Over the last 15 years many marketing experts have touted the value of using Google Trends. There are thousands of ways in which Google Trends can be used. The most common way is to simply see if a specific keyword phrase is getting search more or less than in the past. There is also a function in which the user can compare keywords to see which keyword is getting searched more. Interestingly, the data provided by Google through Google Trends often changes based on the time the data is consumed. A user may notice that searches for “orthodontist near me” were at an 89 on Thursday but that number will change when checked again at a future date. So, is Google Trends always accurate?
It is important to realize that Google is a data company. All their algorithms improve with the consumption of more data. With Google Trends, data is consistently being analyzed to determine how to illustrate these numbers on a chart. Through many, many programs Google creates the service that is free for the public to use. Note that the fact that it is free is the exact reason the data shouldn’t be used for anything but observation and surface based information.
Some people have tried to use Google Trends to invest in specific businesses or industries. Others have tried to predict presidential elections and sporting events based on Google Trends. Google never intended to create businesses from the data provided on Google Trends.
As a marketing company, we use Google Trends to give us the knowledge of how people search, when people search and what people are searching for. This allows our SEO team to hone in on the most valuable keywords and rank for them. Rather than throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping keywords are being searched, we know they are being searched based on data we have and the data shown on Google Trends.
UPDATE: Can Google Trends Help Your Business?
Even if your business is a very small business that doesn’t show data in Google Trends, there are many creative ways Google Trends can help you expand your business. Google Trends is an amazing tool to see just how people are seaching at specific times. You have the ability to look at the last 4 hours, the last 24 hours and the last 7 days. This will give you some great ideas as to what is a hot topic in a specific industry. If you are a fitness studio that wants to expand your online presence, you can see what people are searching related to the popular fitness products and services. You can expand past the last 7 days and see if a specific fitness trend is getting more or less popular.
You can also use Google Trends for seasonality to help with staffing a business. If you own a zip lining company it is highly likely you are going to downsize the staff to basically zero over the winter. If you track Google Trends, you will know, almost to the day, when the interest for zip lining starts to decrease as it gets colder. Instead of staffing up for Thanksgiving weekend, you will be able to see, via Google Trends, that Thanksgiving weekend is the one of the slowest weekends of the year from a search standpoint. This means people are not zip lining.
The greatest value of Google Search data is that it tells you exactly what people are doing. No one searches for the “best pizza restaurant in Roanoke, VA” if they are not hungry and not in Roanoke. Google Trends allows you to drill down into states and cities based on search data as well. This will help with both seasonality and geography.
These are all strategies that can help you grow your business with the Search data that is available for free. Allow GO Media to help you grow your business with Google and all online outlets.