Measurement effect: do we need to change the standard?
Since last week, more than ten thousands 30-day challengers are using the GTrend ratio tool to uncover starving niches. This large number of searches has skewed the trend curve for “male yeast infection” that is used as a calibration standard as representing 500 unique visitors per days.
It came to my attention today that the GTrend number for a number of off-beat niches has severely dropped. For example, a phrase I am using for my own calibration that had a GTrend number of 500 last week has only 325 today. (I will not write this phrase here, in order to be able to use it again in the future to calibrate my own measurements.) It shows that Google has updated its data for “male yeast infection”.
I propose to change weekly the calibration standard to avoid such fluctuation effects. A phrase that has a GTrend number of about 500 should be kept secret to calibrate all the standards. The secret calibration phrase should not be a likely market niche to avoid it fluctuates as more challengers research the markets. Any phrase that has a GTrend of 500 (as measured with the “secret” calibration phrase) can be used as new standard. For example, a suitable replacement phrase for “male yeast infection” is “superconductors” (without quotes) that has also a GTrend number of about 500 (according to my calibrating phrase).
Comparison between the trends of “male yeast infection” and “superconductors”: very close before the surge due to Thirty Day Challengers.
The comparison by language shows a difference, showing that Google is using the more recent data for “male yeast infection”.
