With the holiday season now clearly upon us, it seems that Christmas is on everyone’s mind. It’s actually very difficult to escape, assuming you’d even want to!

This week, I decided to take a look at the topics and ideas emerging from online Christmas searches to see how people’s internet search behaviour reflects society’s most prevalent web-related Christmas thoughts. Are people thinking about Santa, baby Jesus, Christmas crafts & decorations, a favourite recipe, or what?

The following chart shows the most popularly searched concepts within the top several thousand search phrases that include the word “Christmas”:

Please click here for an expanded list of Christmas wishes as expressed in internet search.

Without surprise, online Christmas searches center around such popular topics as gifts, trees, food, and carols. I find each of these reports very interesting, reminding me how my own views on Christmas are just one of a million possible perspectives on the holiday season. Whichever of these thoughts you choose to focus on this holiday season, best wishes & happy holidays from everyone at Epiar!

Epiar Inc. 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.

Many people travel to Chicago or consider the windy city home, but what are people looking for online in relation to the Midwestern city? Tourist attractions, local services, general information, special events, or perhaps something else?

Recent research by Epiar Inc. explored the nature of online search in relation to Chicago. After analyzing the top 7000 phrases with an estimated annual search volume of over 50 million searches, the following topics emerged as the most prominent Chicago search topics:

Please click here for an expanded report on Chicago online search statistics.

Exploring Chicago Searches

Professional sports fans will be interested to see the high number of searches for Chicago’s football, baseball, and basketball teams. Apparently, the Bears’ very successful season is not limited to only the football field. It is amazing how searches for sports teams compare in number with searches for other Chicago features and indentifying characteristics - who knew professional sports were really that popular?

Tourist institutions and special events also appeared prominently within internet search, with the Chicago Marathon, the Chicago Auto Show, and the Art Institute of Chicago all attracting significant levels of public attention. Which local attractions do you think people might be searching for around your home town?

Searches by people in need of local services were also high, with phrases like “jobs in Chicago”, “home inspection Chicago”, and “Chicago police” in high search demand. Presumably, many more searches for local services are also being entered without the word “Chicago” in the phrase, possibly including a neighborhood geographic reference instead or no geographic mention at all.

With all of this talk about Chicago, it makes me want to go there to see if the search frequency research properly reflects the real city – good thing a couple of us from Epiar will be in town to present at a Search Engine Strategies conference there later this week!

Epiar Inc. 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.

One of the finest joys of performing advanced keyword research (looking into the hearts and minds of our society by probing millions of unique search phrases) is encountering the stream of absolutely ridiculous phrases that people are, for one reason or another, entering into search engines.

Over the course of the past year, I have begun documenting several of the most absurd of these search phrases. In fact, the coil-bound notebook that sits beside my monitor has become one of the strangest and most curious books I have encountered - strange because of the very human reality behind each new entry.

What does it mean when significant numbers of people all search for the same bizarre topic? What thoughts and situations give rise to someone entering these phrases in the first place? If thinking about the individuals and real-life situations that create these search statistics don’t make you smile or shake your head in wonder, I can’t imagine what will!

Bizarre Phrases that People Actually Type into Search Engines*:
* using Wordtracker data spanning August 2005 – October 2006

Creative Home Projects:

• how to build a catapult (searched 230 times per day)
• how to eat fried worms (696)
• how to make a toga (448)

People Still Learning the Basics:

• what is history (205)
• open a beer bottle (22)
• when did christianity start (61)
• what is a search engine (276)

Huh??

• box full of sharp objects (185)
• insanity test (322)
• monkey business (195)

Self-Help Dieticians:

• how to gain weight (407)
• how to be anorexic (193)
• beer into g feeding tube (15)
• how to make moonshine (173)

Health:

• self injury tricks (27)
• can stress cause hives (90)
• pictures of scurvy (40)
• donate a testicle (193)

Searches by Animal Lovers:

• realistic stuffed shih tzus (36)
• fainting goat video (28)
• exploding whale (156)
• bear vs shark (72)
• biggest bear ever (54)

People Hoping Search Data Stays Anonymous Forever:

• guide to stretch your anus (153)
• men in panties (1611)
• hairy oshawa women (6)
• pull my finger (186)
• atomic wedgie (298)

The Search Continues…

• loch ness monster (2044)
• ghost pictures (1209)
• real ghosts (337)
• pirate treasure maps (275)
• proof that elvis is alive (18)
• ufo sightings (705)

Conclusive proof that the truth is stranger than fiction? Who enters all these phrases anyway?

