A word cloud (otherwise known as a tag cloud, wordle or word collage) is a digital image of words that can be displayed in different colours to highlight key themes or topics. Live word clouds are used in scenarios such as virtual or hybrid lectures, meetings, classes, training and events to engage audience all of kinds and to increase collaboration.
Live word clouds can be run via PowerPoint polling integrations or with polling software (as displayed in the header image). This live word cloud is created by asking an audience to send in word responses via an app and to form the wordcloud by the most popular words sent in. Live words clouds are impressive for many reasons, but we often hear how audiences love how this type of software can build word clouds instantly and it’s great for audience participation. You can find out more about why audiences and presenters love word cloud polling in this article here.
Typically, creating live word clouds are used with the purpose of brainstorms, for topic creation, crowdsourcing and visual representations. Using this visual display of words which forms a cloud shape with the most popular words or keywords in bold makes it easier to focus your attention and to gauge for topic analysis. If you’re wanting tips for what scenarios you could use live word clouds for, then read this article: «6 effective ways to use interactive word clouds to increase audience engagement».
Top 7 Word Cloud Generators
There are lots of different word cloud generators out there which all work in different ways, so depending on what you want a word cloud for, we’ve provided you with a list of the best ones that you can pick and choose from.
1. Vevox
Vevox is an interactive word cloud generator, polling and Q&A app that can be utilised to run live word cloud polls. If you’re looking to find a tool that can enable everyone to contribute to a word cloud and display the most popular word responses in an instant display or to build the word cloud dynamically, then your looking at the right tool. Live word clouds can either be run in the Vevox dashboard via the present view to show the word clouds on a large screen or run with the Vevox PowerPoint add-in to run the word cloud polls easily in your PowerPoint slide deck. You can see some live word clouds in action in this webinar ‘How to wow with word cloud polling’. (please note: we changed company names as of March 2019 and were formerly known as ‘Meetoo’. The display of the ‘present view’ feature has also been updated since this recording went live).
We’ve seen live word cloud polls used in a number of cases, from using them in lectures to increase student collaboration and engagement to meetings and events to collect snappy employee feedback and for honest sentiment analysis. If you would like to have a demo of how live word clouds work, contact us on hello@vevox.com. Recommendation: For those wanting to run live word clouds polls in presentations, lectures, internal meetings and events to increase engagement and collect instant feedback.
2. WordCloud.com
WordClouds.com is a great tool if you’re a beginner at creating static word clouds and if you want to use the image in any content materials. A nice feature on the website is that the wizard tool (which pops up with a speech message on your first visit to the site) allows you to upload any document (PDF, Word, PPT, Text etc.) to its site to create a word cloud image from. Once it’s created your word cloud you can edit it with the customization features to make it look the way you want it to. By using the word list you can alter and add new words, change the font size, colour and even the shape of the word cloud. One thing I did like about this tool is that you can export word cloud images easily to the dimensions and format you require, as it clearly gives you the option to export for different social media sites, different resolutions and other use cases. However, this tool does lack an intuitive part to prevent the repetition of words. Recommendation: For beginners wanting to create static word cloud designs in seconds.
3. Word Art
Word Art is a website where you can create your own word cloud art to share with others with ease and without any graphical design experience. It’s quite a nice tool to manipulate the word cloud to whatever design you want it to look like, from choosing a set shape to generating a word cloud that can be animated. You can import words in bulk from excel spreadsheets, then choose your customization options and then select ‘visualize’… and abracadabra, your word cloud has been produced. It’s easily one of the best for manipulating static word cloud images to your chosen design needs. Recommendation: For those wanting to create a beautiful static word cloud image to share on their websites, social or in resources.
4. Twinkl
Twinkl is a resource centre for any teachers and educators looking for materials that can help them with planning classes, teaching methods and assessments. They do offer a word cloud generator tool for subscribed users on their site to create word clouds as a resource for visual learning. What I do like with their word cloud tool is that they offer design templates and borders that it can create an A4 poster with the word cloud design in the middle to make it look really neat for sharing with students in your classes. Throughout the process you also have options for tips and advice for how you can turn these word cloud images in to activities for classes. Recommendation: For teachers wanting to create word cloud resources as teaching materials.
5. Word It Out
Worditout is a word cloud generator that you don’t need to sign up to and is quite easy to use for creating static images to embed in any resource you need. What I quite like about this word cloud tool is that you can see hundreds of examples on their site, that you can use for inspiration or to even use for yourself. You can also choose to filter words out during the uploading process and even add symbols or emojis. The automation options during the upload process is a bit more intuitive and clever than a few of the other static image creators. Recommendation: For those wanting to experiment with other source types other than text and for crowdsourcing word cloud ideas.
6. ABCya
ABCya is a digital gaming tool for teaching and for primary education. It does have a word cloud generator but it comes across as a game rather than a tool. That being said, I do like the simple design, how it can easily randomize words and produce different layouts dynamically. It has a much more interactive way of creating the word cloud and lots of the buttons seem to be animated. You can also set word limits unlike some other static image generators out there to avoid any ridiculously long words from ruining your image design. Recommendation: For primary school teachers/educators wanting to display a word cloud in class or for teaching materials.
