So much time, so many things to complain about … especially with all of the bad news hitting the airwaves lately. Or, at least, that’s what many people seem to be talking about.
But is the word “negative” really all about complaining, negativity, and ‘walking down the shady side of the street?’
Judge for yourself, but the diversity within this list of common “negative” search phrases (search phrases which include the word “negative”) caught me by surprise. It turns out that “negative” is a lot less unfavourable than assumed.
While several of these phrases definitely include an adverse component (eg. “globalization negative effects”, “negative peer pressure”, “negative reinforcement”, etc.), others are completely devoid of disadvantageous sentiment (eg. “type o negative”, “negative calorie foods”, and “negative numbers”). It seems that negative and positive are not always at odds with each other.
Interestingly, the SEM phrase “negative keywords” (which refers to a bid-type within pay-per-click advertising) did not appear in the top 10 phrase list above. In fact, “negative keywords” only appeared waaaaay down near the bottom of a more exhaustive list of 2600 “negative” searches. I guess there aren’t that many webmasters out there looking for an easy way to reduce wasted spending on their advertising campaigns!
A few of the funnier searches included on the full list of 2600 searches include:
- “negative creep” – (We all know one!)
- “negative amortization” – (Good luck with that…)
- “negative stain” – (Perhaps from some spilled negative calorie food??)
- “negative pressure rooms” – (Sounds like a fun toy)
- “negative happy chainsaw” – (An indie Japanese movie, I believe…)
Negative or positive, this small glimpse into the world of search has once again proved curious and surprising!
Epiar is an Edmonton-based internet market research and search engine optimization company. Please contact us for more information or to commission your own research reports.
