Underneath the rankings, tile search itself changed. Searches that describe a style fell hardest. Hexagon tile keywords carried 569,170 searches a year ago and carry 402,540 now, down 29.3% over the year and 35.9% over the quarter. Geometric and patterned terms fell 19.0%. Marble tile terms fell 19.5%. Moroccan and zellige terms fell 15.7%. Cost, price and per square metre queries fell 24.5% over the year and 37.4% over the quarter.
Searches for finishing products held up. Tile trim, edging, spacers and corner tiles fell 6.7% against a market down 12.8%. Adhesive fell 8.3%. Grout fell 10.1%. Local demand barely moved: 84 ‘near me’ tile keywords carried 519,750 searches and fell 2.9%, and ’tiling shops near me’ ran 76,400 searches last quarter, level with the same quarter a year before.
A short list grew. ‘Painting tiles kitchen’ rose 32.9% over the year and 40.7% over the quarter. ‘Tile grout colours’ rose 33.7% and 50.0%. ‘Stick on kitchen floor tiles’ rose 45.3% and 50.0%. Checkerboard tile keywords rose 21.8% as a cluster, the only style group in the set to grow.
| Keyword Cluster |
YoY |
QoQ |
| Hexagon |
-29.3% |
-35.9% |
| Cost, price, per square metre |
-24.5% |
-37.4% |
| Marble |
-19.5% |
– |
| Geometric and patterned |
-19.0% |
– |
| Market benchmark |
-12.8% |
-18.7% |
| Grout |
-10.1% |
– |
| Adhesive |
-8.3% |
– |
| Trim, edging, spacers |
-6.7% |
– |
| ‘Near me’ |
-2.9% |
– |
| Checkerboard |
+21.8% |
– |
Of the 9,616 keywords tracked here, 98 carry any research language at all, 1.02% of the keywords and 0.20% of the demand. None contain ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘review’, ‘idea’, ‘inspiration’ or ‘guide’. Customers choose the tile on Pinterest, Reels, community threads and showroom floors, then type a shape, a size, a colour or a nearest shop into Google.