Google’s major search engine function is to offer a customer the best possible results for a search, based upon the search term (keywords) that the customer has used in the Google search box. While the story is breaking Matt says it’s understandable that you’ll have multiple instances of that story spread across the web. When things settle down, having a “rel=canonical” tag in place indicates the preferred location on the web where you would like that information to sit.

Cutts also did say that 25% of the web is duplicative, so you really don’t have to worry about it.

For more information to the question in his own words, see the video below:

If you use any popular keyword research tool you will get excellent information about which keywords were most heavily utilized along with nicely formatted rankings.

What if the search volume for your keywords is falling? Or rising?

What if search volume for your keywords has shifted in the past three years?

So, what tool will? Google Trends.

Google Trends is a keyword research tool that can help you see at glance how many people are searching on Google for the keywords you’re considering. Since Google is far and away the search engine of choice, focusing on Google keywords information provided can prove to be quite helpful.

Google Trends in Action

Let’s do one exercise together. Go to Google trends (google.com/trends) in your browser. Enter the following search terms, separated by comma:

• Internet Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Website Designing
• Social Media Marketing
• Website Development

Several things become apparent from this initial search. Now let’s drill down the data, click the drop down that says “All Years” and select “Last 12 months”, select country and relevant category, you can see the moving trends in more details.

 If you used Google Trends to see that one keyword was gaining searches over time while the other was losing its’ steam, you’d want to emphasize the keyword with the rising trend in your copy. If you have to make a choice between keywords, Google Trends becomes even more important in making that decision.

Google Keyword tool Vs. Google Trends

Both tools rely on and present historical data I reaction to the criteria you set. But there is marked difference.

Take the term ‘Olympics’ as an example. Google’s Keyword Tool estimates that there are a massive 30,400,000 monthly searches per month for that term, based on the activity over the last 12 months. Of course we know that last year’s event will skew the results and that until the next event interest will fade. But imagine that we didn’t have that knowledge. We might pursue this keyword traffic based on an estimate that is inaccurate and potentially a waste of resource.

Google Trends is a fantastic stand-alone tool that can help to understand market demand and search trends; and its use is not limited to SEO alone. The information it provides is highly valuable and a business can use it to make decisions about market strategy.