Colgate Palmolive Company Kalvin C. Yang Keyword Analysis and Report Assignment 2 Introduction The company I have decided to research is Colgate. Colgate is a company that produce and manufactures consumer goods. They are best known for their tooth and oral‐care products such as their toothpaste, however they do manufacture other product goods in personal care, home care and pet nutrition. Scope of Study Before diving into the keyword analysis, we must take a step back and look at the scope of this report. The tools used in this report are gathered primarily from free analytic tools which includes the followings: Google Insight for Search Google AdWords Google Trends Compete Since most of these tools are from Google, the data gather will only show data from users that interact and uses Google’s search engine. It will not show us data from Yahoo! or Bing. Next, we will address what kind of data we want to be collecting and analyzing. To clarify, Colgate is best known for their oral care product such as toothpaste and toothbrush, but they also manufacture other brands like dish soap. In this report, we will focus on just the oral care products and have our analytic tools in Google Insight for Search and Google Trends filter searches based on “Health” category for consistency. Also for consistency, in our analysis, we will focus on demographics from the United States only and view data from a time period of 2004 to 2011. Keyword Analysis By using Google’s Insights for Search tool, we can see what other keywords Internet users are typing on Google’s search engines to generate Colgate’s website. The followings are the top 10 keywords/searches that users are using in Google’s search engine within the “Health” category: Top Searches 1. 2. toothpaste colgate toothpaste Rising Searches colgate recall colgate sensitive Breakout Breakout 3. colgate palmolive colgate toothpaste coupon Breakout 4. colgate white wisp colgate Breakout 5. colgate university colgate coupon +600% 6. colgate whitening colgate coupons +350% 7. colgate coupon colgate total toothpaste +90% 8. toothbrush colgate toothpaste +70% 9. colgate totall toothpaste +60% 10. colgate toothbrush colgate kids +40% figure 1 – (shows data taken from Google Insights for Search of top 10 keywords relating to “colgate.”) In figure 1, the first set of data on the left shows the top searches or keywords that generates Colgate’s website. The data on the right side shows the rising searches users are starting to use. Taking a look at the left side, we can analyze how specific users are at using these keywords to find Colgate brand. Most of the top 10 searches have the word “colgate” as a starting keyword. This could be both good and bad. Good because users recognizes Colgate as a brand for oral care products and are getting straight to their website. But it could also mean that only users who are familiar with Colgate are able to reach their site. Colgate may need a more generic keyword such as their number one keyword, “toothpaste.” The keyword “toothpaste” is good since it’s simple and not everyone who is familiar with Colgate can use as keywords to lead them to the site. Plus, it’s also what the company is known for. On the right hand side, again, is a list of keywords users are starting to use. This can better help Colgate determined which keywords is rising in popularity and allow them to adjust which keyword to keep as a priority and which one to let go if it is not gaining search results. The percentage next to each keyword is how much popularity it has gained within the duration of the data and in our case, 2004 up to today. Keywords with the word “breakout” next to it instead of a number means that keyword has gone up more than 5,000%. We will come back to this in the opportunity section later on. Competitors Other company in the same category as dental and oral care product is Colgate’s main competitors. By using the analysis tools Compete, we not only can see traffic leading to Colgate’s website, but identify the top 5 competitive rankings as well. This will determine who Colgate’s primary competitors are. The rankings are as followed: 1. colgate.com 2. pg.com 3. oralb.com 4. crest.com 5. jnj.com Let’s take a moment to analyze these competitors first. Colgate seems to be doing well in first with majority of the traffic going to their site. With a little extra research, I found that second on the list, pg.com, is actually the P&G corporation that manufactures a variety of other consumer goods including the brands of Oral‐B and Crest. However, if you explore deep enough into the P&G website, you notice that you can link out into the Oral‐B and Crest website. Since they all have their own separate website, that makes each website its own individual competitor to Colgate. The last competitor on the list is jnj.com, (Johnson & Johnson), which also produce a variety of other consumer goods. Johnson & Johnsons’ relevance with Colgate is in the oral care products such as the mouth wash brand, Listerine, and the Reach brands, which consist of floss and toothbrush. Competitors’ Keywords Below is a list of the top 5 keywords that competitors are using from the Google Insight for Search tool. Since Colgate and its’ competitors are affiliated with oral care product, and that is the data we want to view, the same category and demographical filter will be in use for these competitors as well. The competitor’s keywords are as followed: P&G Oral­B Crest J&J 1. p&g oralb toothbrush crest strips j&j 2. p&g coupons oralb braun crest white j&j medical 3. oral‐b crest white strips 4. sonicare oralb white strips 5. oralb triumph crest whitestrips figure 2.1 – (Shows data taken from Google Insights for Search of Colgate’s main competitors, as suggested by Compete, and their top keyword searches) As we look at these results in figure 2.1, you notice that P&G and Johnson & Johnson are not getting a lot of searches. One of the reasons may be because since they both carry so much consumer goods in other department, users may prefer using the actual brand name such as Listerine and Crest when it comes to the oral care department. Due to this factor, I have added two different brand names in the same oral care that can be a potential competitor of Colgate. Oral­B Crest Aquafresh Reach 1. oralb toothbrush crest strips toothpaste floss 2. oralb braun crest white aquafresh toothpaste reach floss 3. oral‐b crest white strips aquafresh trays reach out 4. sonicare oralb white strips aquafresh whitening toothbrush 5. oralb triumph crest whitestrips white trays aquafresh reach toothbrush figure 2.2 – (Shows data taken from Google Insights for Search of two new potential competitors, Aquafresh and Reach, side by side with its previous competitor Oral­B and Crest of their top keyword searches) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Keyword similarities Let’s now compare the keywords found in the competitors with Colgate to see the differences and similarities in each. Colgate Oral­B Crest Aquafresh