Making Google’s Top Ten. Above Hannah Montana & below Cheryl Cole…

Here’s the two key categories:

Fastest-rising searches for people

1.) The Ting Tings
2.) Barack Obama
3.) Cheryl Cole
4.) Heath Ledger
5.) Alexander Graham Bell
6.) Chris Brown
7.) Martin Lewis
8.) Hannah Montana
9.) Perez Hilton
10.) Chuck Norris

Financial search terms that were more popular in 2008 than 2007

This is an interesting one, and it’s great to be in there as its about increased popularity. As MSE was already the biggest money site in the UK by quite a long way in 2007, the fact we’ve still increased enough to make the top ten is great.

1.) Icesave
2.) Hot UK Deals
3.) Natwest
4.) HMRC
5.) HboS
6.) Money Saving Expert
7.) Halifax
8.) Barclays
9.) RBS
10.) Lloyds TSB.

Enough of growth, how about actual traffic?

Having read this, I couldn’t resist playing with a few wee comparisons. As you know I’m a nerd, so what interested me was the above stats are based on growth as opposed to actual numbers.

Therefore I went onto the Google Trends traffic mapping tool which allows you to measure both search and web traffic through goodle to see how the actual numbers stack up.

Thought I would share a bit of my playing with you…

1. MoneySavingExpert, Hot UK Deals, NatWest and HMRC. WEB TRAFFIC

This is an interesting one, to see how the site stacks up against some of the others in the list in terms of actual traffic. As you’ll see in this Google Trends graphs, NatWest is by far the biggest. Not surprising really as its internet banking service is a must-use tool for all its customers.

2. Martin Lewis v Robert Peston. SEARCH TERMS

I was trying to think of someone else in money to provide a search barometer. Robert’s a hugely influential journalist, and his blog is very popular, so I thought I would see how the searches measure up.

And I was slightly surprised by the result… Martin Lewis v Robert Peston. Of course, I have the not-insubstantial advantage that people type in my name when they want to come to the site, which I think makes this contest a little unfair on Robert.

3. Cheryl Cole, Hannah Montana, Obama, and me. SEARCH TERMS

Taking on Robert Peston’s one thing, but testing the might of Hannah Montana, now that’s saying something… check this Google Trends graph (for the UK) out.

The Google Trends tool is fascinating. If you’re going to have a play yourself, do ensure you comma separate the terms, and select UK to filter out international traffic. You can compare both search ranking and actual traffic to sites.

If you do any interesting comparisons, do post the in the discussion below.

Comment and Discuss.