Google Insights for Search Just Got More Insightful

By Erica Barth, Associate Director, Client Strategy & Development

Some new features were recently released within Google’s Insights for Search tool that have made the tool even more useful for paid and natural search marketers alike.

A couple of highlights to take note of:

1: Ability to Filter by Metro Area

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Previously, only Subregion (e.g. State) was available, which was somewhat limiting since most local programs are at the DMA level. But no more, now you can compare seasonality and search volume at the level you actually need it for local programs. My days of guessing that most of Illinois’ traffic comes from Chicago, so it must be fairly accurate indicator for the metro area are over (and for states like California, this was so needed!).

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2: Ability to Filter by Type of Search

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Google Insights for Search has now caught up to Universal Search results, allowing one to filter by not only Web Search, but Image, News and Product Search as well.

3: % Breakdown of Search Volume by Category

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At a glance, for any search query we are now able to see which Categories are the primary drivers of search volume, including Local. Plus, you can take it one step further, and see the breakdown by sub-category and sub-sub-category.

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4: Monitor ‘Top Related Searches’ and ‘Rising Searches’ via iGoogle

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For those of you iGoogle loyalists, now you can easily monitor your Top searches and Rising Searches for a Category, Sub-Category, or Sub Sub-category right from your iGoogle home page.

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Overall, I encourage you to check out all these new features the next time you are researching a new search program, conducting a competitive analysis, or one of the many other uses for this tool. Google Insights for Search remains of the easiest tools out there to use for this type of search information, and it’s exciting to see they keep making it more robust.