Google Export Tool: Helps You Estimate Overseas Market Opportunities For SEO, SEM
By Anna Johnson on June 15th, 2010The Google Export Tool (currently in beta) is a nifty tool that aims to help you determine which overseas regions to target for your online marketing campaigns.
Based on Google’s millions of worldwide search data, the Google Export Tool lets you select a region, language and keywords, and then gives you the the estimated search volume and cost-per click (CPC) for that region based on your keywords.
Combining three other Google tools – Google Translate, the Google Keyword Suggestion tool and the Google Traffic Estimator – the Google Export Tool provides a quick, yet data-based, indication of where to target your search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, as well as the potential of an overseas market in general.
As indicated by the images below, using the Google Export Tool is fairly straightforward. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Type in your home country, the primary language of your country, up to three keywords and your export region (i.e. the region you want to target – unfortunately not divided into countries just yet) and press ‘Submit’.
Step 2: After a little processing, Google will display the results in both map and table format. An ‘Opportunity score’ (based on both the search volume and the average CPC) indicates the hottest opportunities.
Step 3: Click on any of the countries listed or displayed to see more details about the market. The ‘Market data’ tab gives you Google Trends data i.e. search volume over time and you can click on the ‘Profitability’ calculator to estimate the profitability of targeting the region you’ve chosen. The ‘Market insight’ tab provides an overview of the country.
While you may not want to bet your whole business on the results generated by the Google Export Tool, it sure is handy for getting a quick ‘go or no-go’ signal about where to target your SEO or SEM campaigns, and of the market opportunity in general.
