AMP Agency has published yet another report as a part of their Search Intelligence service. This report is available for download and provides consumer and audience insights to help inform your marketing and business decisions for the Winter season. AMP Agency’s SEO Coordinator Josie Witaschek focused on the Beauty and Fashion categories for the report and was excited to share the findings. “As we have for the other Trends reports we have produced this year, I used TikTok as a starting point for many of the topics I researched. The use of this platform as a search engine is growing across the consumer base and our team has found it useful in our research.” The Top Trends of Winter 2022-2023 report has insights on 24 topics across 8 different categories including Travel and Activities, along with the aforementioned Beauty and Fashion.  The data presented in the report is pulled straight from Google’s Keyword Planner (US only) and is paired with our analysis of why we think the topic will increase in popularity this Winter. Download our 2022-2023 Winter Trends report and learn more about our seasonable predictions for this coming season.

What is Google’s new update? Google has rolled a new change in the way they present their search results on mobile devices for brand keyword queries. The engine is now prioritizing the site name for brand name queries of a company instead of the contents of the home page’s title tag. For example, before this change, a query of the company name, “rover”, would show the contents of home page’s title tag in Google’s mobile search results: With this change, a query of “rover” on mobile now presents a result with the site name in search results along with the favicon and URL: Currently, site names are available for mobile Google Search results in English, French, Japanese, and German, with more languages to follow in the coming months.   Why is Google using only site names?  Google strives to make it easier for users to find the specific website that is associated with the brand name they are searching for. By using only site names in search results, Google believes it becomes a lot easier to find the specific brand being searched.  These types of keywords are seen as being navigational in nature; that is, a keyword that has the intent of getting a person to the brand’s home page.  This update does not affect results for non-branded or expanded branded keyword queries.  Keeping the company Rover as our example, If one were to search “dog walking” or “rover dog walking”, the title tag’s content will appear as the link text for the home page: How Can You Optimize Your Home Page? Because of this change, AMP Agency recommends brands to add their desired website name using structured data on their site’s home page so it appears properly in Google mobile search results. Specifically, we recommend the use of WebSite schema markup on the home page as depicted in the example below: This implementation allows Google to recognize the “name” property as the site name of the website and provide accurate results on result pages.    The use of structured data is also beneficial for websites with alternate names, like acronyms and shortened names. The Website schema markup allows for these variations to be added to the home page as well.   How can Google understand your site name? Beyond Website schema markup, Google Search does use a number of other sources to determine the site name for a search result including on-page, off-page, and meta data information.   With the addition of schema markup, brands should ensure the headings (H1, H2, etc.), Title Tag, and Open Graph Protocol meta data (og:site_name) are optimized for the same site name.  Keeping up with Google changes are just a part of our SEO Services. Contact us for more information about how we can best position your site for search.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for August 2022. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. August 2022 - A Summary Looking through the top queried phrases by day last month, there were a few topics that surfaced as macro trends. As primary elections happened across different states, candidates and ballot questions landed in the top 3 daily queries.  The NFL preseason stoked interest in fans as they searched for their favorite team in Google results. The other big sports topic was Champions League soccer and we’ll present the sheer number of queries related to that European-centric subject. Lastly, there were TV and films that people wanted to learn more about and we’ll examine which ones were the most popular.   A Doodle and a Travolta Curiosity These two phrases were the only two that made the elusive 10 million plus club last month. Anna Mani - 8/22/2022 - 10,000,000+ queries Google changed their logo on August 23rd to celebrate “the 104th birthday of Indian physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani, one of the country’s first female scientists.”  You can read more about her on their post. We tend to see interesting Doodles get top query status as the logo is hyperlinked to a result page tied to a keyword - in this case, “Anna Mani”.  The second phrase is a bit of a head scratcher but it’s not unprecedented.  John Travolta - 8/8/2022 - 10,000,000+ queries On August 8th, Olivia Newton-John passed away and the news sent people to Google to search. When we first looked at Google's Daily Search Trends, it was her name that was the top query. From our experience, it takes 24 hours for the report to finalize.  We have seen queries shift or change completely when we revisit the report after that 24 hour period. When we looked back at the daily top 3 for August 8th on August 10th, the phrase above replaced the Olivia Newton-John query and it was the top queried phrase of the day.  The other surprising thing was there were no Olivia Newton-John related phrases in the top 3 at all.   