Google Insights for Search for carpet, hardwood & laminate flooring for 2010

One of Google’s free web tools that I like to use from time to time is Google Insights for Search (http://www.google.com/insights/search/). This tool is meant to show you search trends over a given time period and region. You can glean some insights into what is growing in popularity among searchers, insights into seasonal changes in demand, and make some conclusions that might help you with your web marketing strategies.

Let’s look at some examples. Below are several snapshots I took while using Google Insights for Search for keyword terms: carpet, hardwood flooring and laminate flooring. I filtered the results to help focus on possible new buyers in the USA only, for 11 months in 2010. One image shot shows the Top 10 search terms and the other image snapshot shows the rising search terms for 2010 as compared to the previous time period. I did this for all three search phrases (carpet, hardwood flooring and laminate flooring). I have included my actual search phrase with negative keyword filters I used and a link so you can actually go see the results yourself on Google Insights for Search. (See Notes at bottom of post.)

1. Carpet (carpet -cleaning -cleaners -cleaner -red -beetle -flying -beetles)

Link: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=carpet%20-cleaning%20-cleaners%20-cleaner%20-red%20-beetle%20-flying%20-beetles&geo=US&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q

** Notice above how "Martha Stewart Carpet" has shown significant growth in 2010 versus on 2009. Do you think Home Depot has anything to do with that? I certainly do. Also, "Stainmaster carpet styles" has also shown siginificant growth. Is that due to Lowe's?  Note also in the top 10 searches for 2010 for the USA how many actual carpet manufacturer's brand names appear.

2. Hardwood Flooring (hardwood flooring -cleaning -tile -wood -installing -install -installation -lumber -laminate)

Link: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=hardwood%20flooring%20-cleaning%20-tile%20-wood%20-installing%20-install%20-installation%20-lumber%20-laminate&geo=US&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q

3. Laminate Flooring (laminate flooring -cleaning -tile -wood -installing -install -installation)

Link: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=laminate%20flooring%20-cleaning%20-tile%20-wood%20-installing%20-install%20-installation&geo=US&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q

Notes:

a. Google defines Rising Search as: "Rising searches are searches that have experienced significant growth in a given time period, with respect to the preceding time period."

b. Negative keywords are displayed with the minus sign (-) in front of the word. For example: -cleaners. You can use this to tell Google Insights not to include search phrases that include that word. This helps filter the results to what you want to focus on. In my above case, I want to try to find search insights for people possibly looking to buy, not install or clean their flooring.

4. I decided to add one more. Carpet search insights for only the past 90 days. This demonstrates how the results may change when you adjust the timeframe in Google Insights for Search. I also refined my search results by omitting a few more keywords.

Carpet (carpet -cleaning -cleaners -cleaner -red -beetle -flying -beetles -tile -clean -remove -flooring -tiles -magic)

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=carpet%20-cleaning%20-cleaners%20-cleaner%20-red%20-beetle%20-flying%20-beetles%20-tile%20-clean%20-remove%20-flooring%20-tiles%20-magic&geo=US&date=today%203-m&cmpt=q

** stainmaster carpet - was already a very popular search phrase so it will not appear as high in the Rising Search results.