Googletestad - Profit From Optimizing A Meaningless Keyword
8/12/2005 10:00:31 AM
Sometimes, researching for profitable keywords for Search Engine Optimization can lead to some astonishing and unusual surprises. You may come across meaningless keywords...
By Rich Adz
Sometimes, researching for profitable keywords for Search Engine Optimization can lead to some astonishing and unusual surprises. You may come across meaningless keywords that are:
1 excellent to target; and
2 have the potential to be profitable (in terms of both visitors and earnings).
Take for example, googletestad (GoogleTestAd or Google Test Ad), a term that is not even defined in any English dictionary.
According to the WordTracker Keywords Report (dated: August 9 2005), the top 10 queries from the last 48 hours were for the following keywords (the Count in brackets):
1 jessica simpson (3377)
2 jessica alba (3314)
3 music lyrics (2679)
4 daniela hantuchova (1955)
5 paris hilton (1469)
6 playstation 2 cheats (1243)
7 xbox cheats (1231)
8 jokes (1069)
9 googletestad (1048)
10 google (1013)
While I can understand the popularity for the two Jessicas and the other keywords/keyphrases, I was perplexed by the popularity of the term "googletestad". Even when utilizing Overture's free online Keyword Research Tool, the phrase "google monitor query or googletestad" has 72,161 counts, while "googletestad" has 39,436 counts over the last 60 days.
Next, I did a check on its trend - important to verify whether it is only a one-off fad. Checking back on back issues of the WordTracker's top 200 long-term keyword report for the last 110 days (these statistics are free once you subscribe to WordTracker's keyword report newsletter), the term "googletestad" had in fact, gained popularity in terms of search queries over the past one month as follows (by date, rank, and count):
* August 9, 2005 - 55 (35032)
* August 2, 2005 - 64 (32737)
* July 26, 2005 - 94 (28793)
* July 19, 2005 - 105 (24878
So, what in the world is googletestad?
Given its encouraging trend, I decided to do some research. Firstly, searching through Google, I found there are quite a high number of results (i.e., 19,800 as at last check), but most of the web sites are auto-generated web pages or those with content that does not make any sense. Some high ranking web sites actually indirectly stated that their sites were developed for no reason at all, except "it's a popular keyword in need of a home".
Indeed, GoogeTestAd.com stated at their site that they... "have been unable to find out how or why it has become so popular, but rumor has it that Googletestad may be the name of a software that is used to check the search engine ranking of Web sites related to specific key words and phrases."
Further research showed that GoogleTestAd.com's assumption may be truer to the truth as this term appears to be derived from Google Monitor Query software, a software basically for Search Engine Optimization.
According to SoftEmpire.com, the Google monitor Query software is "designed for search engine specialists and webmasters who regularly spend hours of monitoring the ranking of their website at Google. The program will automatically do this annoying job and will give you good statistics about past searches and website rankings. It also records the website position of your competitors. It can offer you graphic reports and many useful export capabilities."
You can download a free shareware version of the Google Monitor Query software at the site if you are interested.
Why is the term "googletestad" so popular in both searches and results?
There is no obvious reason that I can conclusively find.
Perhaps, for generating Adsense income, you might assume?
Not really. One little check via Google AdWords' Traffic Estimator online tool found that "googletestad" or its variant are not too profitable - the average CPC for the term is still extremely low (once again, this is a free online tool provided that you have a Google AdWords account.
It is also not very plausible that there is a sudden surge in demand for information pertaining to the Google Monitor Query software to the point that there are more surfers searching for "googletestad" than "ebay" or "yahoo" or even "google" itself.
It may even be just something related to webmasters promoting their web sites for high ranking in various search engines.
Whatever the reason, you (or me as a matter of fact) should not try to waste too much time trying to solve this keyword popularity mystery.
Instead, do a check on WordTracker (or any keyword rank tracker) to find out its KEI or "profitability". You can simply use the free trail edition of WordTracker online.
If it is a good keyword to target (i.e., high KEI or equivalent), then by all means, latch onto its current popularity and potential by publishing some optimized content about it.
It may turn out to be a dud or just hype.
But you really have nothing to lose as the statistics don't lie, especially given googletestad's fast ascending trend in terms of popularity in the past month, as well as the high number of search results for the said term.
You will most likely end up with some bonus visitors to your web site through the organic search engines for a term that you have no idea what it really means, and hopefully profit from this.
Lastly, you would not be reading this article if "googletestad" is not more than an excellent keyword to target (at least at the current time of writing).
About the Author
Rich Adz is a part-time third-world Internet Marketer. He provides resources and information at http://www.richadz.com/ specifically for budget-tight small/individual businesses and newbies. Rich also runs several other web sites including one of the most popular Borneo Travel and Trip Advisor sites on the Net at http://www.e-borneo.com/
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