How to use Google Insights for Online Market Research

Google Insights is probably the coolest product from Google factory (after Gmail and Google Apps) in the last few years. The product lets you conduct marketing research/insights based on search queries handled by Google.

Lets look at an example:

• Restaurant category is a highly searched topic (relative strength: 72, above sex (66), railways (79)
• In the region interest, Karnataka tops the chart.
• Look at the map – majority keyword queries are from Western and Southern India only.
• Top 5 search terms are – bangalore restaurants, indian restaurants, delhi restaurants, mumbai restaurants and restaurants in bangalore
• Rising search terms – restaurants in pune, chennai restaurants etc.

Did you get the drift? If you are a local search player – you know what sort of queries (and most importantly, category) you need to cater to?

Most importantly, you get an idea of the target geography and queries  – so define your strategy accordingly (i.e. you can always say Bangalore is hot and serve this market, or say Delhi is growing and serve that – point is that you can get a good idea about the market and top category keywords people are looking for.

Similarly, look at ‘hosting’ query::

• Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka top the chart.
• What are people looking for? web hosting, free hosting, etc.

Again, home loan is more searched than bank loanm which is way above personal loan! – Haryana tops the regional interest (Punjab among the least)

How to use this data?

• SEO – Optimize your site for these queries.
• Prioritize – You will get a fair idea of your target market/segment – and with any market research, decide what you want to do with the data.

In the past, the only other free/easy way to conduct such market approximation/keyword volume was through Google Adwords tool (i.e. approximate the keyword volume based on a keyword tool).

Google Insights does opens up ways to conduct online market research. What’s your opinion on Google Insights?

Word of caution – Like any market research, this tool too has it’s limitations – Indian state IPs do not yet map well.