7. Tricklar
Tricklar is a news tool to discover the latest news, trending words and to read any trending content over the world. Tricklar does have a word cloud creator, but it is a bit more niche than the other tools. This tool allows you to pick new topics or trending words that then automatically forms a word cloud from news articles on their own site and in other media content. There is no need to sign up to use the tool and it’s quite easy to type in a news topic to generate a trending cloud. All you need to do is select the time, location and choose a news topic and it can pull in relevant words in from these parameters. Recommendation: It’s main use would be if you wanted to create a static word cloud image based on current trends and news. Great for inspiration and automatically generating the words for you.
Recommended Word Cloud Articles:
«6 effective ways to use interactive word clouds to increase audience engagement»
«5 reasons why word cloud polling is popular and powerful»
Extracting reliable and actionable insights into qualitative data, such as keywords, is easier said than done.
You can easily get overwhelmed, especially if the data is complex and bulky. It would help if you had a tool that can pore through the qualitative data for low-hanging insights.
This is where a Word Cloud generator comes in.
A Word Cloud generator uses simple text analysis to help you visualize and summarize qualitative data, such as customer feedback and search terms.
So how can you access a word cloud generator?
Google Sheets lack a Word Cloud generator. The other readily available option is to purchase a Word Cloud application.
You don’t have to do away with Google Sheets for other expensive tools. You can supercharge it by installing third-party add-ons to access an easy-to-use Word Cloud Generator.
In this blog, you’ll learn the following:
- How to Use a Word Cloud Generator for Keyword Analysis?
- What are Word Clouds?
- When Should You Use Word Clouds?
- How to Use Word Clouds for Keyword Analysis?
- How to Generate a Word Cloud?
- So, What is ChartExpo?
- Why Should You Use a Word Cloud Generator?
Video Tutorial: How to Generator Word Cloud for Keyword?
In the following video, you will learn how to generate a word cloud for keywords in a few clicks without coding.
How to Use a Word Cloud Generator for Keyword Analysis?
Before delving right into the how-to guide, let’s address the following question: what are Word Clouds?
What are Word Clouds?
Word Clouds are graphical representations of the frequency of qualitative data, such as keywords or customer feedback.
The visualization design gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in a source text. The larger the word, the higher its frequency.
You can use the chart to perform exploratory textual analysis by identifying words that frequently appear in a set of interviews, documents, or other text. Also, you can use it to communicate the most salient points or themes in the reporting stage.
Extracting reliable insights from qualitative data sets, such as keywords, should never be an Achilles’ heel for you. Keep reading because we’ll address the following question: when should you use Word Clouds?
When Should You Use Word Clouds?
Word cloud visualization is critical for digital marketers, especially when they’re on the hunt for profitable keywords.
Check out the benefits of Word Clouds below.
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Word Clouds can help reveal your audience’s thoughts
You can use the chart to understand your audience’s feelings about a topic/situation. Besides, you can leverage the chart to summarize data-driven views. The chart can help you summarize the market feedback using first-hand data.
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Quick and informative
You can easily get live feedback from your audience in real-time.
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Exciting and emotional
The chart can help audiences feel part of your data story.
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Engaging
The Word cloud is incredibly engaging and visually appealing to a whole range of audiences. The chart can be an icebreaker or an entry point for a topic of discussion.
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Word Clouds are visual
Our brains process content with images 60,000 times faster than texts and numbers. This provides a logical rationale for using the Word Cloud generator to analyze your textual data for actionable insights.
Keep reading because we’ll address the following in the coming section: how to use Word Clouds for keyword analysis.
How to Use Word Clouds for Keyword Analysis?
Data-driven marketers know keyword research and analysis are the backbones of a profitable and engaging digital marketing effort.
Yes, you read that right.
Whether you’re looking to implement a new campaign, improve an existing one, or better align your various digital marketing efforts for consistency, pay-per-click (PPC) or SEO keyword analysis is step one.
This holds for your SEO and link building and paid search ads. But understanding your audience and the various ways they search for and find your brand (or your competitor’s brand) is an ongoing, full-time task.
While it’s most important to write high-quality content, keep in mind to use keywords relevant to your topic.
A Word Cloud generator can help you keep track of these keywords within your text.
Besides, it can instantly uncover profitable keywords for your content. You can also gain insights into how Google and other search engines will likely process and assess your content.
Also, you can use a Word Cloud generator to gather insights into competitors’ websites. So, if you want to find out what your competitors focus on in their SEO and content, create a quick word cloud.
The visualization is not only a quick way to visualize the message your content (or that of a competitor) is conveying, but it also gives you a broad idea of how search engines will rank your marketing content, such as blogs or YouTube videos.
The table below has keywords with their corresponding impressions, clicks, and conversion. Can you point out profitable words by looking at the table?
