A Bike, the Web, and What Interests People

Some interesting facts from the world of google:

The word bike(s) was googled on the internet 6,120,000 times a month in 2008 – this is the average monthly search volume for the word as recorded by google. In other words the number of times that a person sat down at their computer and typed in that glorious word b-i-k-e. Google can also tell us that most people were interested in a bike during the month of July.

The number of times Lance Armstrong was googled was 301,000 times a month. Anyone still doubting he is good for our sport. Wim Ansevenant of Belgium (last years Lanterne Rouge at the 2008 TDF) yielded the result “Not enough data”. Not only did he come in last, but google has deemed him as insufficient. Further proof that people like winners.

The number of times the phrase bike race was googled: 90,500, with the greatest volume in June. The number of times mountain bike race was googled: 14,800. Road cyclists win - I am proud of that.

The number of times someone went online and typed in Century ride was 18,100 times a month, with the highest volume recorded in 2008 during the month of September. That makes sense. Cyclists are probably looking to use their end of the season fitness. So if you are planning a century event – set the date for September or October – people will register, albeit late.

Here is another effective way to use all this great data; over 12,100 people a month typed in the phrase cycling training, which was the same figure recorded for bike training. Yet only 2,900 used cycle training, 1,000 used road bike training, and 720 people used the term bicycle training. So if you are a coach, and trying to market to new clients, it is best to use the first two terms.

The keyword Boulder received 550,000 entries, Master 3,350,000, Cycling 1,500,000, Team 60,500 a month. But together the phrase Boulder Master’s Cycling Team = No Data. I’d say we have yet to be discovered on the internet - we need to work on that. We'll be working more with our website and blog in coming months.

Specialized bikes was searched for an average of 60,500 times a month. Einstein was googled 90,500 times. People like smart people. For our own fun interest – on average 155 people a month search for our teammate Marc Bekoff. The most popular words googled are the, to, and a.

How many times a day do you google and for what? Somebody is counting. Just for fun, go ahead and google Wim Ansevenant – he deserves some recognition. He completed the Tour de France and came in last three times in a row! You can discover that after 14 years as a pro cyclist he is now retired working his family farm in Belgium.