I was recently doing some keyword research with Google's keyword tool. It gives you information about how many people search for certain things on Google, the world's largest search provider. It's very useful for people who build websites. I thought I would do some research on how the door to door ministry of Jehovah's Witnesses affects people's search habits on the Internet. Surely, over seven million people knocking on doors for well over a billion hours a year must have a profound impact on the public consciousness. It is reasonable to question whether all this activity serves to inform people about who Jehovah's Witnesses are, who Jehovah is and what the relationship is between Jehovah and his Witnesses. Here is the worldwide monthly search volume I discovered for these exact match phrases. Jehovah Witness - 60,500 Jehovah Witnesses - 5,400 Jehovahs - 590 Jehovah's Witness - 390 Jehovah's Witnesses - 590 Jehovah Witness cult - 2,400 Jehovah Witness religion - 260 Jehovah - 27,100 They seem to have done a pretty poor job of educating the public about who they are. Hardly anyone searches for them according to their proper name and it seems likely that a large fraction of these are Jehovah's Witnesses themselves or former members. A lot of people search for the term Jehovah, but this doesn't seem to have much to do with the "Jehovahs" that knock on doors. What do you think of these figures compared to the the billions of hours spent knocking on doors?
Jehovah's Witnesses and Google
by DT 11 Replies latest jw friends
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MrFreeze
I think people really don't care about Jehovah's Witnesses. They don't take them seriously.
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villabolo
"What do you think of these figures compared to the the billions of hours spent knocking on doors?" I agree with MrFreeze, nobody gives a damn. And it's good that they waste their time with such a relatively inefficient strategy. I say "relative" because they have managed to increase their numbers, since the time that I stopped being a JW, 30 years ago. Villabolo
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InterestedOne
I think people really don't care about Jehovah's Witnesses. They don't take them seriously.
That's pretty much the reaction of most of my friends. I am only examining them because one of my friends got hooked on it, but she is the exception. When I talk to other friends about it, they take one look at it and say things like "that's retarded," or "I don't have time to read something that is clearly manipulative & propagandistic." Most of my friends have other things to do, and if they are going to study the Bible or any other historical topic, they realize there are more credible organizations to do it with than the WT. Unfortunately, my JW friend sees this as confirmation that she is on the "narrow road." Jeez, how twisted.
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jay88
I'm pretty sure a good percentage comes from xdubs.
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poopsiecakes
Once you're out from under the veil of being a witness, it's rather jarring to realize just how insignificant they really are on the world stage.
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factfinder
It is amazing if the google search means anything. They seem to very ineffective despite placing so much literature.
My best friend happenned to mention to his brother that I had been a witness for 30 years. They were talking about the fact that jws don't celebrate the holidays and he said he can't believe I could stand to remain in it that long. The blood issue came up and my friends brother, who is a doctor said he would definatly fight to give children blood transfusions. They both said they could never ever become witnesses. I mentioned to my friend that all people seem to know about jws is what they don't do, not what they believe. He said it's because people naturally tend to focus on the negative.
@poopsicakes- yes, it is jarring to see how unimportant they are to people in general.
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Vidiot
poopsiecakes - "Once you're out from under the veil of being a witness, it's rather jarring to realize just how insignificant they really are on the world stage."
It came in two stages for me; a) realizing that the rest of the planet viewed JWs as "small potatoes", and b) realizing that JWs really were "small potatoes".
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DT
Thank you for all your comments. I'm amazed at what poor brand recognition Jehovah's Witnesses have. Less than one percent of searches for information about them use the correct form of their name. This is just among the people who even care enough to even look up information about them. I think any secular advertising agency would be fired for results like that. The fact that the public can't get their name right indicates that they aren't being educated about who Jehovah is and that the Witnesses are "owned" by him. A lot of people seem to think that the JWs are Jehovahs or that Jehovah is some kind of adjective. Imagine what these figures would look like if they bought just one Superbowl ad. Of course, that would draw too much attention to them, even though the cost would be small in comparison to the man hours wasted in door knocking. Here are some more interesting figures: jw.org - 246,000 www.jw.org - 110,000 watchtower.org - 60,500 www.watchtower.org - 74,000 Presumably, these searches are done primarily by JWs. These figures are higher than the searches that are done mostly by the public. This is a poor result for an organization that devotes its time to advertising something. Imagine if the employees at an ad agency that promotes a big brand like Pepsi searched for information on the company more than the entire rest of the world. Keep in mind that this is just searches for these website addresses. It doesn't include the people who type these into the address bar and are taken directly to the site. One implication is that JWs aren't very Internet savvy. Another is that they are are terrified of running across apostate sites, so they type in the exact domain instead of a simpler, general search that may include some apostate results.
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Vidiot
DT - "A lot of people seem to think that the JWs are Jehovahs or that Jehovah is some kind of adjective."
Well, "Dick Cheney" is occasionally used as an adjective these days; why not "Jehovah"?