Google Insights
Step One: Basic
Go to Google Insights. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
Your search is simple. You want to compare the interest of Sigg bottles to Nalgene bottles.
Step Two: What are you Comparing the Interest in?
Type in Nalgene, then click add search term and type in Sigg.
Step Three: Where do you Want to see Interest Levels?
Because your store is located in Connecticut you’re concerned about the interest in these products in this area, so under “Compare by” click on “locations” then click “World Wide” and change that to “United States.”
Then under sub regions you find Connecticut.
Now just click search and wait for the results page to load.
Step Four: The Results are In
Now you have the results page. The “interest over time” chart is the first graph that appears before you. It is quite clear that at first glance Nalgene (which appears in blue) seems to have sparked the most interest over the years.
(Nalgene vs. Sigg Interest Levels)
Step Five: Check out News Headlines
Because you want to see why the slumps and peaks have occurred for both products over the past couple of years you click “News headlines” to get a list of informative articles that could explain maybe why some of these trends have occurred.
Once this box is checked off you get a new and improved graph and list of articles.
(Interest levels: Nalgene vs. Sigg plus News headlines)
These articles allow you to see why interest in these products has varied through out the months. New products, findings and scandals have come out that allowed the interests to go up and down. For example, the harmful chemical BPA (a substance used to harden plastic) was found in these bottles causing a variation in interest for Google searches.
As a business owner, you are aware of the issues these bottles had in the past. You are pretty sure that these problems have been fixed and both brands offer BPA free products. This still doesn’t help you decide which product you want to sell.
Step Six: Results in the Region
The next graph displays the regional (Connecticut) interest for Nalgene.
To change the regional interest to Sigg, you just have to click on the bar after “regional interest” and select “Sigg.” You then get Sigg’s graph.
The final graph on the result’s page shows you what other terms people use to search for these bottles. (To get Sigg results just change the term in the “search term” box).
After observing this final chart it seems that most people are concerned about BPA. A lot of people search for Nalgene and BPA more than Sigg and BPA. Although Nalgene sparks more interest for searches, it’s only popular because of the BPA findings. This doesn’t seem like a positive trend.
Step Seven: Repetition and Decision Making
You have an idea on which product you’re going to pick to be sold in your Trailblazer, but before you make any final decisions you’re going to search another New England state, Massachusetts, and see which product people are more interested in.
After simply changing the location to “Massachusetts” and reviewing the graphs you have decided to sell Sigg bottles in your store. The product shows a rising interest in Connecticut and Massachusetts (you could continue to compare more New England states to truly finalize your decision) and with all the commotion over BPA and Nalgene it seems that Sigg is a safer, more trusted bottle. Plus a headlining article briefed you on how Nalgene is making a stainless steel bottle…kind of what Sigg already does. It just proves that Sigg’s products are more in demand than Nalgene’s at this point in time.
Overall…
Google Insights is an extraordinarily useful web site for researchers, business owners, advertisers and your average curious consumer. After a brief visit to the site, users will grasp its purpose and will be able to utilize it for their own needs. It gives a boatload of information to the user by displaying interest levels of products in clear, concise graphs and charts. Visitors can tailor their searches to their specific needs to find out what products are the most popular in all areas of the world. The site doesn’t give you much to complain about and if any problems were to arise, Insights for Search personnel are only an email away.
Leave a Reply