SInce we have been collecting this data for years now, we recalled this same sort of phenomena happening when Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife, died in 2020.  Here’s the top phrase from July 12th of that year: John Travolta - 7/12/2020 - 10,000,000+ queries Again, there are no queries related to Kelly Preston in the daily top three of that day.  The phrase that was reported was John Travolta’s name.  The AMP team is not sure what to make of this reporting shift. It doesn’t make sense that his name would be a higher queried phrase than either Olivia’s or Kelly’s.  It does make us wonder what kind of query consolidation is happening as the Daily Search Trends report gets finalized.  Is there a knowledge graph consideration? Does the weight of the John Travolta entity make the report combine related terms underneath it?  It’s odd, for sure, and for it to happen twice in the last two years is odder.  Pet Holidays Did you know that August has two days that celebrate two of the most popular household pets?  We didn’t either. CAT - 8/7/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries National Dog Day - 8/26/2022 - 200,000+ queries On International Cat Day, Google implemented a search result “Easter Egg” where the result page for the query “cat”  was altered with animation.   Although dogs are certainly more popular than cats nationwide, the enhanced result page helped to drive more search queries for cats on their special day this year.   Martin vs. Tolkien and Other Entertainment Every month, TV show and movie queries make the daily top 3.  AMP likes looking for these phrases to figure out how large the audience is for each.  Here are the top movie related keywords from August 2022: Batgirl - 8/2/2022 - 200,000+ queries Prey - 8/3/2022 - 200,000+ queries Prey - 8/5/2022 - 500,000+ queries Orphan: First Kill - 8/18/2022 - 200,000+ queries So, the Batgirl query is a bit of an anomaly since the volume behind it is related to the decision to never release this movie by Warner Bros. People really wanted to know where they could see the latest installment of the Predator franchise, Prey (Hint: Hulu & Disney+) Lastly, the horror film, Orphan: First Kill also received a top 3 query phrase placement on the 18th a day before its release date. A couple of non-epic fantasy TV shows made our collection. They include a new series about an established character and an awards show:   Wednesday Netflix - 8/17/2022 - 100,000+ queries VMAs 2022 - 8/28/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Netflix is producing a TV series about Wednesday Addams, a character from the fictional Addams Family.  A trailer for the show was released on the 17th.  Also, The MTV Video Music Awards still stir a buzz and search interest in this year’s show drove more than a million queries on the day it aired. As we alluded to in the previous section, the biggest news for the TV audience was the release of 2 anticipated fantasy shows last month: House of Dragon - 8/21/2022 - 2,000,000+ queries Rings of Power - 8/31/2022 - 200,000+ queries From the query volume, it appears that the Game of Thrones prequel series is more popular than the Lord of the Rings prequel series. We’ll keep monitoring to see which show’s season finale makes the daily top 3.  Elections and Federal Acts With the first wave of elections this year, we saw some queries related to US politics with high volumes last month, if only for a day.  Liz Cheney - 8/15/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Harriet Hageman - 8/16/2022 - 500,000+ queries Alaska primary 2022 Results - 8/16/2022 - 200,000+ queries Mary Peltola - 8/31/2022 - 500,000+ queries On the 16th, U.S. representative for Wyoming Liz Cheney lost in the Republican primary to Harriet Hageman.The Alaska primary results were also popular as it led to Sarah Palin loss to Mary Petola in the special election to replace the late Rep. Don Young.  The other topics in this category were related to the Kansas special election and two measures moving forward in the Federal government. Kansas abortion amendment - 8/2/2022 - 500,000+ queries Inflation Reduction Act - 8/7/2022 - 200,000+ queries Student loans - 8/23/2022 - 2,000,000+ queries Voters in Kansas decided to keep abortion legal in the state.  The Inflation Reduction Act getting voted into law and details of the student loan forgiveness program drove people to search.    August 2022’s Sports-Related Queries Do you know what gets keywords related to the NFL back into Google’s daily search trends?  The preseason. Raiders - 8/4/2022 - 500,000+ queries NFL - 8/4/2022 - 500,000+ queries Patriots - 8/11/2022 - 200,000+ queries 49ers - 8/12/2022 - 500,000+ queries Zach Wilson - 8/12/2022 - 500,000+ queries Steelers - 8/13/2022 - 500,000+ queries Dallas Cowboys - 8/13/2022 - 500,000+ queries Patriots - 8/19/2022 - 200,000+ queries 49ers - 8/20/2022 - 200,000+ queries 49ers - 8/25/2022 - 200,000+ queries Packers - 8/25/2022 - 200,000+ queries Dallas Cowboys - 8/26/2022 - 200,000+ queries Chicago Bears - 8/27/2022 - 200,000+ queries Steelers - 8/28/2022 - 500,000+ queries Did your favorite team make the list?  If so, you’re in good (large) company.  Major League Baseball’s season is still going on and a couple of phrases were  Juan Soto - 8/1/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Field of Dreams Game 2022 - 8/11/2022 - 500,000+ queries Juan Soto was included in a major trade between the Washington Nationals and the San Diego Padres.  