Google Trends is an incredibly useful tool for your small business – read on to learn why and how to use it successfully. You may not have even heard of Google Trends if you’re not a marketer or product designer, but once you see what it can do, you’ll definitely make it a part of your marketing and business planning. The Google Trends website has been available since 2006, and shows search volume of queries over time in graphs.
The interface is very easy to use, even for a non-technical person. You enter a search term (query) into the search bar, and hit enter, and you are presented with a page that has a graph of interest over time, a map of interest by subregion, related topics, and related queries. This, in itself, provides a wealth of useful information, but you can easily refine your search by region (eg. country, state. etc.), by a date range, by category (eg. Beauty & Fitness, Finance, etc.), and by what kind of search you are interested in (eg. Web, Image, etc.). This allows you to create a very granular search that is only confined to your area and time of interest – giving you immediately actionable information. You can even subscribe to a Google Trends alert to get email updates on the popularity of terms you would like to track.
If you are looking for blog topics, or words to use in language on your website, one feature that is incredibly powerful is the ability to compare terms. You can add another term to your Google Trends investigation by clicking on the “Compare” box next to your current term. It will auto-populate with the same filters you have already applied to your original term, and it will give you a clear picture of the relative popularity of the terms – which means you will know which one to use in your content. The “Related topics” and “Related queries” boxes also give some great ideas for terms to use, or ideas for a related post or content. These terms are not just for use in your organic channels; in fact, this is a great way to build up your PPC keywords and adjust your keyword groups if a particular term falls out of favor.
In a more general sense, Google Trends is a great way to look for new product or service offerings. You can look at Trending topics to gain insights into what the public needs right now. If you already have some ideas on what you’d like to move forward with, you can compare two possible products/services with the comparison tool. This gives you not only a great picture of how popular your product/service will be, but also related terms that you can include in your online marketing push. It’s also a good way to figure out what products/services you may want to retire or update. You can look at trends over the past 5 years, and if something seems to be losing popularity, maybe it’s not the best fit for your business today, or you may need to tweak it to make it more marketable.
Not only that, but Google Trends is a great way to prepare for a business meeting. You may be familiar with what’s popular in your area or vertical, but you can do research to find out what might be on the mind of someone across the country or around the world. Nothing says “we are the best to help you solve your problem” than knowing precisely what the problem is for that client right now. It’s also an incredible way to find a new market – you might discover that another country has a need for your product/service, and then you can work on reaching out to companies in that region.
Google Trends can provide your business with a wealth of information – all of it free, and easy to use. Start using it today to learn insights about your market and how to better serve your customers and potential customers. If you want some help putting what you have discovered to use in your business, contact us and we’ll help you on the right path!
