Make Money Online
Search Query Evolution
Search query evolution
Back in 2000, if you were looking for Superman's logo fonts, you'd simply search for "fonts", "free logos"
maybe, and work your way from there.
If you're considered a search expert, you may have typed in "superman logo fonts".
(Let’s leave aside, just for a moment, the fact that you would've expected to get to the 10th search page
before finding anything related to your search desire).
Nowadays it's not as simple.
With the net's massively growth and flood of information, accompanied by Google's relevancy factors for
ranking search results, you not only have the luxury of finding exactly what you want within the first 2
pages, but you're also forced to be a lot more specific in your search queries.
Since there are millions of results related to Superman's logo, if you actually want to find a way to
download the fonts, you'd better type in "download superman logo font", or even "where can I find
superman logo font " - in hope someone has asked that before and the question will pop in the results,
followed by a suitable answer.
Knowing the Internet is flooded with information on any subject, and search engines rank results
according to their relevancy, people know the basic searches will not do.
That's why, when running a search query report, you'll see people looking for main keywords combined
with the words "best", "great", "store", "online" etc. Basic search queries don't satisfy them anymore,
because they know the results will be as general as their search. They're not satisfied with "car auctions"
- all that info, it's impossible to handle: they want "the best car auctions" or "what are the top 10 car
auction sites".
This fundamental evolutionary step causes a snowball effect resulting, over time, in some interesting
forms of net behavior.
This article will discuss the influence of search query behavior on the following aspects:
1. Domain names & value
2. Advertising online: keyword bidding in PPC campaigns like Google AdWords, keyword research and
value in: PPC and CPM campaigns
3. The use of Adsense and other contextual advertising
4. Keyword research for SEO purposes.
Domain names & value
One of the parameters for appraising a domain name is its length & the number of words in the domain.
For example: Cars.com will make you a millionaire. CarAuctions.com could make enough to buy a car, and
UsedCarAuctions.com may be worth some hundreds of dollars. UsedCarAuctionSite.com is practically
worthless.
Now, that doesn't mean a one-word domain is always worth more than a two-word domain: the actual
value of the domain is appraised by the commercial value of the expression.
Therefore, CarAuctions.com is worth more than Fiords.com, although Fiords.com is a dictionary one-word
domain name.
How can a commercial value of an expression be calculated?
On the Internet, the more an expression is being searched for, the more valuable it is.
This is where search evolution enters the scene: If just a few years ago one-word domains were the
most valuable, then over time, with search queries evolving to long-tail specific queries, two & three word
domains are increasing their value.
This has somewhat to do with these names becoming more and more rare, but remember: if these
expressions would not have been searched for, they would have been worthless altogether.
I wouldn’t go rushing to buy every three-word domain out there, but look for a high search volume of an
expression and think long-term investment.
Advertising Online
Keyword research is a crucial aspect in using PPC campaigns. Obviously, you want to bid on high-traffic
keywords, but since your money is on the line, you strife for what I call “the million dollar combination”:
high-traffic, low-cost keywords.
Now, having stated that an expression is worth its estimated searches – how are you going to do that?!
Indeed, one would be wise enough to conclude that if a keyword is highly searched for, then its
advertising volume is respectively high, which increases its value resulting in an evidently high cost
keyword.
High competition=high cost.
Where do we go for high-traffic, low competition keywords?
The evolution of search queries, resulting in an increasing number of long-tail searches, provides the
smart advertiser with a large source of high-traffic keywords, which are much less competitive due to their
length.
In order to prove that long-tail search queries are a part of an Internet-behavior-evolution, I’ve
conducted several tests, here’s an example:
1. The assumption that Internet behavior (i.e.: percentage of users, commercial usage & Internet
technology adoption) can be tracked by comparing American Net behavior to the rest of the world, is
based on the fact that the usage of Internet in the Americas is 28.2% of the world, with a population of
only 13.6% of the world.
2. Compared to 86.4% population of rest of the world, with 71.8% Internet usage of the world.
3. I’ve used Google’s Traffic Estimator Tool to estimate the searches for a two- word phrase “car
auctions” versus the three-word phrase “used car auctions”. When estimating these phrases in all
countries of the world, limited to English speakers, the keyword “car auctions” has reached a maximum
929 estimated clicks, while the longer phrase “used car auctions” has reached a maximum of 22 clicks.
4. I then estimated both phrases again, limiting the phrases to target only USA users: The keyword
“car auctions” has reached a maximum 392 clicks, which is 42% of the searches for this keyword world-
wide.
5. The keyword “used car auctions” has reached a maximum of 15 clicks in the USA, which accounts
for 68% of the world-wide searches for this keyword.
These figures show a development tendency in terms of search engine queries, as an Internet behavior
evolving over time, dependent by the mass of available information and the development stage each
territory in the world is based in, in terms of using the web.
Since the Internet usage in the USA is high relatively to the rest of the world, the American user has been
necessarily educated to use long-tail keywords in order to effectively reach a specific result.
As the usage of the web will continue to grow, people from all over the world will necessarily start using
longer search queries.