The new featured game that takes place near a corn field also drove people to search for more information about it. If you didn’t think European soccer was popular in the USA, think again. Fulham vs Liverpool - 8/6/2022 - 200,000+ queries Everton vs Chelsea - 8/6/2022 - 200,000+ queries West Ham vs Man City - 8/7/2022 - 200,000+ queries Real Madrid - 8/9/2022 - 500,000+ queries Real Madrid - 8/13/2022 - 500,000+ queries Chelsea vs Tottenham - 8/14/2022 - 500,000+ queries Liverpool vs Crystal Palace - 8/15/2022 - 200,000+ queries Leeds United vs. Chelsea - 8/21/2022 - 200,000+ queries Man United vs Liverpool - 8/22/2022 - 500,000+ queries Champions League draw - 8/24/2022 - 500,000+ queries Liverpool vs Bournemouth - 8/27/2022 - 500,000+ queries Some members of the AMP team have a theory that online sports betting has increased the visibility of the Champions League in this country.  Looking at the phrases that are match-related where both teams are included, the checking of scores may be a reason for this query volume. Finally, Serena Williams’s progress in her last U.S. Open drove people to learn more.  She announced her retirement earlier last month.  Serena Williams - 8/29/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Other Topics Worthy of Mention Working with CPG brands, we monitor search queries for them to keep check on negative sentiment.  You hate to see it, but recalls can wreak havoc for a brand.  August 2022 was not a good month for Capri Sun Group Holding: Capri Sun recall - 8/15/2022 - 200,000+ queries People were looking to the skies with the full moon and the Aurora Borealis on their minds last month: Full moon August 2022 - 8/9/2022 - 200,000+ queries Northern Lights - 8/17/2022 - 200,000+ queries They kept thinking about those skies in anticipation of our continuing mission to the moon Artemis launch - 8/28/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Maybe someday that rocket will blast off. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.

AMP Agency’s Top Trends of Fall 2022 Predictions Report   AMP Agency has published another report as a part of their Search Insights service. This report is available for download and provides consumer and audience insights to help inform your marketing and business decisions for the Autumn season. AMP Agency’s SEO Supervisor Kevin Davis dug deep into search query data to gather useful insights for this report. “We learned a lot from producing the Summer Trends report.  Using the tools available to us, we were able to not only find products, events, and activities relevant to this time of year but also predict the ones that will be very popular this year. Looking back at query data for the past 4 years, you can see increases in volume that we feel is a good indicator of interest in the future.  I am excited to share our findings in this report.”  The Top Trends of Fall 2022 report has insights on 40 topics across 8 different categories including holidays, home decor, and food & drink.  The data presented in the report is pulled straight from Google’s Keyword Planner (US only) and is paired with our analysis of why we think the topic will increase in popularity this Autumn. Download our 2022 Fall Trends report and learn more about our seasonable predictions for this coming season.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for July 2022. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. July 2022 - Hawt Weather & Hawt Queries Not sure that’s how you spell the word hot, but last month was full of query curiosities. There were three keywords related to food in our recorded list. Dreams of large jackpots drove people to search about the Mega Millions drawings and other lottery games. Our pick for the biggest movie of the summer made the daily top 3 not just once but twice along with other shows and films. Other topics people queried were Amazon Prime Day and keywords related to the economy.  In Sports, the MLB All Star game was a hot topic along with UFC events.  Lastly, the name of a face recognition disorder made our list (Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is soooo June 2022), but let’s kick off with some deep looks into our universe. Photos From Space In July 2022, one of the top queries by volume as reported by Google’s Daily Search Trends was driven by the Doodle for the new James Webb telescope that went online during the month. Before that Google Doodle was posted, people were already very excited about the views from outer space we were about to see. James Webb telescope - 7/11/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries James Webb Space Telescope - 7/12/2022 - 10,000,000+ queries It’s good to see that a topic related to science made the daily top 3 for two days in a row, even if some of us were duped into thinking a slice of chorizo was a faraway star.  Next, it’s a topic of more Earthly pursuits.  Let’s Get Rich Quick Every so often, the Mega Millions jackpot gets really big - over a billion dollars big.  When it does, it captivates the Google search audience.  Take a look at the progression through the month of July.   Mega Millions - 7/19/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Mega Millions - 7/26/2022 - 5,000,000+ queries Mega Millions - 7/29/2022 - 10,000,000+ queries On the 19th, the total prize was just over a half billion dollars. We believe that once the word ‘billion’ starts getting used when describing Mega Millions, then the search volume starts to spike.  After the announcement that there was a winner from the July 29th drawing, it appears there was a hangover effect and people wanted to learn more about the Powerball game. Powerball - 7/30/2022 - 500,000+ queries It was “only” a $170 million jackpot, so it seems the amount wasn’t the driving force behind the query and just the habit of querying for quick riches. Economic Factors From these two queries, maybe the current trouble with the economy had people thinking about ways to supplement their income. Inflation - 7/13/2022 - 200,000+ queries Fed rate hike - 7/27/2022 - 200,000+ queries Although lower in query volume than the lottery-related phrases in the last section, concerns over inflation and rising interest rates are clearly on people’s minds. Amazon Prime Day Hyped as the biggest shopping day of the year next to Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day returned to its typical July occurrence after the pandemic shifted it a bit for a couple of years.  