Keyword | Impressions | Clicks | Conversions |
Buy Best Watch | 500 | 300 | 100 |
Trending Watch | 600 | 250 | 50 |
Watch online | 800 | 600 | 300 |
Online Sale on Watch | 300 | 150 | 70 |
Latest Watch | 900 | 700 | 500 |
Best Watch To Buy | 1000 | 900 | 450 |
Watch With Bands | 100 | 40 | 10 |
Black Watch | 1200 | 800 | 650 |
Digital Watch | 900 | 700 | 500 |
Watch With GPS | 300 | 200 | 90 |
Watch With Wifi | 200 | 150 | 80 |
Watch With Bluetooth | 100 | 70 | 8 |
Executive Watch | 500 | 385 | 500 |
Digital Watch | 600 | 400 | 200 |
Online Black Watch | 700 | 500 | 100 |
Sale on Watch | 800 | 600 | 150 |
Watch Comparison | 80 | 20 | 1 |
Notice the difference after visualizing the data above using a Word Cloud generator. You can segment the Tag Clouds based on metrics, such as impression, clicks, and conversions, as shown below.
Example #1: Impressions by Keyword
The keywords above are segmented based on impressions. The most prominent words have substantial impressions.
Example #2: Keywords by Clicks
The keywords above are segmented based on clicks. The most prominent words have substantial clicks.
And this implies if you incorporate them in your blogs, Google Ads campaign, or YouTube content, you’ll drive substantial traffic.
Example #3: Keywords by Conversion
The keywords above are segmented based on conversion actions, such as purchases, sign-ups, or downloads. The most prominent words have substantial conversions.
And this implies if you incorporate the keywords from a Word Cloud generator in your blogs or Google Ads campaign, you’ll drive conversions.
Keep reading because we’ll address the following in the coming section: how to generate a Word Cloud.
How to Generate a Word Cloud?
Google Sheets has inbuilt charts you can use to extract answers from your data.
However, you’ll never find a Word Cloud generator in Google Sheets for your textual data analysis. The most viable option available for you is installing a particular third-party add-on (we’ll talk about later) to access ready-made and visually appealing Word Clouds.
You don’t need to do away with the Google Sheets in favor of other expensive tools.
We recommend you try the ChartExpo add-on for Google Sheets because of the reasons listed below.
ChartExpo does not require coding or programming skills, unlike other data visualization-based add-ons. It has an ultra-friendly user interface (UI) for everyone to use.
The Word Cloud generator comes pre-loaded with over 50 advanced charts to offset the missing ones in Google Sheets. Use ChartExpo to produce Tag Clouds that are incredibly easy to read and understand.
How to generate a Word Cloud in Google Sheets should never be time-consuming. Use ChartExpo to overcome this. You’ll learn more about the Word Cloud generator in the next section.
So, What is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo comes as an add-on for Google Sheets.
Essentially, it turns your Google Sheets into a usable data visualization tool capable of creating visually appealing Word Clouds.
The premium Word Cloud generator comes with a 7-day free trial period.
The key benefit of ChartExpo is the fact that it produces charts that are easy to read and interpret. More so, it allows you to save charts in the world’s most recognized formats, namely PNG, PDF, and JPEG.
Example #1
Keyword | Impressions | Clicks | Conversions |
Buy Best Watch | 500 | 300 | 100 |
Trending Watch | 600 | 250 | 50 |
Watch online | 800 | 600 | 300 |
Online Sale on Watch | 300 | 150 | 70 |
Latest Watch | 900 | 700 | 500 |
Best Watch to Buy | 1000 | 900 | 450 |
Watch With Bands | 100 | 40 | 10 |
Black Watch | 1200 | 800 | 650 |
Digital Watch | 900 | 700 | 500 |
Watch With GPS | 300 | 200 | 90 |
Watch With Wi-Fi | 200 | 150 | 80 |
Watch With Bluetooth | 100 | 70 | 8 |
Executive Watch | 500 | 385 | 500 |
Digital Watch | 600 | 400 | 200 |
Online Black Watch | 700 | 500 | 100 |
Sale on Watch | 800 | 600 | 150 |
Watch Comparison | 80 | 20 | 1 |
To Get Started with the Word Cloud generator in Google Sheets, install the ChartExpo add-on from the link, and then follow the simple and easy steps below.
- Click the menu Extensions>Charts, Graphs & Visualization by ChartExpo >Open.
- You can paste your data in cells and then continue to Click the Create New Chart button to access your fully stocked library of charts.
- Click the Search Box and type “Word Cloud Chart”, as shown below.
- Select the sheet holding your data and select the Metrics option. Fill in the numerical numbers (in our scenario, we’ll fill in any one of the metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions).
- Select the Dimensions button and fill in the dimensional data (in our example, we’ll use keywords).
- Finish the simple process by clicking the Create Chart button.
- Check out the final chart below.
How to generate a Word Cloud Chart in Google Sheets does not have to be complex. Our Word Cloud generator (ChartExpo) makes the whole process seamless and easy.
Why Should You Use a Word Cloud Generator?
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It reveals essential insights
You can easily fish for brand names and keywords for your PPC campaigns or SEO content.
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Provides emotional connection
A Word Cloud generator can help you extract a lot of insights from qualitative data, such as keywords.
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Fast Analysis
Poring over text to develop themes from research takes time. Use a Word Cloud generator to save time in your keyword analysis and other tasks.
