Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Decompressing Keywords

Keywords can also tell you important things about our searchers, if you understand how to decompress them back into their original concept-desire states, that. To explain what we mean, let's all go to the movies.

In Star Trek IV, the crew of the Enterprise time-travels to 1980s San Francisco. Scotty, the engineer, tries to access the state-of-the-art Macintosh computer by speaking into the mouse: “Computer? Computer?” When he fails to elicit a response from the machine, he puts down the mouse in disgust and resorts to typing on the keyboard.

Guess what? That's what each of us experiences when we search, although we're more used to it than the frustrated Mr. Scott. We don't think of our problems and desires in terms of keywords. We have to stuff all our thoughts and feelings into a small search box — because that's what the search engines offer us.

For example, Howie has been thinking about “treadmill desks” a lot lately, ever since Glenn Livingston got one and loved it. If you could plug a microphone into Howie's head, this is what you'd hear (after applying the standard male sleep/sex/food filter):

I wonder if the TrekDesk will be strong enough to hold a 24" iMac plus a second monitor. It's made of plastic, after all. Could I build one myself out of wood? Will it really help my back pain? Will it be hard to read the screen as I'm walking? And I know I can get a cheap treadmill on Craigslist, but maybe I want a top-of-the-line model that's really quiet. ...