Blogless

If you haven’t checked out Google Insights yet, and you run a website, you probably should. The idea behind Insights is that you can compare and evaluate a handful of metrics — volume, regional interest, top search terms — on search results, given a particular topic and/or geographical area. For example, I took a look at the search patterns and volume in my area (Omaha) for "web design," a key item on the DLB menu, and promptly established that we’re in the wrong business.

This is clearly an unproductive metric. (From top: Generic search term, generic search term, generic search term, generic search term, indicator that people are uninterested in paying for service, indicator that people are uninterested in paying for service, generic search term.)

All glibness aside, Insights could certainly be used smartly to provide agile firms with a real-time look at trends in their geographical areas. These trends could be used to indicate growth markets, and this information could inform rapid-SEO strategies (aka. blog post keywords).

Here, for example, I noticed an incredibly steep rise in interest in the search term "social networking" over the past year in Omaha, while interest in "web design" has leveled out at around 20% of what it was in 2004.

Search volume increase for "social networking".

With fast, targeted and high-volume data like this, the right kind of companies can move quickly to fill niches as local interest in particular services ebbs. But not us. We’re committed to fixing advertising and reinventing search.