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Engaging
Visual representation of data tends to impact and generate interest amongst the audience. It may stimulate more questions than answers for your client, but that’s often a good entry point to the discussion.
Word clouds can allow you to share back results from research in a way that doesn’t require an understanding of the technicalities.
Remember, a Word Cloud is a picture made from a piece of text. It’s generated using an algorithm that removes common language and then measures word frequency.
The chart gives you the ability to input cut and pasted text, then manipulate the images created via color, font, and overall effect. By giving you a different view of their reading, word clouds can provide deep insight into your qualitative data, such as keywords.
FAQs:
What is a Word Cloud used for?
A Word Cloud is a picture made from a piece of text. It’s generated using an algorithm that removes common language and then measures word frequency.
Word Clouds are a powerful way to visualize your audience’s views and opinions regarding a topic, such as your brand.
Are Word Clouds still used?
Yes, Word Cloud generators are widely used in the digital marketing circles, especially during keyword analysis. Digital marketers use the Tag Clouds to create super-relevant content and ads for their audiences.
In recent times, the tool is widely used within educational institutions to stimulate creativity and engagement in learning.
How is Word Cloud useful in working with text data?
A Word Cloud generator can help you keep track of the keywords you use in your ad campaigns or SEO content.
Besides, it can instantly uncover profitable keywords for your content. You can also gain insights into how Google and other search engines will process and assess your content.
Wrap Up:
A Word Cloud generator uses simple text analysis to help you visualize and summarize qualitative data, such as customer feedback and search terms.
So how can you get hold of a tested and proven Word Cloud generator?
Google Sheets lack a Word Cloud generator. The other readily available option is to purchase a Word Cloud application.
You don’t have to do away with Google Sheets for other expensive tools. You can supercharge it by installing third-party add-ons to access an easy-to-use Word Cloud Generator.
We recommend installing third-party apps, such as ChartExpo, into your Google Sheets to access ready-made and visually appealing Tag Clouds.
ChartExpo is an add-on with insightful and easy-to-interpret Word Cloud Charts, plus different more visualization designs. You don’t require programming skills to visualize your data using the application.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made and visually appealing Word Cloud Charts for your data story.
Word Cloud Generator generates word clouds for the content that you enter. Word cloud is a collection or cluster of words drawn in different sizes.
The word is frequently mentioned within a given text, and the bigger, bolder, and more prominent it will appear in the word cloud.
You can use the tool to generate word clouds for the text you enter. A writer can use the tool to check what words he has written over and over again. Overusing words in your article, blog, or any other content will make you sound irrelevant and unprofessional.
Identify what words you have overused using this tool and make changes to your content, if needed.
Suppose there are certain words you intentionally want to appear a lot in your content. If this word seems big in your word cloud, then you will know that you are on the right track.
Word Cloud Generator can be convenient in your SEO efforts. If your targeted keywords appear big, then great; you have used those keywords appropriately, which will help your rankings.
On the other hand, you may accidentally have turned some less important words into SEO keywords. Using this tool, you can make the necessary changes to give more prominence to the keywords that you are targeting.
Word Clouds can be inserted as a visual help and make your article more appealing and readable if you have too much text content. The tool can use the word cloud to identify words that frequently appear in the text for research or analysis on important documents and articles.
If you want to know what your text is about and summarize the important features and notable points, Word Cloud can help in the process. The tool is not only easy to use; it is easy for navigation and customization as well.
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Word Cloud Size — The words that appear more frequently in a cloud will appear larger, but sometimes having too large words may make it look awkward from an aesthetic standpoint.
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Word Cloud Fonts — The result will typically be in typography font, but you can change it to any font you want if you want.
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Word Cloud Colors — If you are looking to use a word cloud in your document, you may want to change the background color, the color of your words, etc. You can tweak the color of individual words, frequency, rank, and more. The tool allows you to change many color options, including background color, cloud color, etc.
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Word Cloud Layout — You can also set the layout of how you want the word cloud to appear.
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Word Cloud Source — The source of your text can be viewed, and you can see the maximum number of words that appear in your word cloud and other information such as word count, most frequency of a particular word, etc.
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Instant Results — You don’t have to wait around for the results to show up. The tool will generate the word cloud in few seconds.
Create fun and amazing word clouds with our tool and make your content stand out and apart.
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You have to enter the content you want to perform under the text box. You can paste the text for you want to craft the Word Cloud.
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Click on Generate, and Word Cloud will be generated.
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Set the Advance Options to enhance how you want your Word Cloud to look, including Color, Layout, and Font.
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You can set any shape for your Word Cloud by choosing the shape you love from the advance option.
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For changing any settings, make necessary changes, and click on Generate.
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Once you are happy with how your Word Cloud looks, click on save. You can save this as an image and use this in any software like Word Document, for instance.
We all want our content to be the best. But if it is just paragraphs and paragraphs of textual content, your reader will soon lose interest.
Word Cloud Generator is an excellent way of creating Word Clouds to bring life to your articles, blogs, stories, web pages or presentations, etc. It can be used to increase readability and make an impression on your audience.