Here are the phrases we captured last month. Amazon Prime Day - 7/11/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Amazon Prime Day 2022 - 7/11/2022 - 500,000+ queries Amazon Prime Day - 7/12/2022 - 500,000+ queries We grabbed a chart to see the deals day’s popularity over the past 5 years.  You can see that the pandemic did have an effect on the search volume in 2022 and 2021, but the downtrend started in 2019. It’s safe to state that even with less query volume on the actual phrase “amazon prime day” that the summer shopping event is still quite popular with Prime members. Summer Eats We’re so happy to see food-related queries in our data.  Here are the three top keywords from July 2022. Nathan's hotdogs Contest 2022 - 7/4/2022 - 200,000+ queries National Ice Cream Day - 7/17/2022 - 200,000+ queries Choco Taco - 7/25/2022 - 200,000+ queries The hot dog eating contest always brings out the searches. In past years, Joey Chestnut has been top term related to the contest but he had a non-record breaking performance in 2022. It’s nice to see National Ice Cream Day make the daily top 3. We wish that it had a bigger response last year when we predicted it was going to be huge and it wasn’t.  We pulled the chart to see what’s up: Based on this chart, you can see the search interest spiked in 2019 and then trailed off.  It was more popular in 2022 vs. 2021 so that’s something.  Looking back at those previous articles, it’s clear that the improvement applied to their data collection system on January 1, 2022 changed the data on this topic. No matter - ice cream should be celebrated even when novelties are being discontinued like the choco taco. Clearly, it will be missed. Streaming, Taking In a Flick, and a New Album The conclusion of Stranger Things Season Four had people querying in Google. Stranger Things - 7/1/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Noah Schnapp - 7/7/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries One of the actors from the show, Noah Schnapp, received some extra attention when he shared private messages from the pop star Doja Cat.  Any publicity is good publicity? Our pick for the biggest movie of the summer had a good showing in the daily trends report: Thor: Love and Thunder - 7/5/2022 - 500,000+ queries Thor: Love and Thunder - 7/7/2022 - 1,000,000+ queries Does high search volume equal box office success?  We will examine that question in a follow up to our 2022 Summer Trends report. Marvel continued to drive search interest with the release of the new Black Panther movie trailer and details of its Phase 5 film plans. Black Panther 2 - 7/23/2022 - 500,000+ queries Marvel Phase 5 - 7/23/2022 - 500,000+ queries Again, the fan interest is strong for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Search query data is a great indication of the fan’s devotion. We tend to see award shows drive search queries.  Here’s the interest for the Emmys: Emmy nominations 2022 - 7/12/2022 - 500,000+ queries We’ll report in September if people are interested in the show.  Fans of Disney Channel movies were pleased to see that the latest installment of the Zombies film series was released on the 15th. Zombies 3 - 7/15/2022 - 200,000+ queries This film can be streamed on Disney+ and a fourth film has not been confirmed or denied at the time of this writing. Lastly, Queen Bey released an album in July 2022. Beyonce - 7/28/2022 - 500,000+ queries According to Variety.com, Renaissance is the second best album debut of the year behind Harry Styles’ Harry’s House  All Star Activities and Other Sports Near the middle of the month, Major League’s Baseball’s All-Star Game.  People seem to love the long ball.  Home Run Derby 2022 - 7/17/2022 - 500,000+ queries Home Run Derby - 7/18/2022 - 500,000+ queries Albert Pujols - 7/18/2022 - 200,000+ queries All-Star game 2022 - 7/19/2022 - 500,000+ queries Albert Pujols played in his final All-Star game as he is retiring at the end of this season. Since the other major sports leagues are not in season, we thought we’d look at other sports-related keywords that were queried last month. They include Formula One racing, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Professional Wrestling: F1 - 7/3/2022 - 200,000+ queries UFC 272 - 7/2/2022 - 500,000+ queries UFC - 7/16/2022 - 200,000+ queries UFC - 7/31/2022 - 500,000+ queries Money in the Bank 2022 - 7/2/2022 - 100,000+ queries SummerSlam 2022 - 7/29/2022 - 200,000+ queries UFC and Wrestling event keywords are mainstays in our data collection but Formula One racing is increasing in popularity.  We’ll keep an eye on this auto racing keyword as the months go on.     Cat Games, Face Blindness, and Concern With CERN In our final section, here’s a collection of keyword phrases that fit uniquely into their own categories so we packed them all together here. Did you know that cat video games were a thing? Stray - 7/18/2022 - 200,000+ queries The long awaited game Stray (for those who wait for cat video games) was released on July 19th but people were searching for information the day before.  Also, did you know that prosopagnosia is the medical term for face blindness? Prosopagnosia - 7/6/2022 - 100,000+ queries It was reported that Brad Pitt suffers from prosopagnosia so people looked it up on the 6th. For what it’s worth, more people wanted to know what the affliction that affected Justin Bieber was last month.  Lastly, the organization that operates everybody’s favorite Large Hadron Collider made headlines last month. CERN - 7/5/2022 - 500,000+ queries No, they didn’t create a black hole to swallow the planet but they are trying to collect data on dark matter. We really hope they don’t create a black hole, though. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.