Keyword research for the use of contextual advertising
When building a theme website, Adsense users will often research for high paying keywords, i.e.:
keywords that advertisers place top-bids for, in-order to earn as much as possible for each click (in PPC)
or 1000 impressions (in CPM) of a specific ad.
3 quick pointers to keep in mind about keyword prices:
1. Whoever is giving you keyword prices is getting their info from the prices of these keywords in the
search network (and even those are only estimations), these keywords will cost much less on the content
network, where these ads appear on your website. That means you will not be paid as much for every
click.
2. Google will take its share of every click, so you will not be left with the whole amount clicked for.
3. Adsense is not directly related to the usage of keywords, because bidding (PPC or CPM) in the content
network is NOT bidding on actual word phrases, since no search is taking place.
Rather than that, keywords are used in content campaigns to point at a direction of the ad: what is the
theme of the ad, and then place the ad on a matching site (or page) according to its content.
Therefore, keyword research for Adsense users is more about what words to use in their pages or what
themes may attract high-paying ads. There's little difference if you use “car auctions” or “used car
auctions” either as an Adsense user or as an Adwords advertiser in the content network.
What is more significant is how these keywords are integrated in the SEO of your theme-site.
However, just as general searches like “cars” had evolved into longer terms like “car auctions”, it will not
be surprising if a separate theme will evolve for an even more specific expression such as “used car
auctions” or even “used car auction sites” in the future.
Keyword research for SEO
There are two sides of keyword optimizing: First one includes choosing keywords that are highly searched
for, to gain traffic volume. The second is to choose keywords that are not highly competitive so you'll
actually have a chance of ranking high.
Exactly, just like keyword bidding in PPC, you're faced with the oxymoron once again: low-competition-
high-traffic keywords?
If you run an AdWords campaign related to your site's theme, or had one in the past, checking its query
report can be very useful in revealing long tail phrases people actually type in when they search. Focus on
these keywords if they carry high search volumes.
Search for these keywords in search engines and get a picture of your competitors. Chances are this will
be a much easier base to start from, since these keywords are less competitive, but still carry high traffic
since you know they are searched for in their exact form.
The evolution of search queries will result in these phrases gaining more and more competition, because
people will gradually use longer search terms.
As to this moment, the phrase “cars” has over 11 million results in Google, “car auctions” over 6 million
results, “used car auctions” over 2 million results and “used car auction sites” just above 1 million results.
“Best used car auction sites” has 257,000 results.
I don't see a reason for the phrase “cars” to decrease, but it's not unlikely to assume that the longer
phrases will gain more popularity, and their percentage in the appearance of the main keyword “cars” in
search engines will grow over time.
Back in 2000, if you were looking for Superman's logo fonts, you'd simply search for "fonts", "free logos"
maybe, and work your way from there.
If you're considered a search expert, you may have typed in "superman logo fonts".
(Let’s leave aside, just for a moment, the fact that you would've expected to get to the 10th search page
before finding anything related to your search desire).
Nowadays it's not as simple.
With the net's massively growth and flood of information, accompanied by Google's relevancy factors for
ranking search results, you not only have the luxury of finding exactly what you want within the first 2
pages, but you're also forced to be a lot more specific in your search queries.
Since there are millions of results related to Superman's logo, if you actually want to find a way to
download the fonts, you'd better type in "download superman logo font", or even "where can I find
superman logo font " - in hope someone has asked that before and the question will pop in the results,
followed by a suitable answer.
Knowing the Internet is flooded with information on any subject, and search engines rank results
according to their relevancy, people know the basic searches will not do.
That's why, when running a search query report, you'll see people looking for main keywords combined
with the words "best", "great", "store", "online" etc. Basic search queries don't satisfy them anymore,
because they know the results will be as general as their search. They're not satisfied with "car auctions"
- all that info, it's impossible to handle: they want "the best car auctions" or "what are the top 10 car
auction sites".
This fundamental evolutionary step causes a snowball effect resulting, over time, in some interesting
forms of net behavior.
This article will discuss the influence of search query behavior on the following aspects:
1. Domain names & value
2. Advertising online: keyword bidding in PPC campaigns like Google AdWords, keyword research and
value in: PPC and CPM campaigns
3. The use of Adsense and other contextual advertising
4. Keyword research for SEO purposes.
Domain names & value
One of the parameters for appraising a domain name is its length & the number of words in the domain.
For example: Cars.com will make you a millionaire. CarAuctions.com could make enough to buy a car, and
UsedCarAuctions.com may be worth some hundreds of dollars. UsedCarAuctionSite.com is practically
worthless.
Now, that doesn't mean a one-word domain is always worth more than a two-word domain: the actual
value of the domain is appraised by the commercial value of the expression.
Therefore, CarAuctions.com is worth more than Fiords.com, although Fiords.com is a dictionary one-word
domain name.
How can a commercial value of an expression be calculated?
On the Internet, the more an expression is being searched for, the more valuable it is.
This is where search evolution enters the scene: If just a few years ago one-word domains were the
most valuable, then over time, with search queries evolving to long-tail specific queries, two & three word
domains are increasing their value.