Using Word Clouds can also help in your SEO efforts. The tool can help you understand how your content appears on a machine and how Google will see your website.
The keyword is an important part of SEO, and the Word Cloud Generator will help you visualize that keyword optimization. It can give you an idea of your written content, whether you have used the right set of keywords, and the possible impact.
— The Word Cloud Generator provides you the word cloud of the text you will enter. This can be beneficial in many ways. To know more, please scroll up and read the features of the same.
— Yes, all our tools are 100% free of cost, and hence, our users are not required to spend money on the same.
— To use this Word Cloud Generator, you need to scroll up and go to the how to use section. We have explained the method step by step.
— There is no such limit for using the tool. You can use it as much as you want to.
Data visualizations (like charts, graphs, infographics, and more) give businesses a valuable way to communicate important information at a glance, but what if your raw data is text-based? If you want a stunning visualization format to highlight important textual data points, using a word cloud can make dull data sizzle and immediately convey crucial information.
When you’re looking at an in-depth data analysis, do you find it difficult to discern which points are the most important?
Anyone who’s ever stared blankly at a lengthy database or long pages of text can relate. With so many insights to comprehend, how do you know where to begin?
Word cloud generators can help simplify this process.
If you’ve ever looked at a jumble of disparate words that seem to have no correlation until you investigate further, you’ve seen a word cloud. These are powerful tools across myriad industries, from art to science.
Today, we’re exploring their use in the field of data visualization. Along the way, we’ll share how your organization can use them to help pinpoint important issues and better direct your steps forward.
Ready to learn more? Let’s get started!
What are Word Clouds?
Word clouds (also known as text clouds or tag clouds) work in a simple way: the more a specific word appears in a source of textual data (such as a speech, blog post, or database), the bigger and bolder it appears in the word cloud.
A word cloud is a collection, or cluster, of words depicted in different sizes. The bigger and bolder the word appears, the more often it’s mentioned within a given text and the more important it is.
Also known as tag clouds or text clouds, these are ideal ways to pull out the most pertinent parts of textual data, from blog posts to databases. They can also help business users compare and contrast two different pieces of text to find the wording similarities between the two.
Perhaps you’re already leveraging advanced data visualization techniques to turn your important analytics into charts, graphs, and infographics. This is an excellent first step, as our brains prefer visual information over any other format.
Yet, what do you do if your raw data is text-based in nature?
Much of the research your organization conducts will include at least some form of an open-ended inquiry that prompts respondents to give a textual answer.
For instance, you might ask current customers what they like or don’t like about your new product line. Or, you could ask them to give suggestions on how your organization could improve. They could also have the chance to elaborate on any pain points they’re experiencing.
There are industry tools that allow you to code such open-ended data so users can understand it quantitatively. Yet, these don’t come cheap. Word clouds offer a cost-effective, yet powerful, alternative.
With these, you can still quantify your text-based insights into measurable analytics. The only difference? You won’t create a chart or graph as you would with a set of numbers.
Instead, you’ll create a word cloud generator to transform the most critical information into a word cloud.
Here’s an example from USA Today using U.S. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Speech 2012:
As you can see, words like “American,” “jobs,” “energy” and “every” stand out since they were used more frequently in the original text.
Now, compare that to the 2014 State of the Union address:
You can easily see the similarities and differences between the two speeches at a glance. “America” and “Americans” are still major words, but “help,” “work,” and “new” are more prominent than in 2012.
Using word clouds isn’t exclusively for creating presidential eye candy. Keep reading to discover how word clouds can benefit your business.
Where Word Clouds Excel for Businesses
In the right setting, word cloud visualizations are a powerful tool. Here are a few instances when word clouds excel:
- Finding customer pain points — and opportunities to connect. Do you collect feedback from your customers? (You should!) Analyzing your customer feedback can allow you to see what your customers like most about your business and what they like least. Pain points (such as “wait time,” “price,” or “convenience”) are very easy to identify with text clouds.
- Understanding how your employees feel about your company. Text cloud visualization can turn employee feedback from a pile of information you’ll read through later to an immediately valuable company feedback that positively drives company culture.
- Identifying new SEO terms to target. In addition to normal keyword research techniques, using a word cloud may make you aware of potential keywords to target that your site content already uses.
When Word Clouds Don’t Work
As mentioned, word clouds aren’t perfect for every situation. You wouldn’t use a pie chart to show company revenue growth over time, and you shouldn’t use word clouds for every application, either. Here’s when you want to avoid using a word cloud.
- When your data isn’t optimized for context. Simply dumping text into a word cloud generator isn’t going to give you the deep insights you want. Instead, an optimized data set (one handled by an experienced data analysis team) will give you accurate insights.
- When another visualization method would work better. It’s easy to think “Word Clouds are neat!” and overuse them — even when a different visualization should be used instead. You need to make sure you understand the right use case for a word cloud visualization.
There are many other instances when a different visualization should be used over word clouds. (Feel free to contact one of our data analysts to learn more.) More complex data sets and projects require a team of developers and designers for a complete transformation. In could an infographic or dashboard, but word cloud applications are limited to, well, words.