June 2022 SEO Questions & Answers Can duplicate Yelp listings affect SEO? It is well understood that having duplicated content can have a negative impact on your SEO efforts because it can be confusing for search engines to determine which listing is the original and which is the duplicate. This often results in your listings being ranked lower in search results, or even being removed from SERPs entirely. If you have a business with multiple listings on Yelp, you might be wondering how can duplicate Yelp listings affect SEO for your website? The short answer to this question is that the duplicate Yelp listing will not incur a duplicate content penalty on your website. However, you should still seek to consolidate your Yelp listings to ensure information about your business remains consistent as some local SEO platforms pull from Yelp and if the information on a duplicate post does not match your real life information you can expect to be penalized in local SEO results such as Google Maps and Apple Maps. Do draft WordPress posts unpublished affect your SEO? ​WordPress draft posts will not affect your SEO in a negative manner such as incurring a duplicate content penalty for your blog because the posts are unpublished by WordPress, meaning they are not being indexed by Google which will not display unpublished posts in SERPs.​ Is directory submission good for SEO?​ There is no definitive answer to this question, as the efficacy of directory submissions in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) depends on several factors, including the quality of the directory, the relevance of the directory to your website's topic, and how well the directory is respected by search engines. In general, however, submitting your website to well-established, reputable directories can be beneficial to your SEO efforts because you will increase your organic share of voice in SERPs, meaning your brand name will appear more frequently in searches for products associated with your brand which can help indirectly build category relevance. Some good directories to consider adding your website to are the Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ, and Business.com." Are pingbacks good for SEO?​ Like backlinks, pingbacks are a good way to increase the link popularity of your site and improve your search engine optimization. A pingback is a link from one blog post to another, and when a post is pinged back, it means that the post has been linked to from another site. This is a good way to get more exposure for your site, and it can also help to improve your search engine ranking.

  AMP Agency’s Top Trends of Summer 2022 Predictions Report   AMP Agency has published a report as a part of their Search Insights service. This report is available for download and provides audience insights to help inform your marketing and business decisions for the coming season.   AMP Agency’s VP of SEO John Krochune thinks that search interest is a strong indicator of future trends.  “My team and I dive deep into historical search query data, using a variety of tools, to uncover trends. I think this public set of audience data is being underutilized in marketing and we are publishing this report to provide a wealth of information that other sources may not provide.”   The Top Trends of Summer 2022 report has insights on 40 topics across 8 different categories including travel, fashion, and entertainment.  The data presented in the report is pulled straight from Google’s Keyword Planner (US only) and is paired with our analysis of why we think the topic will increase in popularity this summer.   Download our Summer Trends report and learn more about our hot predictions for this coming season.

