The Best Content To Create For The Gravel Bike Audience Based on Their Reddit & Organic Search Behaviour

December 5, 2022

Bike

Key Takeaways

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Top ranking searches and topic categories for Gravel Cycling on Google Search and Reddit between Jan. 2021 to Oct. 2022:

Keywords

“Gravel bike” dominates as a search term when compared to “Gravel bikes” or “Gravel Cycling”.
Seasonality exists for the search term “gravel bike” as search interest traffic reaches it peak in the months of June through August.
When comparing July 2021 to July 2022, “Gravel bike” as a search term increased in popularity by 25%.
“Gravel bike” as a search term is most popular in the States of Vermont and Colorado.

Google Search

Value and Purchase related search queries are most popular for gravel bike related searches on Google, ranking at 33% and 25% of share interest respectively.
Value driven searches focused on top-of-funnel keywords such as "why buy gravel bike" and "are gravel bikes worth it?" indicating that these customers are early in their consideration life-cycle.
Top ranking Purchase search queries related to "how much does a gravel bike cost?" and "why gravel bikes are expensive?" which may suggest customers are price sensitive or looking for a solid reason on why they should purchase a bike
Within “value” based search queries, 49% of search interest related to comparison based searches.

Reddit

On Reddit, the most popular content topics were “hardware”, “riding”, and community”, taking 43%, 38%, and 19% of share interest respectively.
Within “hardware” related threads, “Bike photos”, community members posting pictures of their their bikes, took 51% of interest share.
Within the “riding” and “community” categories, “ride highlights” and “celebration” ranked highest with 64% and 57% of interest share, respectively.

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Amongst gravel cycling related search terms, "gravel bike" dominated in comparison to the plural and alternative wording "gravel bikes" and "gravel cycling"

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Gravel bike related search terms had a seasonal spike during the months of June through August.

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In the United States, when comparing the same search terms as the previous slide, although “gravel bike” still leads as the favoured search term, popularity from July 2021 to July 2022 increased by 25%.*

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Within the United States from January 2021 to October 2022, “Gravel bike” as a search term is most popular in the states of Vermont and Colorado.

Opportunity: Look for influencers in these areas to amplify and support the gravel biking community. Additionally, support or sponsor popular gravel biking routes.

States highlighted with the most concentrated colors indicate the highest interest.

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Although far less popular than “gravel bike”, within the United States from January 2021 to October 2022, “Gravel Cycling” as a search term is most popular in the states of Kansas and Colorado.

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The most popular questions being asked on Google about gravel bikes are related to value, purchase, performance, bike, rider, and community.

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Within “value” based searches, 49% of share interest was classified into “comparison” related queries. Conversely, “location” and “pricing” related queries ranked as 31% and 29%, respectively, within the “purchase” category.

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When analyzing search intent within each category, “value” related queries tend to focus on subjective measures that would come from blogs, publications or other riders. In contrast “purchase” and “performance” related searches tend to focus on clearer and more objective answers.

Opportunity: Create content around helping new riders understand the optimal uses for a gravel bike through the trail types, riding habits, and applications for a rider’s lifestyle (i.e. touring, commuting, etc.)

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Although less in quantity, “bike” and “rider” related searches focused on technical information such as specific gravel bike hardware and gear for riders.

Opportunity: Aggregate this information into guides like “What To Know When Buying a Gravel Bike” and ensure these topics are covered.

*“Rider” and “Community” represented <3% of total content ideas from Google, therefore results in few content suggestions.

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The most popular questions being asked on Reddit about gravel bikes are related to hardware, riding, and community.

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Digging deeper, the specific questions that riders are asking about hardware, riding, and community on Reddit are:

Threads analyzed were r/gravelcycling and r/bikepacking.

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NBD: The abbreviation for “New Bike Day” is a common style of Reddit thread posted by community members that consistently performs well in the Hardware category.

Hardware

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Ride Highlights: Active members of the subreddit r/gravelcycling frequently post stills or videos from their various ride locations.

Riding

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Celebration: One type of thread that’s consistently seen is members of the community posting their achievements, whether that be a long ride or a competition win.