What is a Word Cloud Generator?
As its name implies, an online word cloud generator is a tool that scans a body of text, turning it into component words.
From there, it can create a word cloud that highlights the most frequently mentioned words. If you don’t prefer the cluster shape, most tools enable you to format the word cloud in various ways, including:
- Horizontal lines
- Columns
- Formed to fit a certain shape
Most providers will also allow users to choose different layouts, fonts and color schemes depending on their preference. This means you can make one to match the color scheme of your brand, your partners, or your clients.
While the color used on a word cloud holds a primarily aesthetic value, you can contrast the hues to help categorize words or illustrate a separate data variable.
Why Use a Word Cloud Generator?
Think word clouds aren’t relevant to your organization? Think again.
These are an unexpected yet powerful way to display important data visualizations. Let’s take a look at a few of the top ones.
1. Understanding Client Issues
How are you currently analyzing your customer satisfaction levels? From polls and surveys to social media posts and more, your audience is talking about your brand.
As they do so, they’re delivering valuable insights into the psyche of your target customer. What’s making them tick and what to do they love? Are there any issues that seem to pop up time and again?
It can be difficult to find the answers to these questions if you’re simply reading each comment on an individual basis. Yet, when you create a word cloud with this feedback, you can quickly visualize what everyone is talking about.
For instance, you might notice that phrases such as “wait time” or “attitude” appear to dominate the cloud. This can reveal your customers’ pain points.
Or, you might see positive terms such as “affordable” and “customer service” towering over others, revealing what you’re doing right. Either way, you’ll know which topics to focus on at your next meeting, and you’re already one step in the direction of change.
2. Quickening Business Actions
That important marketing research report just came in at 5:00 p.m. The only problem? It’s 50 pages long.
You’d love to read through it line by line, but you don’t have enough hours in the day, and you’re supposed to give a brief on the data the next morning. This is where a word cloud generator can help.
When you copy the text into the generator and let it do its job, you can see in seconds which talking points appear the most frequently. Then, you’ll know where to start your search to hit the most important parts.
3. Analyzing Employee Sentiment
When you ask employees to share their feedback and opinions about the workplace, what do you do with those responses? It can be difficult to turn this kind of unstructured data into meaningful action if you don’t know where to start.
This is where word cloud visualizations can help.
When you’re able to see which points your employees are discussing at the highest rate, you’ll know how to make valuable and meaningful changes that can boost morale, strengthen company culture, and improve performance.
4. Simplifying Technical Data
You could present highly technical researching findings to a non-technical audience, such as your community board of directors. Yet, when you do so, it’s common to look into an audience of blank stares.
When you present a word cloud instead, you’re able to share the same findings in a more accessible and engaging way. This expands your reach and enables you to share important information in a way that doesn’t require advanced technical understanding.
5. Searching for Patterns in Data
With quantitative data, charts, graphs, and other data visualizations can help you identify key patterns. However, pulling these same insights from qualitative data can prove cumbersome at best and impossible at worst.
A word cloud generator makes this process a cinch. Those words you see overpowering the others? Those are your salient points and overlapping themes.
These would be difficult to find in a tabular format, but they pop out in a word cloud.
6. Search Engine Optimization
You have a good basic grasp on the kinds of keywords that your target audience wants to see. In fact, you might even use a keyword generator to find the most popular ones in your industry niche.
However, do you really know how Google sees your website?
The answer to this question can make or break your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
You can use a word cloud generator to see how your content appears to Google bots and similar machines. While it won’t reveal the more technical elements of SEO such as headers, backlinks, and alt tags, it does help you see the general message that your page conveys.
This is important because when Google “looks” at your page, it does so by scanning its content and code. You might think you’re getting the right points across, but do they really dominate? Your word cloud can reveal if you’re giving enough attention to the keywords that matter.
How to Make a Word Cloud
As shown by their increasing popularity, making a word cloud for your website or business isn’t difficult, but there are some important considerations that need to be made so your visualization is more than just eye-candy. While word clouds can be incredible tools for data visualization, it’s important to understand how to use them the right way.
Step 1: Optimize Your Data Set
First, you’ll want to get a valuable, text-based data set. Make sure the data set you’re using is both text-based and optimized for context. Copying and pasting just any textual data into a word cloud generator might not give you the exact insights you need.
Not sure where to begin?
Our team of data analysts is skilled in taking unstructured text and turning it into an optimized data set. First, we’ll help you make sure the source data you’re referencing is both usable and actionable. Then, we’ll compile it in a way that draws out the most interesting and relevant content. Having an experienced analyst compile this helps to ensure your source data is actually usable.
Step 2: Use a Word Cloud Generator Tool
Once your data set is in place, your next step is to run it through a word cloud generator tool. Many businesses like and use Wordle, but there are many others you can try, too (such as Tagxedo and WordItOut). The downside to these free tools is many sites, including Wordle, automatically add all text clouds to their portfolio. This means any site visitor can see it, potentially undermining your marketing efforts. (Check your individual tool’s policies to see if your word cloud will be used in this way.)There are many online resources and apps you can use to perform this step, including:
- Wordle
- Tagxedo
- Tag Crowd
- WordItOut
- Word Cloud Generator for Chrome
- Word Cloud Python tools
- Google Word Cloud tools
Step 3: Export the Word Cloud
Once you create your word cloud, you need to move it from the program to your files. Some platforms will enable you to download the image as a PDF, although many won’t make that easy. In some cases, you’ll have to take a screenshot of the image and save it that way.
