Search Insight Application

Even in the interval between my last post and this (3 months admittedly), the nature of SEO has transformed. Appetite for real-time information, driven by the twitter-factor, has ingrained the philosophy that recency determines relevancy. Search results have followed suit. Increasingly, the top placements in organic search listings go to the latest content crawled. Granted, that source needs to be credible, and all the usual background checks are still in place (website adhering to search engine best practice guidelines, content focused on particular target search queries & market authority as a results of peer citation and indexed site interaction). With credibility assumed, search users now demand more; they expect the inside scope - personalised results delivered as soon as they come on-stream online.

I manage a small surf shop in Dublin. Lately, in the run up to Christmas, I've noticed a spike in customer requests for second hand surfboards. Tapping into Google's human behavioral nerve-centre, I discovered a mirror reflection in online research activity. Google has revamped and tanked up its keyword tool. One nice feature is the local search trends monthly chart. Check out the obviously increase in Irish interest in terms associated to second hand surfboards:

Go over to Google insights and the picture worldwide reinforces the theory:
Eager to capitalise on these learnings, I immediately logged-in to my surf blog, and drafted a post tailored to the topic in question.

Within hours, the Google.ie results had reshuffled and my post had secured an above-the-fold placement for my website in this niche market. Notice how swift Google is to index and reward new content, articulating the time that the post was published within the search result.

To date, my business has not dabbled in second hand trade - it's incredible how with the use of Google's psychological data-mine and an adaptive strategy, a company's market presence can rise from obscurity to a premium feature in the blink of an eye. This is not just-in-time production, this is ahead-of-time production.