Google Trends - Bringing Clarity to the Murky World of SEO

If you've optimized more than one web site, you have probably run into a scenario where you have a client in a technical, or niche market with complex terms, or multiple phrases that mean the same thing. How do you pick the best, or weight most heavily, most widely searched terms for that client? Or perhaps you have some optimization experience with the client's profession. The client may want keywords X, Y and Z, but you know from experience that potential customers are searching for similar terms A,B, and C. All of the terms are related, but your client, being immersed in his business and the vernacular that comes with it, is simply unaware that his terms may not be the ideal first choice. How can you quickly demonstrate to your customer that your keyword suggestions are better? Easy! Google Trends.

Google trends - as explained by Google

"With Google Trends, you can compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most..."

Cool! So I can compare the search term "Tibetan Yak Oil" with "Himalayan Yak Oil" right? Well, yes and no. Let me explain. You are certainly allowed to enter those phrases into Google Trends, nobody is going to stop you from doing that. BUT, if your phrases are so obscure that next to nobody does a Google search for them, the resulting data you get back from Google will pretty much be zero. But even that data tells you something. Right?

So with that in mind, Google Trends is best used for broader search terms. For instance "Tooth whitening" vs. "Teeth whitening" gives us some rather good information on what Google users are searching for. This information is especially interesting because "Tooth whitening" is actually grammatically correct, but not what the majority of people are searching for. So, weighting the optimization of your cosmetic dentist client's tooth whitening page for the keyword phrase "teeth whitening" may actually bring your client more leads (and really get under the skin of an english major).

Feeling Rejected? Rescuing your Relationship with Yahoo!

I was handed two rejection notices this week by Yahoo!'s Seach Submit. The first was for my New Haven, CT cosmetic surgery client Dr. Goldstein. I had recently been given this account, and found that it had not been indexed by Yahoo! since June of 2006. I chose the $50 site submit from Yahoo! rather than the free submit simply so I could monitor what was happening with the site. It was accepted, initially then listed as "ineligible" a month later.

The second site, OceanCountyEye.com, was judged ineligible within a week of submission. My initial frustration led me to run reports checking for duplicate content. I found there simply wasn't enough on the site for it to be rendered ineligible. We were left scratching our heads, searching for a complex answer to what was a relatively simple issue. Below are some lessons learned.

Don't expect alot of feedback from Yahoo!

Yahoo! will not be very forthcoming with information as to why your site was turned down for inclusion into their index. Instead of spending your time and energy emailing the support department, running reports and pulling your hair out, dig into your site, get to the bottom of the problem, then ask to be included again. My lessons learned below.

Its the simple things

First, don't make this too difficult on yourself. Look for the obvious issues first. In my case, the following issues were what I believe to be the culprit.

• Bad links, or links to spammy sites - Case in point OceanCountyEye.com site had some items on their Links page that over time had gone bad. Two went to URL's that no longer existed (404 errors) and the third evidentely had its URL snagged up by a very spammy AdSense site.
  
  
• Design errors - Sometime between the time I first submitted the site, and when it became "ineligible" the disclaimer on the bottom of Dr. Goldstein's web site had changed color. It was now nearly the color of the background, and looked like hidden text.

So after a simple edit to remove some bad links for one client, and a quick change to a style sheet for the other, I am now confident that both of my clients will be indexed by Yahoo! Easy.

Resources

• Yahoo Search Submit Guidelines


• Google Design and Content Guidelines