Predicting the future is a tough business. No one can really do it with 100% accuracy. If I were a true soothsayer, I wouldn’t be writing this article. I’d be living on my own private tropical island with all the money I made betting on sports and stocks, but I digress.  In reality, I am writing this post to examine what I boldly predicted back in the spring of 2021. In this Summer Food and Beverage Days post, I theorized that 3 days associated with either a food or drink item would drive users to search for more information about these “holidays”. Using historic Google Trends data, and thinking that an ease of pandemic restrictions may help boost interest, I thought the search popularity of these days would be the biggest ever (or at least, be bigger than last year. The three food/beverage days are: National Doughnut or Donut Day - occurred on June 4th in 2021 National Ice Cream Day - occurred on July 18th in 2021  National Tequila Day - occurred on July 24th in 2021 So how did I do?  Is 1 out 3 good? National Doughnut or Donut Day I will take full credit for predicting this one.  Clearly, the chart shows that search interest in this national day was higher than it was in 2020.  Was it an all-time high? No, but I will take the win.  I was only predicting a lift over last year. National Ice Cream Day I am shocked and saddened that this day wasn’t queried as much as last year.  Who doesn’t like ice cream?  What could have been the problem this year?  I can’t think of anything that would have stopped the populace of this country from celebrating the frozen delight that makes summer a wonderful time to be alive.  Ok, maybe one thing. Not enough discounts or free cones being advertised. Not enough brands wanted to own the holiday.  That, or maybe the weather.  National Tequila Day This one just bums me out. This holiday saw a jump in 2020 so I thought we would see another one this year. Nope. I guess there wasn’t enough to celebrate this summer. It’s a real shame, too.  We should have seen a real jump in search interest with more people getting out there and celebrating.  I guess not. What Does It All Mean? Like I stated, it’s hard to predict the future even with strong data to help guide you. People are a fickle bunch and we’re still trying to figure out how to interact with each other.  The other aspect to ponder is if there is a brand or two who are promoting these food holidays.  If there is a big push one year and not the other, search volume can be affected tremendously. I still think that these national holidays can be owned. We have years worth of data that shows that people want to be part of them.  All a brand needs to do is to tap into that potential.   Who knew that International Coffee Day was going to be so big this year? If you’d like to know how to own these holidays, contact us and we can talk about it more.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for March 2021. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+. After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. The Cruelest Month Is March We know that T.S. Eliot, in his poem “The Waste Land”, stated that April is cruelest month, but we beg to differ–and we aren’t the only ones. Here in the Northeastern part of the USA, winter sticks around too long and the thought of being cooped up in the house for another month is enough to make us loathe March. Last year, the lockdown started in March, so we can add to the list of bad stuff that happens in this month. Luckily, there were more things to distract us this year, like The Grammys, movie releases and NCAA basketball. Let’s take a look at what drove people to search last month. Here are the top Google Trends keywords of March 2021, as analyzed by AMP Agency. March 13th - Wha’ Happened? March is so cruel, Google Trends skipped a day. For some reason, Google Trends didn’t post any information for Saturday, March 13th. There appears to have been a glitch that lasted over 24 hours. From the screenshot, you can see that March 14th was also affected. Typically, for any date, the top 20 phrases are posted in the Trending Searches module. On the 14th, only the top 5 were reported. It’s a good thing we don’t use Google Trends in place of our calendar because we would be at least a day behind while writing this article.   Coming In Like A Lion Along with the March 13th glitch, we had a doubled query count on the first of the month. Dr. Seuss - 3/1/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Dr. Seuss - 3/1/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries The announcement from Dr. Seuss Enterprises stating that they will stop publishing six of its books did stir users to search for more information but we’re not sure why this query had to be published twice. March is so cruel. What Keywords Were Searched The Most in March There were four phrases that drove over 10 million queries in March 2021.  Texas - 3/2/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries Meghan Markle - 3/7/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries St. Patrick's Day - 3/16/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries Spring season - 3/19/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries Texas was hit with extremely cold temperatures and massive power outages in the beginning of March. The Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was quite the bombshell and people wanted to learn more about it. This interview drove a number of related phrases that will be examined in the next section. The other two phrases were driven by Google Doodles where clicks on the altered logo are registered as queries.  