As we are advocates of diligent keyword research to ensure our clients hit the ground running with the search marketing campaigns.  We thought we’d look how healthy, searchers habits are.

According to the data, there appears to be a spike in searches this January on all things related to your health and fitness....there’s a surprise!  But this year, according to Hitwise, there’s been an increase in gym interest and a decline in search queries involving the keyword “diet.”

In the UK, traffic to Health Clubs spiked increased 14 % compared to this time last year. Searches for “diet” and “diets” have fallen by 20 percent and 50 percent respectively.

If you look at Google Trends, this shows us that the “fitness” exceeds searches for “diet,” “diet pills,” and even “gastric bypass.” Another comparison shows the term “exercise” is only half as popular as “diet” with a definite spike for both at the end of December.

So no major surprises, considering the time of year.  But it might be that people are now thinking more long term and realise that exercise brings more than just weight loss.

By researching and knowing how to read into this information can make all the difference if you are in the health and fitness industry.  ‘Searcher habits’ and their mindsets when online can make be the key decision makers in how you attract, engage and convert users into customers.

One of our New Year’s resolutions for 2009...make sure our clients stay ahead of their competition with healthy search habits!