If you think search engines are only useful for finding a website... I have to disagree. Search engines are research tools which can yield many diverse and interesting bits of information.
For example, I am located in Odessa, TX. What can we learn about Odessa, TX that might be of interest to a business local to the area?
Here is some data from the search engines:
The most popular search term that included "odessa texas" was "ford odessa texas" with an average monthly volume of 21,581 searches.
I doubt anyone who has visited this part of the country would be surprised to see that American make cars beat out the foreign (closest foreign is Toyota with 6,692 searches).
It is interesting that the majority of searches geographically targeted to the area are for vehicles. In fact, car searches completely dominate the search list.
So we could deduce that a large percentage of the Internet using population of Odessa have an active interest in purchasing a vehicle when they head to Google. Depending on your industry, that might be useful information.
For example, although an average of over 20,000 searches are performed by people interested in Ford vehicles in the Odessa area, neither Rogers Ford nor Sewell Ford (the local dealerships) are listed on the first page of Google results. Nor are they taking advantege of PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising on the search engines. I wonder if they are even aware of the opportunity they are missing out on?
After vehicle searches, Real Estate is the next "hot search" market - although it was unexpected to see that "office chair odessa texas" (2,513 searches) had more than double the searches than "real estate odessa texas" (1,159 searches). Apparently there is a huge seating shortage in town! If you are in the office furniture business this could offer a great business opportunity.
If you are a Realtor it might be of interest to know that while the above mentioned search term "real estate odessa texas" had 1,159 search, only 263 searches were performed for "odessa texas realtor". Might this indicate a marketing need to better educate your audience about the usefulness of a Realtor?
Without a doubt, search engines can be a powerful tool to research your local market.
Technorati Tags: business on the web, business owners, midland, odessa, search engine research, small business
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