Epiar Market Research Blog

Negative, Negative, Negative…

Curtis Dueck — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:38:43 +0000

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.

Cap’n Credit Crunch: You and the Captain, Make it Happen

Alex Chau — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:32:57 +0000

Confused by recent financial news? Well, me too. Turn to CNN, Bloomberg News, CNBC, take your pick and dreary eyed journalists inch us closer to a recession every doom and gloom word they speak. Now even your grandma is worried about the credit crunch and is packing baked beans and shotgun ammo in the basement. Cut to a commercial selling derivative annuities and 30 seconds later you’re told Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) are beating all profit expectations. This world just doesn’t make sense. Let see if our research pulls up any enticing insight.

So what does everyone do when their bank account runs red? Start saving? No silly, credit of course. There’s a reason why Visa and MasterCard execs receive 8 figure bonuses. They’ve successfully marketed everyone into thinking they need a credit card. The term, credit card and credit cards, tops our list with over 17,000 cumulative searches a day. Not all, but I suspect most are researching how they plan to pay for their next vacation, plasma screen TV or LV clutch. So while your neighbour’s mortgage is defaulting, the simple pleasures of urban glitter never escape your reach. But hang on.

What else does our research tell us? Surprise, the 4th highest search are people looking up queries related to bad credit. That tells a lot about our current financial situation doesn’t it. Somebody tell the Department of Education our high school finance class skipped this module. Hang on, that class doesn’t even exist.

No child left behind? No child left without credit is today’s slogan.

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.

BBQ Recipes: This Summer’s Tastiest Blog Post

Alex Chau — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:08:03 +0000

Summer is just around the corner and when company’s coming you can expect cold beer and hot flames shooting out your trusty backyard grill. But while you put off refinishing your cracked cedar deck another year, you might also be considering what your next BBQ feast should entail. Timeless cookbooks and, now, the Internet might help tantalize those taste buds. Let’s examine what your amateur chef counterparts are searching.

As you could have guessed, the staples of outdoor cookouts topped the list. Chicken, ribs, pork and BBQ sauces are first to sear atop those red hot bricks of charcoal. Unfortunately for our vegetarians, no specific mentions of vegetable recipes made our list. While our top search of ‘BBQ Recipes’ must surely include some non-meat alternatives, it’s safe to say Babe and his compatriots might not enjoy this season as much as the rest of us.

If your curiosity for the Q hasn’t been satisfied, let’s take a look at some more interesting items that made our research.

Graveyard BBQ, 53 daily searches

Apparently, a dirtcore band featured in the first release of Guitar Hero.

Dinosaur BBQ, 17

A hard edged American restaurant chain accompanied by “genuine houserockin’, footstompin’ music…” at least according to their website. Serving up T-Rex sized portions.

Aussie BBQ, 13

Australians’ are not to be outdone when skewering wild game ala Crocodile Dundee

Jack Daniels BBQ, 10

Ribs infused with Tennessee whiskey can only enhance Saturday afternoons.

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.

Presidential Candidates & ROI: An Unusual Popularity Poll

Curtis Dueck — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:12:57 +0000

We've all heard about return on investment (ROI) as well as search frequency research. But what happens when we combine the two to see which of the 2008 US Presidential candidates have the highest levels of public interest (as measured by the number of online searches for each candidate's name) compared to each campaign's expenditures? Do we arrive at a rudimentary form of a Presidential campaign ROI?

Early estimates indicate that, while Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton share a similar number of daily online searches, the amount of money they have spent differs wildly. Big spenders Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have yet to capture the curiousity of online citizens despite already spending tens of millions of dollars. Alternately, small spenders Mike Huckabee and Dennis Kucinich have disproportionately high levels of public interest compared to their undersized budgets. Perhaps the over-achieving campaigns of Huckabee, Kucinich, and Paul are a good early indicator of identifying this election's most potent dark horse candidates?

While charting the online searches for a candidate may not be the most important metric for predicting the outcome of the 2008 Presidential election, I sure would not be happy if my campaign showed an imbalanced ROI like Romney, McCain, or Giuliani!

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.

Popular Fad Diets

Curtis Dueck — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:21:06 +0000

People are willing to try the strangest diets to shed a few pounds. Why not just eat less junk food and move more often? Regardless, not even one of the top 10 fad diets is appealing enough to make me want to try it!

