UK searches from across the pond

just a thought

[Shak]

this may be a really silly post, but I had never really give it much thought before, so thought I would share as it "may" be relevant.

anyway go to [inventory.overture.com...] (Overture Inventory Tool) and do a search for the word "uk"

some interesting stats come up, especially considering a lot of these will be very low bids on Overture.com compared to the UK.

24491 uk map
19275 yahoo uk
17820 job uk
15169 ebay uk
13049 amazon uk
11191 estate agent uk
9349 uk weather
8937 uk lottery
8548 msn uk
8442 car insurance uk
8244 google uk
8224 mobile phone uk
7808 uk credit card
7653 touch screen monitor uk
7547 interpreter japanese uk
7507 uk mortgage
7482 uk national lottery
7285 uk newspaper
7255 japanese translation uk
6775 uk loan
6698 yellow page uk
6694 the sun uk
6617 auto trader uk
6558 uk property
6508 uk car rental
6442 uk university
6260 uk web hosting
6114 guardian uk
5991 cheap flight uk
5918 motor bike uk
5873 japanese translator uk
5757 uk chat
5706 uk hotel

other words which you could try are:

england
united kingdom
london
scotland
wales
britain

Shak

[Mike12345]

I can understand a lot of these, why they might be searched for that is. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, i reckon i could save a few bob if done right.

Cheers :)

[Bobby_Davro]

And don't forget the adjectives:

English
British
Welsh
Scottish
Irish

[sem4u]

As Shak's stats show many searchers use the US versions of search engines such as MSN and add 'uk' to their search words.

It can be worth opening a US Overture account to pick up some of this traffic.

This also happens with UK search engines.

[Bobby_Davro]

I believe that Overture can be quite funny about non-US targeted companies using Overture US to advertise their businesses.

[IanTurner]

Neat search Shak, not only relevant to PPC, good SEO targets and for director listings (if you can persuade them to stick UK in the description)

[jrobbio]

I can vouch for doing this myself as sometimes it does a better job than doing a normal search on google.co.uk or something overture related.

Rob

[sammyp]

This idea did occur to me some time ago, but I never got around to doing anything about it. Having read the post today, I went on to Overture to have a look. If you just go onto the overture homepage but dont select which region, as I suspect many users will do, you seem to automatically default to the US. I put in one of the search phrases that on the UK listing for PPC is over £10. Low and behold, one of my UK competitors came up at No 1 and is paying 5c. When you compare that to £10 pc, even allowing for clicks from the US its got to be worth a punt. I suppose just to tighten it up its worth putting UK somewhere in your heading. Anyway, thanks Shak for suggesting this. I will give it a go and report back.

[sammyp]

Just as an afterthought, I did post in the PPC forum under the heading "Matrix", which is pretty much the same idea. Would be interested in any feedback on Matrix.

[Smiley]

Having tried Overture US PPC I found the following:

1) Search volumes are pften smaller than the inventory suggests
2) The US editors are much stricker than the UK ones

Despite high bids my account often would not reach the min spend :-(

Smiley

[edited by: engine at 3:06 pm (utc) on May 14, 2003]

[Iknow2little]

RE: 2) The US editors are much stricker than the UK ones

The yanks are stricter you say?

I recently submitted 400 keys to US & the same 400 to UK...

US 257 declined
UK 281 declined

Okay the difference is very small, I'd say they are just as strict :D

[Dayo_UK]

Shak - Shhhh

I have already been onto this and making a bit of affiliate money and know the whole of webmasterworld knows ;)

[Shak]

Dayo,

thats my problem mate, cant keep a bloody secret :)

on a serious note, sharing tips is the BEST part of Webmasterworld, I know I get a lot more out of it than I could possibly give back.

One can only but try!

Shak

[George]

Great one Shak!
I have been doing this on general listing for ages, but not thought of the USA overture angle.