Thanks to NSA member and Search Engine Optimization maven Steve Mertz for highlighting Wordtracker – a keyword research tool. This is invaluable for anyone writing a blog, researching a book or conducting a marketing campaign. It’s simple to use. Just enter a keyword see the ranking of the most popular uses of that term for the past 90 days.

Why bother?

If you are delivering online content the best keywords to use in your copy are those words and phrases commonly typed in by your potential customers, but which aren’t used much on your competitor’s websites. Wordtraker lists popular search terms.

For the cultural anthropologist or sociologist this also provides fascinating insights into contemporary mores. Here are a couple of examples.

Culture

An edited list of the rankings:

6104 the culture show
2324 mexican / mexico culture
1904 japanese culture
1867 chinese culture
1171 italian culture
1055 brazil / brazlian culture
1035 french culture
881 american culture
707 spain culture
650 aztec culture
631 native american culture
594 irish culture
592 german culture
590 african culture
587 indian culture
582 greek culture
569 jamaican culture
529 india culture
514 spanish culture
458 organizational culture
453 mayan culture
167 british culture
162 corporate culture

I’d never heard of the BBC program The Culture Show – it looks interesting and its popularity means it outranks the next five searches combined.

The listing of different country cultures contains some surprises. Mexico is the most popular individual country. Combining Mexican / Mexico/ Spanish and all the Latino countries (including Mayan) gives a total count of 8708. The next most popular individual countries are in Asia. Then Italy, Brazil and France. There’s a drop off to American culture (an oxymoron?). However, the real loser is British culture – the sun long since set on that yardstick of civilization.

At the bottom of the list, deservedly, is corporate culture. The ultimate non sequitur.

Speech

I did a detailed analysis that combined the many variations of ‘Wedding Speech’ ‘Best Man Speech’ and ‘Free Best Man Speech’. The result clearly shows the overwhelming interest of the general public in the wedding ceremony as the ultimate public speaking venue. One can only imagine the sweaty palms of the fathers of the bride and the best men across the nation furiously Googling their way out of a tight corner.

Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech lives on as the single most influential call to action ever delivered. I don’t believe he employed a professional speechwriter for that one, did he? The next most popular individual speaker was also, unfortunately, influential in his own way. The third name on the list has never, ever, delivered an influential speech. Period.

19956 wedding speech
8013 i have a dream speech
3102 freedom of speech
2411 persuasive speech topics
1088 famous speeches
693 parts of speech
631 text to speech
911 free retirement speech
419 hitler speech
368 speech recognition
347 great speeches
336 figures of speech
540 speech writing
289 speech therapy
264 bush speech
261 free retirement speeches
259 graduation speeches
234 state of the union speech
192 speech pathology
190 informative speeches
188 informative speech
178 demonstration speeches
172 funny speech topics
146 christmas speeches
144 speech writing services
142 buy a speech

Other interesting keyword searches using Wordtracker: thin, free, green, paint, print, stock, Bill, Ian.

What have you discovered with Wordtracker? Leave a comment.