Key Word Research

Delivered May 18th, 2019. Contributors: Joan B., Jeffery O., Josh T. and

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Part

Search Term Research: Financial Understanding

The most common search terms/queries in the US relating to business financials are SAP product costing, financial advisor, what is capital expenditure, valuation of a business, and decision-making in finance future value of an investment. The most common search term/query in Oregon relating to business financial is global test market. The details of our findings have been entered into the attached spreadsheet. 
The most searched terms/queries that relate to:'product costing', 'costing' & 'margin analysis' in the US in the last 12 months are: (1) SAP Product Costing (100)
(2) Contribution Margin (100)
(3) Job Order Costing (100)
(4) Inventory Costing Method (92)
(5) Standard Costing (51)
'financial budgeting' & 'cash flow' in the US in the last 12 months are: (1) Financial Advisor (100)
(2) Cash flow statement (100) OREGON
'capital expenditure' in the US in the last 12 months are:(1) What is capital expenditure (100)
(2) Capital expenditures (52)
(3) What is a capital expenditure (52)
(4) Capital expenditure definition (48)
(5) Capital expenditure budget (22)
'business valuation' in the US, in the last 12 months is:(1) Valuation of a Business (100)
(2) business valuation calculator (70)
(3) small business valuation (55)
(4) valuation of a company (31)
(5) business valuation formula (31)
'decision-making in finance' in the US, in the last 12 months is:(1) decision-making in finance future value of an investment (100)

Research Strategy:We began the research by using different search keywords tools such as Keyword Shitter, Answer the Public, and Keywords Everywhere. However, those were not effective in providing the most common search terms relating to business financials as they mostly provided randomly generated keywords.
As such, we used Google Trends. Our first search for the term 'business financial' yielded no results for Oregon. We also used 'business' and 'financial' but those only provided business names. We also tried using general US terms but those yielded similar results as before. As a result, we decided to reduce the complexity of the analyzed term by using the following more simplified terms: 'decision-making', 'product costing & margin analysis', 'budgeting & cash flow modeling', 'capital expenditure', and 'business valuation'. Of these terms, only cash flow research yielded result for Oregon, as there was not enough search data for Google Trends to generate results for Oregon.
The first term 'product costing & margin analysis' yielded no results. So, we simplified the term and used 'product costing', 'costing' and 'margin analysis' to conduct further research for the separate words. This strategy was successful as we were able to find the most searched 
queries related to the above-mentioned terms. We performed a similar analysis for the second term because it yielded no results. In this case, we used 'financial budgeting' & 'cash flow' to simplify and get the needed data.
The data was aggregated from the last 12 months, to allow for a true representation of search trends in the region over a sufficiently long period — 12 months — and not present trending terms, which could have some bias, being susceptible to steep changes within a short period.
In providing the top search terms, we have mainly used the ranking provided by Google Trends. This gives a score between 0 and 100% to various search terms. A score of 100% represents the most frequently searched term. The search frequency of that term is used as a base for scoring the other terms, which means that a term with a score of 50% has a search frequency that is a half of the most searched term.

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Search Term Research: Top Line Growth

The most common search terms/queries in the US relating to top line growth are 'what is product management', 'marketing research', 'new product development process', 'gross domestic product', and 'what is market research'. The most common search term/query in Oregon relating to top line growth is global test market. The details of our findings has been entered into the spreadsheet.

SEARCH TERM 1: PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The most searched terms/queries that relate to 'product management' in the US, in the last 12 months are as follows. 
What is product management — 100%
Product manager — 87%
Product management process — 60%
Product service management — 54%
Product management software — 50% 
SEARCH TERM 2: MARKET RESEARCH 
The most searched term/query that relates to 'market research' in Oregon, in the last 12 months is 'global test market' — 100%
The most searched terms/queries that relate to 'market research' in the US, in the last 12 months are
 as follows.
Marketing research — 100%
What is market research — 94% 
Market research analyst — 66%
Market research jobs — 66%
Market research company — 53% 
SEARCH TERM 3: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
The most searched term/keyword that relate to 'new product development' in the US, in the last 12 months is 'new product development process'.
SEARCH TERM 4: PRODUCT EXPANSION
The most searched terms/keywords that relate to 'product expansion' in the US, in the last 12 months are 
as follows.
Gross domestic product — 100%
Product market expansion grid — 29% 
RESEARCH STRATEGY
We began the research by employing various search keywords tools such as keyword shitter, answer the public, and keywords everywhere. We quickly found that these tools were not providing the most common search terms relating to top line growth, instead, they provided randomly generated keywords, as they are keyword generators and not analysis tools.

