I’ve been researching keywords and search trends since I started in SEO several years ago. And I’ve been using WordTracker, a popular keyword research tool, to do keyword research for the past 4 years. I think I use just about every tool within WordTracker to help dig out good keyword opportunities for clients. That is, all except two.

In WordTracker, there are two really nerdy reports called the Long Term Top 1000 Report and Short Term Top 1000 Report. What these reports do is list the top 1000 keywords searched across the web in the past four months and the top 1000 keywords searched over the past 2 days, respectively. I call these reports nerdy because I don’t think many people except search nerds really even care what they have to say. Here’s what the beginning of the Short Term Top 1000 looks like today:

I have to admit that, while I constantly look at these reports, I’ve always had trouble understanding how to apply the information from these reports to help any of my clients. While I was looking at them today, I realized that I still have no clue what useful purpose these could have except to feed the curious minds of search-nerds like myself. So, here are some interesting conclusions I came to while comparing today’s reports:

• 35 out of the top 50 keywords in each list were the exact same. Most of these 35 matching searches were related to popular websites and email hosts such MySpace, Google, Yahoo and Craigslist. My thoughts: We’re freakin lazy. When did we stop type URLs and start searching for everything. I guess it just means more mula$$$ for the advertisers…
• About 3 search terms out of the top 50 were mostly related to recent hot news items. My thoughts: I guess we like to read the same the news stories from different sources? I sort of expected more current events to make the top of the list.
• 20%-30% of the top 50 searched keywords were related to porn. I’m not really sure whether this shocks me. For such a hush, hush industry, porn sure gets a lot of attention. My thoughts: Either a small number of us are searching for a lot of porn or a large number of us are searching for a little porn. I tend to think the latter holds more truth than anyone will admit…

Search and Society

Search stats give us a lot of insight as to what information people are looking for on the web. Maybe search trends are an indicator as to what’s important to us, as a society, also. After all, numbers don’t lie. Should we be concerned that more of us research boobs and girls gone wild than the Olympics or those silly politicians who want to run this country? I guess I’m not. After all, the web is used for entertainment as much as for information, which probably explains a lot.

Now that I think of it, if I were running for president, would I use search logs to help me figure out which issues were most likely to strike a key with voters? Well, if I did, I’d have to focus my efforts on making MySpace a cooler website, porn more easily accessible and I’d play lots of funny videos in my ads. Sure it sounds crazy, but there’s a sh*tload of people searching for this stuff everyday, so it shouldn’t be ignored. But, I guess in the past, focusing on some the aforementioned issues got our politicians in trouble.

Whatever the correlation, I think search trends can at least give some indicator as wha’s important to searchers and society. And for me, this topic will continue to inspire deep contemplation.

Tags: features, search trends | Category Industry News, Rants