Reach toothpaste oralb toothbrush crest strips toothpaste floss colgate oralb braun crest white aquafresh reach floss toothpaste toothpaste colgate oral‐b crest white aquafresh trays reach out palmolive strips colgate sonicare oralb white strips aquafresh toothbrush white whitening colgate oralb triumph crest white trays reach university whitestrips aquafresh toothbrush figure 3 – (Shows data taken from Google Insights for Search of all the top 5 keyword searches side by side) Looking at figure 3, you notice that Aquafresh is also competing with Colgate for the “toothpaste” keyword. Other words like “toothbrush and white” are similar in all website searches. However Colgate is not fairing well with those keywords. It’s competitors Oral‐B and Crest are much higher in those keywords than Colgate. This is not so much a disadvantage but more so a great opportunity for Colgate as well. Opportunity for Keywords This section will try to identify areas that may be opportunities to change or update keywords to improve the performance of Colgate search value. We will start by looking at which keywords will help in the organic search. By taking another look at Google Insights for Search for Colgate, we notice that there are some words that are increasing in popularity. Keywords such as “coupon” are a big one and it lets us know that users are looking for online coupons to purchase the product. This means that the keyword “coupon” should be a priority keyword for Colgate to continue using. However, one thing to consider with the “coupon” keyword or similar keywords is that Colgate does provide actual coupons for users to print and use if they are to use the keyword. Or else it would just be like false advertisement. Nothing is worst than getting to a page by searching the keyword “coupon” and actually finding out there is no coupon at the end. This could reflect badly on the company and questions the company’s integrity and honesty to their customers. Another keyword opportunity Colgate could utilize or pay closer attention to is “toothbrush.” This was 8th on Colgate’s list but is much higher on its competitor’s list. Colgate can capitalize on this keyword since they carry toothbrush product as well. It’s also better to take the competition to its competitor Reach and try to take a little of their market share. The same is true with the keyword “whitening.” For this route, Colgate may decide to do a Pay Per Click (PPC) or Cost Per Click (CPC). A CPC should only be pursue when a relevant keyword is used a lot but your site doesn’t show up on the organic search. You then would advertise your link with that keyword so that it will show up higher in the search list in the advertise section. Before you jump right into choosing random keywords for a CPC advertisement, consider what we just talked about. What are some emerging keywords that are growing in popularity and what are some other keywords your competitors are using. Let’s take a look at some keywords that Colgate may want to invest in like “toothbrush” and “whitening.” If we jump to the Google Trends tools and type these keywords in along with “colgate” as a keyword too, we are able to see the average traffic throughout the years. When using Google Trends, you should never use it to see just your keyword by itself because that doesn’t really tell you much. By seeing it next to “toothbrush” and “whitening” we are able to see how much traffic each one gets and are able to compare them side by side. figure 4 – (Shows data taken from Google Trends of keyword “colgate” in blue side by side with “whitening” in red and “toothbrush” in orange. This graph shows the trend of how much each keyword was use throughout the years.) Figure 4 taken from Google Trends shows the keyword for “colgate” in blue, “whitening” in red, and “toothbrush” in orange. In this graph, we see that both “whitening” and “toothbrush” are relevant keywords since they stood the test of time keeping up with “colgate” and even come off a little higher towards the end. So now, Colgate may want to decide on one of the keyword to advertise. By using the keyword tool in Google AdWords, Colgate can see which other related keywords are used and for how much, before they decide if they want to invest in it. The diagram below is an example of the keyword tool for the word “toothbrush.” Keyword Competition Global Monthly Local Monthly Approximate Searches Searches CPC sonicare High 74,000 60,500 $1.17 toothbrush best High 33,100 22,200 $2.02 toothbrush best electric High 18,100 9,900 $1.77 toothbrush Philips High 12,100 3,600 $1.39 sonicare toothbrush eletric High 22,200 12,100 $1.15 toothbrush reviews figure 5 – (Shows Data taken from Keyword tool in Google AdWords of the top 5 related keyword searches for “toothbrush” along with the level of competition, global searches, local searches and how much each click would cost if advertise) The list in figure 5 is longer but here is an example of the first five. Looking at this list, Colgate can eliminate certain keywords and bring it down to a few or just one. The “Competition” column shows how much other sites are using this keyword and the competition is high! The “Global and Local” column shows how much users in the specified area are using the keyword. The last column, the CPC, show how much per click Colgate would have to pay if they decide to advertise their link. Preferably, Colgate would want a relevant keyword that is “low” in competition and high in searches. Opportunity based on Demographic Another opportunity for Colgate to look at is the demographic area of where the keywords are being searched the most. If we look back in the Google Insight for Search, looking at Colgate with its’ competitors, we are also able to see which states are searching which brand the most. Right now, Colgate is highest in New York but in Ohio, Crest is stealing the show. By looking at this, Colgate could decide where it wants to promote or continue its’ effort for dominance. It may decide to promote more in Ohio to try to bring awareness and take some of Crest’s customers. Conclusion Colgate should continue to focus on keywords such as “toothpaste” and continue to put effort in other rising words like “toothbrush.” If we look at the keywords “toothpaste” and “toothbrush” in Google Trends, we notice that both keywords are steadily increasing in usage. This means that it’s a great keyword for Colgate to capitalize on whether they already have the highest relevance on the organic list or would have to advertise CPC with Google AdWords. Colgate should also monitor Google Insights to see which other keywords their competitors are using so they can get some traffic. Google Insights for Search is also a great tool to see which state Colgate is popular in. This allows them to continue to build a stronger awareness so their competition won’t be able to take their share. It also allows them to see which state their competitors are stronger in so maybe they can try to capitalize on their competitor’s share.