Beading Search Trends
Posted by Andrew M on October 02 at 01:57 pmDo you ever wonder what other beaders around the world are thinking about at any given moment?
It’s a tall order to capture and process the moment-by-moment intentions, feelings, desires, and thoughts of the worldwide beading community. Luckily, there are already people working on it. Perhaps you’ve heard of Google? 
One of the great things about search engines is that they can provide instant answers and helpful links for any search query. For example, if you want to know the temperature in Boise or even some funny Groundhog Day movie quotes, just type it in and click “Search”!
Not to creep anybody out, but Google also stores and saves those searches (don’t worry, your personal information is not tied to your search history). Now consider that Google processes about 300 million searches per day. That’s a lot of thoughts, and researchers can use that data to track trends and look for patterns.
Using Google’s Insights for Search tool, I can see that over the past 20 months or so, worldwide search volume for the word “necklace” (in red) has surpassed search volume for “beads” (in blue):
Notice the prominent spikes in “necklace” searches just before the holidays each year!
In addition to the number of searches for each keyword, Google tells us which countries are searching for particular keywords more often. Take a look at this 2004 world map of relative search volume for the word “beads”:
Compare that to “beads” searches in 2009 and note the higher concentrations in places like South Africa (hallo!), China (nǐ hǎo!), and different European countries (hola and ciao!):
Using information like this, we can tailor our advertising and create new, useful features on our website that appeal to all types of beaders. For example, we obviously sell gemstone beads, but now we have an entire Design Gallery category just for necklaces!
I’ll admit I’m a big numbers and statistics geek, but with insights like these it’s easy to appreciate the diversity of the beading community. How do you use search engines to find what you need? Do you find the results useful or is it information overload?
On Oct 02, 2009 at 2:11 pm #
Fenya says:This is great information! Thank you for showing us!
On Oct 02, 2009 at 2:17 pm #
seashellsally says:Hey Andrew,
Fun article…..When I learned to do an “advance” search my searches became more on target, so to speak.
More often than not, I get off on a tangent and the winds of the net take me places anew.
On Oct 02, 2009 at 7:00 pm #
Leslie W Mtn Chick says:Very interesting. Please write more information about this. Most companies just touch the tip of the iceberg with their marketing strategies. Thinking outside the box… Brainstorming is always fun. I bet you’d get some pretty interesting responses if the questions were phrased as a game and no holes barred. By the way, welcome aboard Andrew. I always wanted to visit the Ginter Arboretum, but haven’t gotten there yet.
On Oct 03, 2009 at 2:38 am #
FaeryGoth Chick says:This is an interesting article Andrew. Nice to know this information! But I have 2 non related questions. About the website, would it ever be possible to adapt it so that we can know when comments are made on any of the fresh picks or designs? I mean, when you create a new one, of course you check it often to see if there were replies but if someone made a reply to an older pick or design, it often goes unnoticed and it is not nice to not reply back
Just wondering if it were possible to get alerted when someone replies to anything. Second question, I would love it if it were possible to create extra space on the profile for your birthday. It would be so nice to see when someone has a birthday so that you can send birthday wishes. It would be nice to get a message about that.
Let me know what you think? Thanks in advance
On Oct 03, 2009 at 9:09 am #
Alice P says:Wow, this is great information! Looks like there a lot of untapped markets out there as well.
Now if you could just help me learn how to get my website noticed….
Thanks a bunch!
On Oct 03, 2009 at 12:17 pm #
Andrew M says:Thanks for the good feedback! Look for more posts like this in the future. Maybe a series on marketing your jewelry creations? After all, the more successful you are, the more successful we are!
FaeryGoth Chick – We have been talking about ways to add the email notification features to The Garden and Design Gallery. We have some technical puzzles to solve but we are working on it. The birthday field is a good idea as well. I will talk to Steve to see how difficult that would be.
On Oct 04, 2009 at 8:32 pm #
Dragons Chicky says:Hello,
I’m new to the website so this may be irrelevant but I’ve been noticing a lot of postings on the design gallery by non-members/no profile members. Has this always been done?
Cookie N
On Oct 04, 2009 at 8:45 pm #
Lynn Eileen Chicky LE says:Andrew, thanks for all the great info!!! Looking forward to more of your postings!
I also agree with FaeryGoth Chick’s suggestions — if there would be a way to implement them, that would be great!
I also agree with Cookie re: Gallery postings by non-profilers. Is there a way to require DG posters to fill out a basic profile for the site first? It makes it hard to get to know/friend someone when they don’t take the time to fill out a profile. Also, it gives the impression that they are only interested in showing off their work, not in connecting with other beaders. This may be an erroneous impression, of course, and could easily be corrected by filling out a basic profile.
Thanks, Andrew!!!
On Oct 05, 2009 at 9:33 am #
Andrew M says:Lynn, Cookie, thanks for the suggestions! We are always looking for ways to grow The Garden and Design Gallery communities. We do know that some users prefer anonymity and privacy and we want to make sure we find the right balance for them as well.
That being said, we will look at more options for adding information to a Garden profile. I added a thread to the “Garden Support” forum, so feel free to add your thoughts here: http://www.limabeads.com/fresh.....m/topic/74