Epiar Inc. 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.

Just a few weeks into the National Football League season, what words and phrases are curious fans typing into search engines when thinking about the NFL? According to recent internet search statistics, topics such as jerseys, predictions, draft picks, betting, and cheerleaders are all high on eager fans’ minds.

Taking a look at the top 4200 phrases entered into search engines over the past 90 days that include the word “NFL”, recent research by Epiar explored the nature of online search surrounding one of America’s biggest professional sports leagues.

Amazingly, while only tracking search phrases that include the word “NFL” (leaving out countless additional football-related search phrases, such as the names of popular players, teams, stadiums, cheerleaders, former stars, etc.) clear trends in public search became clear:

To view a full report of these internet searches, please download the complete “NFL” search phrases report.

More Information, Please?

Searches for informational resources such as game predictions, NFL history, injuries, schedules, and fantasy football were quite high. Popular examples of common search phrases include:

• “NFL predictions” (searched 218 times per day)
• “Free NFL football schedule” (199)
• “2006 NFL predictions” (150)
• “NFL rules” (78)
• “NFL game picks” (77)
• “Live streaming video NFL” (66)
• “NFL football history” (43)
• “NFL week 1 predictions” (39)
• “Free NFL football odds” (39)
• “NFL trivia” (33)

Do I detect a series of linkbait opportunities or easy topics for adding informational resources to increase traffic to a merchandise site? For a complete listing of NFL information-based search phrases, check out this NFL informational resources report.

The Hand-off from Search Frequency Research to E-commerce:

Searches for NFL merchandise were also high, with fans most frequently searching for “jerseys”, “helmets”, “hats”, and “shirts”. With regard to jerseys, searches for “authentic NFL jerseys” (searched 80 times per day), “NFL throwback jersey” (71), and “youth NFL jerseys” (59) were particularly high.

Curiously, in response to this search demand by interested consumers, a quick scan of the top-ranked PPC sporting-goods stores shows very sparse (if any) placement of these phrases on their landing pages. In fact, several of these sites don’t offer “throwback” jerseys or “authentic” jerseys at all. I guess these web marketing departments have decided to build fancy web sites, pay advertising $’s to get visitors, and then not offer the products that people are asking for? Sounds like a strange way of making money to me! Too bad they didn’t invest in a little market research before figuring out what to sell…

Epiar Inc. 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.

We know that bloggers love them, that readers skim them, and that social tagging sites promote them, but which “Top 10″ lists does the public really want to see? Which “Top 10’s” are people looking for the most when using search engines?

Just for fun, recent research by Epiar looked into these questions, hoping to settle the matter once and for all (and to provide blog-post ideas for creatively-challenged writers!)

The Web’s Top Ten Top 10’s: (try saying that 10 times quickly…)

1. Top ten baby names
2. Top ten girls names
3. Top 10
4. Top ten
5. Top 10 songs
6. Top ten search engines
7. Top 10 celebrity websites
8. Top ten songs
9. Top ten wedding songs
10. Top 10 pop songs

…and following close behind:

11. Top 10 baby names
12. Top 10 travel destinations
13. Top ten lists
14. Top 10 cult movies
15. Top 10 movies
16. Top 10 home based business
17. Top 10 rap songs
18. Top 10 franchises
19. Top 10 home based businesses
20. Top 10 antivirus software products
21. Top ten movies
22. Top 10 digital cameras
23. Top ten baby names uk
24. Top 10 xbox games
25. Top ten travel destinations
26. Top 10 horror movies
27. Top 10 lists
28. Top 10 search engines
29. Top ten boys names
30. Top 10 best used cars

Numbers 3 and 4 raise an interesting question: Top Ten/10 what?

If I was in the travel business, guess what new weekly feature I’d include on my home page? (# 12 or 25)

Composition of the “Top 10″ Long Tail

Taking a closer look at over 6000 phrases included in this study, certain words and themes appeared quite prominently in the long tail of public search demand. Although I was surprised to find the dominance of searches for baby girl and boy names, more predictable pop-culture topics also figured heavily in “Top 10″ searches:

For a full list of the searches included in this study, check out the complete Top 6000 “Top 10″ Lists.

While research like this may be more entertaining than practical (unless anyone feels like writing 6000 new blog posts?), it sure is fun to see what people are looking for!

Epiar Inc. 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.