This has somewhat to do with these names becoming more and more rare, but remember: if these
expressions would not have been searched for, they would have been worthless altogether.
I wouldn’t go rushing to buy every three-word domain out there, but look for a high search volume of an
expression and think long-term investment.
Advertising Online
Keyword research is a crucial aspect in using PPC campaigns. Obviously, you want to bid on high-traffic
keywords, but since your money is on the line, you strife for what I call “the million dollar combination”:
high-traffic, low-cost keywords.
Now, having stated that an expression is worth its estimated searches – how are you going to do that?!
Indeed, one would be wise enough to conclude that if a keyword is highly searched for, then its
advertising volume is respectively high, which increases its value resulting in an evidently high cost
keyword.
High competition=high cost.
Where do we go for high-traffic, low competition keywords?
The evolution of search queries, resulting in an increasing number of long-tail searches, provides the
smart advertiser with a large source of high-traffic keywords, which are much less competitive due to their
length.
In order to prove that long-tail search queries are a part of an Internet-behavior-evolution, I’ve
conducted several tests, here’s an example:
1. The assumption that Internet behavior (i.e.: percentage of users, commercial usage & Internet
technology adoption) can be tracked by comparing American Net behavior to the rest of the world, is
based on the fact that the usage of Internet in the Americas is 28.2% of the world, with a population of
only 13.6% of the world.
2. Compared to 86.4% population of rest of the world, with 71.8% Internet usage of the world.
3. I’ve used Google’s Traffic Estimator Tool to estimate the searches for a two- word phrase “car
auctions” versus the three-word phrase “used car auctions”. When estimating these phrases in all
countries of the world, limited to English speakers, the keyword “car auctions” has reached a maximum
929 estimated clicks, while the longer phrase “used car auctions” has reached a maximum of 22 clicks.
4. I then estimated both phrases again, limiting the phrases to target only USA users: The keyword
“car auctions” has reached a maximum 392 clicks, which is 42% of the searches for this keyword world-
wide.
5. The keyword “used car auctions” has reached a maximum of 15 clicks in the USA, which accounts
for 68% of the world-wide searches for this keyword.
These figures show a development tendency in terms of search engine queries, as an Internet behavior
evolving over time, dependent by the mass of available information and the development stage each
territory in the world is based in, in terms of using the web.
Since the Internet usage in the USA is high relatively to the rest of the world, the American user has been
necessarily educated to use long-tail keywords in order to effectively reach a specific result.
As the usage of the web will continue to grow, people from all over the world will necessarily start using
longer search queries.
Keyword research for the use of contextual advertising
When building a theme website, Adsense users will often research for high paying keywords, i.e.:
keywords that advertisers place top-bids for, in-order to earn as much as possible for each click (in PPC)
or 1000 impressions (in CPM) of a specific ad.
3 quick pointers to keep in mind about keyword prices:
1. Whoever is giving you keyword prices is getting their info from the prices of these keywords in the
search network (and even those are only estimations), these keywords will cost much less on the content
network, where these ads appear on your website. That means you will not be paid as much for every
click.
2. Google will take its share of every click, so you will not be left with the whole amount clicked for.
3. Adsense is not directly related to the usage of keywords, because bidding (PPC or CPM) in the content
network is NOT bidding on actual word phrases, since no search is taking place.
Rather than that, keywords are used in content campaigns to point at a direction of the ad: what is the
theme of the ad, and then place the ad on a matching site (or page) according to its content.
Therefore, keyword research for Adsense users is more about what words to use in their pages or what
themes may attract high-paying ads. There's little difference if you use “car auctions” or “used car
auctions” either as an Adsense user or as an Adwords advertiser in the content network.
What is more significant is how these keywords are integrated in the SEO of your theme-site.
However, just as general searches like “cars” had evolved into longer terms like “car auctions”, it will not
be surprising if a separate theme will evolve for an even more specific expression such as “used car
auctions” or even “used car auction sites” in the future.
Keyword research for SEO
There are two sides of keyword optimizing: First one includes choosing keywords that are highly searched
for, to gain traffic volume. The second is to choose keywords that are not highly competitive so you'll
actually have a chance of ranking high.
Exactly, just like keyword bidding in PPC, you're faced with the oxymoron once again: low-competition-
high-traffic keywords?
If you run an AdWords campaign related to your site's theme, or had one in the past, checking its query
report can be very useful in revealing long tail phrases people actually type in when they search. Focus on
these keywords if they carry high search volumes.
Search for these keywords in search engines and get a picture of your competitors. Chances are this will
be a much easier base to start from, since these keywords are less competitive, but still carry high traffic
since you know they are searched for in their exact form.
The evolution of search queries will result in these phrases gaining more and more competition, because
people will gradually use longer search terms.
As to this moment, the phrase “cars” has over 11 million results in Google, “car auctions” over 6 million
results, “used car auctions” over 2 million results and “used car auction sites” just above 1 million results.
“Best used car auction sites” has 257,000 results.
I don't see a reason for the phrase “cars” to decrease, but it's not unlikely to assume that the longer
phrases will gain more popularity, and their percentage in the appearance of the main keyword “cars” in
search engines will grow over time.
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