Perhaps to improve their beach appeal, people are searching for “South Beach Diet” and “Atkins Diet” over 2000 times each per day. Still, “Diet Pills” remain today’s most popular online diet topic, with over 2800 searches per day for those easy-to-swallow exercise replacements. Additional diets I'd rather not try (but apparently others do) include the “Mediterranean Diet”, the “Mayo Clinic Diet”, and the “Grapefruit Diet”.

While the effectiveness of fad diets are doubted by many, few would question the unhealthiness of several diets that did not make the top 10 list: “Chocolate Diet” (28 searches per day), “Water Diet” (59), “Barf Diet” (81), and “Crash Diets” (44).

To see a sampling of the raw phrases used to create this list, check out these fad diet search phrases.

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.

Bizarre Searches Stranger Than Fiction

Curtis Dueck — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:20:02 +0000

While in the midst of doing research on various projects, the most unexpected phrases keep popping up in our keyword lists – phrases that real people in presumably real situations obviously feel compelled to enter into search engines.

These phrases are bizarre enough on their own, but what really makes me shake my head and wonder is imagining the situations these poor, unfortunate, confused people must find themselves in the first place…

Bizarre Phrases that People Actually Type into Search Engines:

My english teacher lost my essay (searched 18 times per day)
Whole body donation (22)
Shaving horse (27)
Cow seeds (6)
Underground soil (3)
Natural dog (64)
Husband doesn’t shower or wear deodorant (5)
My husband wears my clothes (10)
Why is my husband a jerk (6)
How to flirt (179)
Why is my honda goldwing to hard to push (15)
Holiday meal with no teeth (4)

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.

Summer Love or Summer Nights?

James Klassen — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:12:30 +0000

Keeping with our theme of blog posts based upon seasons or holidays, and based on the hope that I will be able to spend more time on a patio with a cool drink as a result… today's post is centred on summer.

What are searchers looking for in relation to summer? Are they searching for classic summer cocktails or studiously inquiring about summer school classes?

It's turns out that searchers are doing neither. Looking at the Epiar market search data, we see mainly pop culture references float into the top 10: Justin Timberlake's song 'Summer Love', 'Summer Fashion' & 'Summer Dresses', the song 'Summer Nights' from Grease, the singer/ songwriter 'Donna Summer', and 'Rocket Summer' a power pop band from Texas.

More traditional summer activities round out the top 10 phrases: 'summer camps', 'summer jobs', and 'summer vacation'.

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.

The Most Famous Harry

Curtis Dueck — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:26:57 +0000

Harry Who?

We all know Harry is a popular name, but which Harry is the most popular of all? According to search trends, "the boy who lived" is even more popular than the real life British prince:

Surprisingly, historical Harry's such as magician Harry Houdini, US President Harry Truman, and singer-songwriter Harry Chapin remain popular well after their deaths. Additional Harry's include "Dirty" Harry Callahan, a 1971 movie casting Clint Eastwood as cop Dirty Harry, the gourmet food company "Harry and David", and musicians Harry Belafonte, Harry Connick Jr., and Debbie Harry.

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.

DVD Easter Eggs Surpass Real Easter Eggs in Online Search

Curtis Dueck — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:45:55 +0000

Based on data collected from close to 200 online sources over the past year, “DVD Easter eggs” (hidden items on DVD menus) have now surpassed chocolate and painted Easter eggs in popularity, measured by the number of times each phrase is searched in popular search engines. Similarly, our friend the Easter bunny remains less popular than Easter island.

Surprisingly, an overwhelming portion of searches centered on secular topics, with searches for the Easter bunny, Easter gifts and Easter games far outnumbering searches such as “Easter Sunday” (42 searches per day), “history of Easter” (34), “Easter prayer” (13) and “Easter sermon” (13). By contrast, even “Easter bunny costume” is searched 47 times per day!

Searches for the spiritual side of Easter in 2007 would seem to remain an offline quest.

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. For a high resolution version of the Easter research graph, please click here.

Christmas Wishes Expressed in Internet Search

Curtis Dueck — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 04:00:22 +0000

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.