We then shifted our attention to more advanced tools such as kwfinder and Google Trends. However, kwfinder provided no results because of insufficient data. Therefore, we focused on Google Trends to carry out this research. An initial analysis of the term 'top line growth' yielded no results. So we resolved to reduce the complexity of the analyzed term by using the following more simplified terms: 'product management', 'market research', 'new product development', and 'product expansion'. Of these terms, only market research yielded result for Oregon, as there was not enough search data for Google Trends to generate results for Oregon.

The information used in providing the required data has been aggregated from the last 12 months, to allow for a true representation of search trends in the region over a sufficiently long period — 12 months — and not a capture of the present trending terms, which could have some bias, being susceptible to steep changes within a short period.

In determining the top search terms, the ranking metric employed by google trends has been used. This metric gives a score between 0 and 100% to various search terms and the terms are then ranked by this score, in descending order of magnitude. A score of 100% represents the most frequently searched term and the search frequency of that term is used as a base for scoring the other terms, so that a term with a score of 50% has a search frequency that is half that of the most searched term.

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Search Term Research: Strategy

The five most-common search terms in Oregon when looking for information about the phrase "business strategy" are (1) business, (2), strategy, (3) strategic management, (4) marketing, and (5) management. The requested information is included in the attached spreadsheet. Below is a summary of our research findings, followed by a detailed explanation of how we identified the most common search terms in Oregon and why we listed the top five search terms for each phrase.
findings"business strategy" — most common search terms in Oregon1. Business (100%)
2. Strategy (93%)
3. Strategic management (44%)
4. Marketing (15%)
5. Management (9%)
"strategic planning" — most common search terms in Oregon1. Strategic planning (100%)
2. Planning (82%)
3. Strategy (64%)
4. Marketing (14%)
5. Management (9%)
"selling a company" — most common search terms in Oregon1. Company (100%)
2. Sales (82%)
3. Cost (27%) (Quizlet was listed as the third most common search term, but we excluded it because it's a company, as was requested)
4. Price (18%)
5. Manufacturing (18%)
"business model generation" — most common search term in Oregon 1. Business model (100%)
YOUR RESEARCH TEAM APPLIED THE FOLLOWING STRATEGY:We provided the five most common search terms for each phrase due to the four phrases included in the spreadsheet pertaining to understanding business strategy. Thus, providing the five most-common search terms for each phrase was the best way for us to provide the full extent of the requested information with as much detail as possible. We determined the most common search terms when looking for information to help understand business strategy by utilizing Google Trends. We used that source because it provides the most common search words used when searching for a specific phrase, which can be tailed to a particular geographic area, which for our purposes was Oregon. The phrases we used for compiling the most common search terms about business strategy were (1) "strategic planning," (2) "selling a company," (3) "business model generation," and (4) "business strategy." We used those phrases because they are the ones stated in the spreadsheet for understanding business strategy. 

To collect this information, we first went to the Google Trends website. Second, we entered each of the four phrases individually in the search term box at the top of the screen. Third, we filtered the results (in the upper left-hand corner of the screen) specific to Oregon by changing the region from United States to Oregon. Fourth, we scrolled down to the bottom of the page (left side) and in the related topics section, we changed the drop down option from "rising" to "top." We did that because it provided us with the most common search terms used in Oregon when looking for each of the four business strategy phrases included above. Both above and in the spreadsheet, each search term is followed by a percentage, which represents the percent of searches that include that word/those words when that specified phrase is searched for in Oregon. We determined the most common search terms for each phrase based on the corresponding percentages for those search terms (e.g. the five search terms with the highest percentages). Together, this research process provided us with all the information we needed. 