Before you close out of the program and start reviewing the data, there’s one security precaution to keep in mind.
While most of the programs above are either free or low-priced, keep in mind that there can be some drawbacks to the convenience they offer. For instance, any time you create a word cloud in Wordle, it saves it to its virtual portfolio.
This might not be a deal-breaker if the data you’re compiling and analyzing isn’t confidential or highly sensitive. Yet, if you work in an industry (such as healthcare or banking) that emphasizes confidentiality and customer data protection, this can render the service unusable.
It’s also a drawback if you’re using a word cloud for marketing purposes. If anyone can search Wordle’s portfolio, there’s nothing stopping them from tapping into your most compelling data.
An easier, safer and all-around better route to take? Create your word cloud from scratch rather than relying on an online program to do the work for you.
Exporting your word cloud from a free tool might take some work. Sometimes, if download as an image or PDF isn’t available, you’ll be forced to take a screenshot – a less-than-elegant solution.
Here’s what to do if you really want your word cloud to be noticed: consider designing your word cloud from scratch!
Does this sound like a lot for you to handle in-house? Not all companies have (or need) an in-house data analyst. Our experienced team at Boost Labs has experience working with enterprise clients such as the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses like individual websites, and everything in-between.
Creating Your Own Word Cloud
Sure, it’s simple to plug your text into a virtual generator and receive your custom word cloud in seconds. Yet, as we’ve discussed, this can put your most critical data sets in a vulnerable position.
Instead, why not let our team take the reins and create a one-of-a-kind word cloud that’s all yours? This eliminates the risk of your information falling into the wrong hands.
A data visualization expert can also help you pinpoint the most cloud-worthy parts of your unstructured data set so you’re not sifting through tomes of irrelevant data, attempting to make disjointed parts connect.
We’ll work with the most insight-rich parts and deliver a personalized graphic that you can use in your short-term and long-term department planning efforts.
The Best Word Cloud Generators Are Custom
Around the world, we’re creating and sharing more data than ever before and the trend shows no sign of stopping down.
From sales numbers to online traffic rates, you’ve likely got plenty of quantitative data to analyze and discuss. Yet, are you making as much use out of your qualitative inputs?
These are often some of the most insightful data points your organization can leverage. They’re full of opinion, long-form feedback, and personal reflection. Word cloud generators can help make the most of this content, one visual at a time.
Are you ready to discover the power of word clouds for yourself? We’d love to help.
We’re data visualization experts, dedicated to helping companies turn mind-numbing data into interactive and informative graphics, charts, tables and more. Contact us today and let’s discover something new together.
Let us help you with data visualization.
The Value of Our Free Word Cloud Generator
Speak’s AI word cloud generator uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal insights, help with writer’s block, be a root as an AI content generator and more.
Word clouds are a great way to highlight the most important words, topics and phrases in a text passage based on frequency and relevance. Generate word clouds from your text data to create an easily understood visual breakdown for deeper analysis. Use our free word cloud generator below!
Speak’s online tool demo is the best free word cloud generator that can serve as your word cloud maker, allowing you to get a word cloud online and be a great tool for brainstorming word clouds so that you can present meaningful visualizations.
More than a free word cloud creator or a basic word cloud, Speak can generate clickable word clouds. Speak makes word cloud creation instant so you can make your own word cloud, word cloud art, tag cloud, Twitter word cloud generator or other variations of keyword cloud generators to drive value and understanding for stakeholders. You can even create a free wordle generator! The possibilities are endless with a word cloud creator free of risk and technical difficulties.
You can also check out how to transcribe a YouTube video to effortlessly bring valuable video content into Speak for transcription and analysis so that you can produce free word cloud generation.
What Is A Word Cloud?
Word clouds, also known as tag clouds, are visual representations of text data. They are used to provide insight into the structure, content, and meaning of a text by displaying the most frequently used words in the text.
What Data Is Good For Word Clouds?
Drop your text, call transcripts, customer reviews, blog content, website copy and more and instantly see brands, locations, numbers, events, products and more visualized. With a Speak account, you can add custom keywords and phrases that will also appear in your visualizations!
What Is The Purpose Of A Word Cloud?
This information can be useful for a variety of purposes, from market research to data analysis.
Words clouds are often used to explore relationships between words and phrases, allowing users to quickly gain an understanding of the text. For example, word clouds can be used to compare the language used in different files, identify the most frequently used words in a particular text, or uncover the meaning of a text by displaying the words in a visually appealing way.
The purpose of word clouds is to quickly convey information. By displaying the most frequently used words in a text, they can help to identify the main themes and topics of the text. This makes them a useful tool for market research, as they can help to identify the main topics that customers are interested in, as well as the language they use to talk about those topics.
