Pirates, The Dark Side, Rule Halloween Searches

October 23, 2006

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Expect the ghoulish staples this year: streets filled with ghosts, mummies, vampires, and werewolves. This Halloween also promises more contemporary characters as well, as trick-or-treaters reveal with their search behavior.

Pirates, The Dark Side, Rule Halloween Searches What Halloween Searches Are Popular?
With Halloween just a week away, knowing what keywords to focus on, as in all major seasons, is becoming a very important tradition. This year, think of pirates, superheroes, science fiction. And pay careful attention to keyword phrases to match how the searcher searches.

Yahoo’s Buzz Log matches, very nearly, a pair of Hitwise reports on what the Halloween searcher is looking for this year.

Yahoo!’s list:

1. Ghost
2. Pirate
3. Zombie
4. Witch
5. Darth Vader
6. Aliens
7. Devil
8. Mummy
9. Frankenstein
10. Chucky
11. Dracula
12. Michael Myers
13. Werewolf
14. Elvira
15. Chupacabra
16. Goblin
17. Freddy Krueger
18. Headless Horseman
19. Bride of Frankenstein
20. Bride of Chucky
Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins and LeeAnn Prescott took a different approach, filtering results for keywords and phrases that include “costumes.” In the UK, Jack Sparrow has captured the greater imagination as much as he has in the US. Darth Vader is a character that never left that greater imagination.

UK costume searches, October 21, 2006

Pirate costume

Darth Vader costume

Wonder Woman costume

Medieval costume

V for Vendetta costume

Belly dancing costume

Victorian costume

Roman costume

Tinkerbell costume

Batman costume
This is the second straight year that pirates have ruled the costume search sea. Wonder Woman, too, is in the top three for a second straight year. But historical costumes have been replaced in the UK in favor of more entertainment-based outfits. In the US, it’s not so different, even if it has a decidedly Disney bias.

US costume searches, September 16, 2006:

Pirate costume

Wonder Woman costume

Jack Sparrow costume

Mermaid costume

Tinkerbell costume

Curious George costume

Supergirl costume

Superman costume

Batman costume

Jasmine costume
Over at the WebProBlog, Chris Richardson explains why keeping tabs on seasonal search fluctuations is important:

Lists like these can be of major assistance when it comes time to selecting keywords and phrases to target on seasonal marketing campaigns. If your site carries items related to these queries, now is a good time to increase your focus. This includes local search marketing, especially if you own a brick-and-mortar costume shop that advertises on the web.

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