About That Oprah Interview As stated, the Oprah Interview had some lasting effects in the daily top 3 most searched keywords: Meghan Markle - 3/3/2021 - 200,000+ queries Piers Morgan - 3/8/2021 - 500,000+ queries CBS Oprah interview - 3/8/2021 - 500,000+ queries Piers Morgan - 3/9/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Piersmorgan - 3/10/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Before the interview aired, Meghan Markle was in the news because an investigation was started into her alleged bullying of two personal assistants that forced them to leave their positions. After the interview aired, the UK broadcaster Piers Morgan reacted to the story Good Morning Britain, which led to him walking off the set and quitting the show. Other Holiday Queries St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of Spring were the most popular dates, driven by Google Doodles. Here’s the list of the other top searched March holiday related keywords. International Women's Day - 3/7/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries St. Patrick's Day 2021 - 3/16/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries St. Patrick's Day - 3/16/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Leprechaun - 3/17/2021 - 200,000+ queries April Fools pranks - 3/31/2021 - 500,000+ queries International Women’s Day gained in search popularity year over year. Looking at the 5 year trend, there were more searches for the holiday in 2021 than in 2020 and 2019. AMP Agency celebrated the day this year and you can read more about it in this post. Entertainment There were a few movies that were released during March 2021 that made the daily top 3. Also, the Grammys were held last month, which is unusual because they are typically held in late January or early February. Raya and the Last Dragon - 3/5/2021 - 500,000+ queries Coming to America 2 - 3/4/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Grammys 2021 - 3/15/2021 - 5,000,000+ queries Justice League Snyder Cut - 3/18/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Godzilla vs Kong - 3/31/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries The four movies that are listed above had the highest search volumes in the month of March. We like to use the search interest in films on their opening days as an indication of how many people are going to watch, either in theaters or at home. It’s curious that Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon did not make the 2 million plus query mark.  The 63rd annual Grammy Awards reportedly had less than half the audience tune in to watch the show live in 2021 vs. 2020.  The search volume was down year over year but not by 50%: According to the same reports, streaming of the event was up 83%. From our search data analysis, it appears that audience interest in the awards show is down but not dramatically so. Politics Thankfully, with no raid on the Capitol or impeachment trial this month, there were much fewer keywords related to politics making the daily top 3 in March 2021.  Kyrsten Sinema - 3/5/2021 - 500,000+ queries Covid relief bill - 3/10/2021 - 200,000+ queries Matt Gaetz - 3/30/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries The senior United States Senator from Arizona made headlines with her vote on the minimum wage bill last month. The H.R.1319 - American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 became law on the 11th and the announcement that Matt Gaetz is facing an inquiry from the Justice Department made headlines on the 30th. NCAA Basketball We guess they don’t call it March Madness for nothing. The NCAA Basketball tournament was back this year and queries related to it took up a lot of the top 3 this month. Check out the timeline of these 15 keyword phrases as the tourney progressed. Michigan basketball - 3/12/2021 - 200,000+ queries March Madness 2021 - 3/14/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries NCAA Tournament - 3/18/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Oral Roberts - 3/19/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Syracuse basketball - 3/19/2021 - 500,000+ queries Abilene Christian - 3/20/2021 - 500,000+ queries VCU basketball - 3/20/2021 - 500,000+ queries Oral Roberts - 3/21/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Illinois basketball - 3/21/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Michigan basketball - 3/22/2021 - 500,000+ queries Oral Roberts - 3/27/2021 - 5,000,000+ queries Syracuse basketball - 3/27/2021 - 5,000,000+ queries Alabama Basketball - 3/28/2021 - 500,000+ queries Gonzaga basketball - 3/28/2021 - 200,000+ queries UCLA basketball - 3/30/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries The maddest thing about the tournament? The champion isn’t crowned until April. We’ll have to wait until the next article to discuss it. So cruel. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we invite you to learn more about our SEO services. Until next month.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for February 2021. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+. After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. What Drove People To Search In February 2021 With record cold in parts of the country and a pandemic still raging on, it was clear from Google Trends that we were staying home and watching TV. Looking back at the month, we saw many of the phrases that made the daily top 3 were geared towards learning more about programming on our home screens. Bookended by the Super Bowl and the Golden Globes, there was a large percentage of phrases in our collection that were categorized as Entertainment keywords.  Sure, there were some phrases related to holidays, politics, and stocks, but it was mostly about what we wanted to watch or had just watched.  Here are the top Google Trends keywords of February 2021, as analyzed by AMP Agency. The Ten Million Plus Club The number of phrases that drove over 10 million queries was more modest in February as compared to January 2021.  Super Bowl 2021 - 2/6/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries NFL - 2/7/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries Valentine’s Day - 2/13/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries Tiger Woods - 2/23/2021 - 10,000,000+ queries As is typical for any year, the Super Bowl drives a large amount of search activity. The first two phrases in the list occurred during the weekend of the big game. We’ll examine the rest of the phrases that made the top 3 that were related to that sporting event in the next section. Google posted a Doodle for Valentine’s Day and every click on it was recorded as a query of “Valentine’s Day”. As we have seen before, the dates sometimes shift for holidays/Doodle due to how Google Trends reports the data. Lastly, Tiger Woods was in a car accident and people sought more information about it. Let’s hope for a quick recovery.  