You may be a dog owner or in a dog related industry. If you are in America, rest assured that you have the greatest number of online dog searches and the highest dog ownership. So whatever your dog interest this article provides specific information on dog trends across three of the highest dog ownership countries of America, UK and Australia. We answer the question of how different countries approach seeking information online about dogs and what kind of monthly volume of searches are involved. As search data is up to date and provides a comparison in absolute terms this article shows how similar dog lovers in these three countries are.
This report is the first in a series of dogs online demand reports. It uses Google data for exact searches in three of the highest dog ownership countries: Australia, America and the UK
The reason that the online market is looked at is that the web is often the first place that people go for information, it provides a complete picture of the dog market/ industry. It can also be resolved weekly / monthly in almost real time. Google data is used because it is the leading search engine and provides the most complete list of terms for which people search. This research helps show how the market for 'DOG associated' terms on Google changes throughout the year and how the America compares with the UK / Australia.
Google exact search data is used for ALL languages in each country under analysis. To get a feel for the total dog industry, all of the terms related to DOGS in each country were summed each month. This means that for every month we can get an understanding of how the demand for the total dog associated market changes throughout the year. For instance The USA in 2010 had around 621 dog associated terms, while the UK had 800 (Google's current maximum data) and Australia had 365 terms.
To visually compare the three countries, Australia and the UK terms needed to be multiplied to reach a similar absolute number of searches to the USA values each month. Australia's total dog associated searches were multiplied by ten and the UK searches by 2. America clearly has the largest absolute number of 'dog associated searches' in the world with a peak near 3.2 million searches a month in Jan and October 2010. USA and the UK have quite a similar trend throughout the year, both starting and finishing on relatively high volumes, with a very pronounced search demand trough in the middle of the year (JUNE). Australia follows almost the reverse trend peaking in August.
To get an understanding of the 'demand shape' or how important the top terms are, the top fifty searches in each country make up the majority volume of searches. For example in Australia in October 2010, the top 50 volume dog associated terms accounted for 70% of the searches of the top 365 dog associated terms.
From all the data available it appears that there may be a Christmas effect that provides a peak in all countries leading up to the Christmas period - ie purchases of puppies for children and family..
What are people searching for in Dogs?
The table below shows the top 10 dog related search terms in Oct 2010. The order is similar for most months.
AMERICA........................VOL...........UK...............................VOL............AUSTRALIA......VOL
[dogs]..............................246,000....[dogs trust].................110,000.....[dog]..................22,200
[dog]................................135,000....[dogs].........................90,500.....[dog breeds]........14,800
[dog breeds]....................110,000....[puppies for sale].........90,500.....[dog games]......12,100
[dog names]....................90,500.....[dogs for sale]..............74,000.....[dogs for sale].....9,900
[pictures of dogs].............40,500.....[battersea dogs home]..60,500.....[dog names]........9,900
[bernese mountain dog]....40,500....[dog breeds].................40,500.....[dog training].......4,400
[dogs for sale]..................33,100....[dog games]................40,500.....[adopt a dog]........3,600
[dog games].....................33,100....[dog beds]...................27,100.....[dog grooming]......2,400
[female dog names]..........33,100....[dog insurance].............18,100....[bernese (M) dog].2,400
[dog training].....................27,100...[dog rescue]................18,100....[female dog names]2,400
From the table you can see that the term 'dog' and 'dogs' are overwhelmingly the largest search term in and America (246,000), second in UK (90,500) and top in Australia (22,200). Other common points are the term 'dog breeds' (second in Australia, third in America, sixth in UK) and 'dogs for sale' (fourth in Australia, seventh in America, fourth in UK).
You will notice that there are also many more searches in people looking for 'dog breeds' and 'dogs for sale' than there are for 'dog training' (Australia sixth, America tenth, UK twenty first). That said, in the UK the top term 'dog trust' relates to "The UK's largest dog welfare charity, outreach programs, education, information, dogs for re-homing, legislation and campaigning."
The number of search terms in a dog related data set have to do with the terms reaching a consistent minimum volume of searches. In Australia 'dog related' terms were 365, America 621 and UK had 800 terms. This can either mean that a country just has a 'long tail' or search pattern of many diverse terms, or indicates that the country has a high performing market. In a future article we will see that on a 'per capita' basis that the UK leads the world in dog associated searches, and so the maximum rating of 800 terms is well justified (particularly since the UK only has one fifth of the USA's population).
CONCLUSION
There are very similar dog associated terms that people search for across these three highly developed English speaking countries. America / USA has by far the largest percentage of searches for the generic 'dogs' top term.
The fact that 'dog training' is so low on each populations search priority in the dog world is of concern. A dog purchase should be a 'one off' event, but dog training and learning effective boundary setting and discipline should be an on-going quest. Perhaps this plus the absence of 'dog walking' queries in the highest search terms suggests why there are so many dogs with behavioral and social interaction issues?
Ironically there are very few 'bad' dogs in society, it's just that some owners don't seem to have the time or skills set to meet their ownership commitment and appropriately care for their dogs. Since meaningful exercise (dog walking, dog play) is the first part of the equation to a well balanced dog, neglecting this is often the cause of dogs and owners suffering and dogs being given away.
No comments:
Post a Comment