In Fine-Tune PPC Keyword Selection with Google Insights for Search (Part 1), we started to look at some of the actionable insights that the Insights for Search tool helps you formulate about your keywords. This time, we’ll take our examples a few steps further to explore additional features of the tool.
Setting the Stage
Recall that for the sake of our examples, you own a plumbing, heating and air conditioning company in Maryland that serves the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Some of the keywords you target include
Filtering Data by Geographic Location
Filtering by geographic location lets you see search data from specific regions you serve vs. the whole nation (or world). The only drawback in using this feature is sometimes Insights for Search doesn’t have enough data to analyze, and you don’t get any results. So to see how this feature works, let’s compare results from the past 12 months for the more general term “water heater” for the Washington, D.C. subregion vs. the nation at large. Here are the results.
Top searches seem to be fairly consistent for DC and the nation, but Rising searches are notably different. Local rising searches center on Rinnai, while nationwide, there’s growing interest in Navien, hybrid, vertex and thermocouple water heaters. So you can use this information to see what’s hot today for your region and what might become hot down the road.
To decide whether to add “navien water heater” to your keyword list, you can use Insights for Search to find out where in the U.S. the interest is high. To do that, you can use the tool to produce a heat map of the U.S. for the “navien water heater” term, which uses color to indicate relative search volumes for each state: Darker colors indicate higher relative search volume. Here’s the heat map that Insights for Search generates for “navien water heater.”
Because neighboring Virginia shows a high search volume index for “navien water heater,” you might decide to add the keyword to your PPC campaign and test how it performs over the next few months. Similarly, you could check out some of the other terms in the national list to see whether they might be good options for your region as well.
Add Insights for Search to Your Keyword Research Toolkit
Insights for Search is a powerful tool for analyzing your keyword selections, and the examples we’ve looked at in this post and the last really only hint at how useful the tool can be. Like most other keyword research tools, the more time you spend using it, the easier and more valuable it will become. Try it today and see what actionable insights you discover about your keywords. Be prepared, though, it can be addictive!
Setting the Stage
Recall that for the sake of our examples, you own a plumbing, heating and air conditioning company in Maryland that serves the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Some of the keywords you target include
- hot water heater
- gas water heater
- electric water heater
- tankless water heater
Filtering Data by Geographic Location
Filtering by geographic location lets you see search data from specific regions you serve vs. the whole nation (or world). The only drawback in using this feature is sometimes Insights for Search doesn’t have enough data to analyze, and you don’t get any results. So to see how this feature works, let’s compare results from the past 12 months for the more general term “water heater” for the Washington, D.C. subregion vs. the nation at large. Here are the results.
Top searches seem to be fairly consistent for DC and the nation, but Rising searches are notably different. Local rising searches center on Rinnai, while nationwide, there’s growing interest in Navien, hybrid, vertex and thermocouple water heaters. So you can use this information to see what’s hot today for your region and what might become hot down the road.
To decide whether to add “navien water heater” to your keyword list, you can use Insights for Search to find out where in the U.S. the interest is high. To do that, you can use the tool to produce a heat map of the U.S. for the “navien water heater” term, which uses color to indicate relative search volumes for each state: Darker colors indicate higher relative search volume. Here’s the heat map that Insights for Search generates for “navien water heater.”
Because neighboring Virginia shows a high search volume index for “navien water heater,” you might decide to add the keyword to your PPC campaign and test how it performs over the next few months. Similarly, you could check out some of the other terms in the national list to see whether they might be good options for your region as well.
Add Insights for Search to Your Keyword Research Toolkit
Insights for Search is a powerful tool for analyzing your keyword selections, and the examples we’ve looked at in this post and the last really only hint at how useful the tool can be. Like most other keyword research tools, the more time you spend using it, the easier and more valuable it will become. Try it today and see what actionable insights you discover about your keywords. Be prepared, though, it can be addictive!
1. Tuesday: Cynthia Sheppard - Website Designer Genius and an awesome Fantasy illustrator/graphic designer
Remember, conversational marketing through social media is all about sharing information and creating value: Focus on no-strings-attached giving, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the valuable 