Super Bowl Weekend and The Popularity of The NFL When we first started collecting Google Trends data on a daily basis back in 2019, we noticed early on that the Super Bowl was a topic that garnered a large number of queries. Most of the interest was about the game itself, but there’s also search volume for related events like the halftime show. Outside of the phrase that made the 10 million plus club, these are the top queries from Super Bowl weekend in the order they were reported. Super Bowl time - 2/5/2021 - 500,000+ queries Puppy Bowl 2021 - 2/5/2021 - 200,000+ queries Shailene Woodley - 2/6/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Aaron Rodgers - 2/6/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries The Weeknd - 2/7/2021 - 5,000,000+ queries CBS - 2/7/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Although the game has been played at the same time for as long as we can remember, people do search to make sure it hasn’t changed. Certainly the Puppy Bowl is very important to learn more about as the query volume shows. We’re taking a little bit of liberty with the inclusion of Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers in this list since they weren’t a part of the “Big Game”, but after Aaron thanked his fiancée in his NFL MVP award acceptance speech, Google search was set afire. We’re not sure if the announcement of his engagement was planned to be a part of his speech, but Aaron’s good about being a part of the conversation during Super Bowl weekend even if he isn’t playing in the game. Finally, on the day of the game, people sought more information about The Weeknd because of his performance during the halftime show and, for some reason, the network that carried the game. Now that the NFL season is over, we thought we’d look at the search popularity of the league as compared to previous years. The pandemic reduced the sports audience’s search interest in all major sports leagues, but the NFL seemingly fared the best based on what we see in these charts: In the 5 year timeframe view, the 2020-2021 season looks more like the 2018-2019 in terms of search volume. In the 16+ year view, you can see that the peaks are different. With no pre-season, the buzz was dampened at the beginning of the season, but the playoffs drove a slightly larger peak of search volume as compared to the one seen in early 2019.   The Other February Holidays Besides Valentine’s Day, there were other holidays in February that people were compelled to use Google to conduct searches. Groundhog Day - 2/1/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Groundhog Day 2021 - 2/2/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Lunar New Year - 2/11/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Ash Wednesday 2021- 2/16/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Clearly, a large number of searchers believe that a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil can really predict the weather as seen by the 2 day query volumes. Lunar New Year showcased as  a Google Doodle this year (Happy Year of the Ox) and Ash Wednesday 2021 made the top three on Fat Tuesday. Impeachment Trial and Politics-Related Keywords January 2021 had more keywords related to politics with the Capitol riot and the Inauguration being the biggest drivers. We still had an impeachment trial and a weather emergency to stoke search interest in February:  Liz Cheney - 2/3/2021 - 200,000+ queries Impeachment trial - 2/8/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Ron Wright - 2/8/2021 - 200,000+ queries Stacey Plaskett - 2/9/2021 - 500,000+ queries Stacey Plaskett - 2/10/2021 - 500,000+ queries Ted Cruz - 2/18/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Liz Cheney and Stacey Plaskett were queried because of their involvement in the Impeachment trial. Ron Wright, the US representative from Texas, died of COVID-19 and Ted Cruz, a senator from that state, made the news because of his trip to Mexico while the majority of his constituents were dealing with a power outage and freezing temperatures.  More Stock Market Phrases With the meme stock movement that hit a peak last month, AMP has started a new keyword category called “Stocks”. Here are the 3 most popular terms from last month: Tilray stock - 2/9/2021 - 200,000+ queries Bumble stock - 2/11/2021 - 500,000+ queries GME - 2/24/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries Tilray is a Canadian pharmaceutical and cannabis company that got a boost in its stock price with the deal to import and distribute medical cannabis in the UK. The company behind the dating app Bumble went public and GameStock was back in the top 3 most queried terms on the 24th with more support from Reddit users.  Stay Home and Watch Something During the pandemic, the number of phrases making the daily top 3 that are related to television shows and movies increased. February 2021 had a long list of phrases:    Firefly Lane - 2/3/2021 - 500,000+ queries Malcom and Marie - 2/5/2021 - 5,000,000+ queries Britney Spears documentary - 2/8/2021 - 500,000+ queries To All The Boys I Loved Before 3 - 2/11/2021 - 500,000+ queries Judas and the Black Messiah - 2/12/2021 - 500,000+ queries Cruella - 2/16/2021 - 200,000+ queries Nomadland - 2/19/2021 - 200,000+ queries Spider-Man: No Way Home - 2/23/2021 - 200,000+ queries Golden Globes 2021 - 2/26/2021 - 500,000+ queries Tom and Jerry - 2/26/2021 - 500,000+ queries Golden Globes 2021 - 2/28/2021 - 2,000,000+ queries The AMP team wholeheartedly believes the popularity and financial success of a TV or Film production can be predicted by its search interest. Did any of the shows or movies that you streamed last month make this list? Are you excited about any of the upcoming films that had a trailer drop (Cruella) or a title revealed (Spider-Man: No Way Home)? If so, you’re part of a large group.   Phrases related to a particular Disney+ show made the daily top 3 numerous times in February.  Due to the show’s mysterious nature, it was a good fit for Google as viewers went to the search engine to learn more (Warning: spoiler-ish phrases ahead). WandaVision episode 5 - 2/4/2021 - 200,000+ queries Agatha Harkness - 2/18/2021 - 1,000,000+ queries Scarlet Witch - 2/25/2021 - 500,000+ queries Hopefully soon, we won’t be cooped up in the house too much longer. Warmer weather and a larger vaccinated population should help. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we invite you to learn more about our SEO services. Until next month.