Word clouds can also be used to compare multiple texts, audio files, video files and other types of unstructured language data media. Comparing the words used in each text can help to identify the similarities and differences between them. This can be useful for data analysis, as it can help to identify patterns and trends in the data.
Word clouds can also be used to help to get an understanding of the general sentiment of the text. For example, media full of negative words might imply a negative sentiment, while media with more positive words might imply a positive sentiment.
Word clouds can also be a useful tool for search engine optimization. Displaying the most important words and recurring words used in media can give you ideas and help you optimize your content for search engines.
Who Uses Word Clouds?
Word clouds are a popular tool for businesses of all sizes to visualize large amounts of data in a visually pleasing way. Word clouds are used by businesses to gain insights from customer feedback, surveys, and other sources of data. They are used to provide an overall picture of how customers feel about a product, service, or company.
Word clouds are used by small and medium-sized businesses, marketing agencies, market research firms, organizations with 51 to 1,000 employees, marketers, qualitative researchers, customer experience managers, market researchers, product researchers, SEO specialists, business analysts, data scientists, academic researchers, business owners and more.
Small & Medium Sized Businesses
Small and medium-sized businesses can use word clouds to gain insight into customer feedback and to get an overall picture of how customers feel about their product or service.
Word clouds can help small businesses gain a better understanding of the customer’s needs and wants, as well as what they are looking for in terms of product or service offerings. This understanding can be used to create better marketing campaigns and to help the business better understand its customer base.
Marketing Agencies
Marketing agencies can use word clouds to help them create more targeted campaigns. By understanding the customer’s needs and wants, marketing agencies can create campaigns that are more likely to resonate with the customer. Word clouds can also help marketing agencies identify the most popular words and phrases associated with a business or product, which can help them create more effective campaigns.
Market Research Firms
Market research firms can use word clouds to gain insights into customer feedback and to get a better understanding of customer sentiment. By understanding the customer’s needs and wants, market research firms can create better surveys and polls to gain more accurate feedback. Word clouds can also help market research firms identify the most common words and phrases associated with a business or product, which can help them create more effective surveys and polls.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Word Clouds
It is also worthwhile to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using word clouds to visualize data. We’ll look at why they are useful for business owners and professionals, and how they can be detrimental if not used correctly. After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of what word clouds can do and how to best use them for your business needs.
Advantages of Word Clouds
Easily Interpretable
Word clouds make complex data more easily interpretable by transforming it into an eye-catching visual that can be understood by even those who aren’t familiar with interpreting data reports. This makes it easier for customers and business owners alike to identify trends within their data sets quickly and accurately.
Quickly Identify Keywords
By filtering out unnecessary words and displaying only the most common terms in a visually appealing manner, word clouds allow users to quickly identify keywords that are relevant to their search query or project objectives.
Creates Aesthetic Visuals
Word clouds are an aesthetically pleasing way to present data in a way that looks visually appealing without sacrificing accuracy or readability. This makes them great for presentations or online content that requires visual appeal for maximum impact on viewers.
Affordable & Easy To Set Up
Setting up a word cloud is relatively easy and affordable compared to other types of data visualization tools. Many online tools allow users to quickly set up word clouds with minimal effort required, making them ideal for those who don’t want to invest too much time or money into creating visuals from their data sets.
Disadvantages of Word Clouds
May Not Be Accurate Representation Of Data
While word clouds do provide an aesthetically pleasing representation of selected terms within a given data set, they cannot accurately represent the full scope of the information contained within it due to their simplified nature – meaning that any conclusions drawn from these visuals should be taken with a grain of salt until confirmed by further analysis.
Reduced Readability
Since the sizes of words displayed in a word cloud are determined by frequency rather than grammar rules, it can be difficult for readers to parse out individual words without enough context surrounding them which can lead to difficulties in understanding what is being presented – particularly when trying to spot patterns within dense data sets with multiple terms involved.
Not Customizable Enough For Complex Projects
Although word clouds are great for quickly presenting basic information in an attractive visual format, they may not be detailed enough when working on more complex projects as there aren’t many options available when it comes to customization or formatting features offered with most available services or software programs – like changing colours/backgrounds/fonts etc., which could limit its effectiveness depending on the type project being worked on or result desired from the visualization process.
What Is The Best Word Cloud Generator?
We’ve got a little bias here at Speak AI that our software is the best word cloud generator, but to help guide you on our journey we’ve also created a list of the best word cloud generator software so your data visualization journey is as successful as possible!
Use Our Free Speak Word Cloud Generator Tool!
Word clouds can offer businesses several advantages when used correctly including providing an easy-to-interpret visual representation of text-based data sets as well as identifying common keywords quickly and creating aesthetically pleasing visuals for presentations or online content purposes.
However, there are several drawbacks that need to be considered before using this tool such as reduced accuracy due to oversimplification and limited customization options which could limit its effectiveness depending on the project’s requirements or desired outcome from the visualization process.
As with any tool or technique used in business applications, understanding all potential advantages and disadvantages is key – so consider carefully before deciding if this tool is right for you and your business needs!