Following on from a posting earlier this week, we did a little research into Welsh language keywords and Welsh Advertising on the interenet.  It was quite depressing!

The tool we used was Google Adwords.  This is possibly the most accurate and it has a big advantage, it is a regional tool.  You are only dealing with data from the UK – not worldwide.

So, what did we find out?

We tried two keywords.  Cymraeg and Welsh.  Not paticulary useful keywords, but very good for our purposes of showing volume.  We also used a US based tool – Overture, the Yahoo Keyword Tool.  This was just to get an indication of World wide figures.

These tools work by giving you the number of people who search for a term, and then find you related terms, also with search numbers.  This helps you define what words you are going to use on your website.

Firstly, We put Cymraeg into the Overture box, and it came out with:

1109      cymraeg
103      world cymraeg
68      cymraeg cyfrifiaduron world
43      adloniant cymraeg
40      busnes cymraeg
34      world cymraeg iechyd
33      adloniant cymraeg international kid teen
33      cymraeg celfyddydau
33      cymraeg gwyddoniaeth
33      cymraeg rhanbarthol
33      cymraeg siopa
33      world cymraeg ymgynghorol
31      chwaraeon cymraeg
31      world cymraeg cymdeithas crefydd
31      cymraeg iechyd
31      cymraeg newyddion
30      cymraeg ymgynghorol
28      cyfrifiaduron cymraeg
28      cymdeithas cymraeg
26      cartref cymraeg

We then put Welsh in the same box and it came out with:

7061      welsh
5084      welsh corgi
3060      welsh pony
2068      welsh terrier
1738      pembroke welsh corgi
1173      irish welsh english scottish
879      moray welsh
773      irvine welsh
763      welsh corgis
676      welsh dragon
673      welsh springer spaniel
672      welsh girl
579      welsh name
575      jack welsh
517      cardigan welsh corgi
513      welsh language
448      welsh rarebit
402      welsh flag
359      welsh surname
348      john welsh
336      welsh assembly
335      welsh dictionary
331      welsh view
315      welsh cob
299      welsh corgi puppy
281      welsh castles
278      welsh corgi dog
272      welsh rugby
258      bob welsh
257      crooner welsh
235      pembroke welsh corgis
221      welsh horse
212      english welsh dictionary
199      rachel welsh
194      70591 la welsh
189      welsh symbol
185      gillian welsh
183      welsh rugby union
183      teach yourself welsh
179      welsh guard
179      welsh revival

Notice the difference in numbers?

Only 1009 searches for Cymraeg in March 207 – worldwide? Yet, there are 20 million pages with the term Cymraeg in them on the Google search result.  The Welsh keyword isn’t much better. There are 7 times as many searches for the term, but as a world wide result, it is disappointing.

However, what was more interesting was the related results.  Look at those other phrases, and see how stereotypes are created!  It shows that Welsh is a tourist term, a holiday term – certainly not one that is being used in a business context.  The same seems to be true of the Cymraeg results.  However, they seem more generic and less based on Names and descriptive terms.  Prehaps being used by students – however, the figures for searches is so small that it is possibly irrelevant.So is there a conclusion to this?  The most obvious is that Welsh language searches are a very specialist field.

The figures are very small and so the cost advantages of the internet seem to disappear. This however, needs more research.

Originally posted 2007-04-19 11:54:39.