How smart businesses are using Google Trends

Data surrounding consumer behavior can be described as the gas that powers growth in today’s hyper-competitive business landscape.

Behavioral patterns and trends allow businesses to make predictions about future changes in the industry, allowing them to create a strategic plan of action in order to prepare for them. Not only this, behavioral data can help businesses provide a more targeted service to customers which in turn, will improve brand loyalty.

Yet despite the undeniable power of this data, it can often be difficult to harness and analyze due to your business’s budget and resources.

Focus groups, keyword tools, surveys, and customer interviews for example, can be time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately for your business, Google has made affordable and readily-available research possible with Google Trends.

This handy tool acts as a window into the world, giving users the chance to take a peek into what people are searching for – whether it’s politics, music, sports, games or more.

Users simply just have to type in a keyword or phrase and then Google will show how popular that phrase is, where it’s most popular, when it was or is most popular, and other relevant phrases related to the topic.

For your business, Google Trends can be a great platform to determine attitudinal behavior relating to your company, industry, or competitors. Data from search engines can really show you what your customers want, and so capitalizing on this is a must in order to win them over.

Here are a few ways your business can start leveraging Google Trends to improve your business.

1. Keyword research

Keywords play a massive role in SEO; it is what your customers are using to find you online via search engines. With Google Trends, you can gain insight into how popular various keywords are and also suggestions for similar keywords.

Using this information, you can optimize your online content and create SEO friendly content for your company blog for example.

2. Monitoring your industry and brand presence

While this may not work so well for smaller businesses due to a low search volume, this can be a great way to see if people are searching for your brand or your competitors.

Competition will always be present in the world of business, and so it is important to understand your competitors and how you stand alongside them in order to grow and stand a chance of competing.

Google Trends can display data showing the peak of your competitors’ popularity as well as their lowest.

You can also search for keywords or phrases related to your specific industry in order to see what people are talking about or are interested in at current.

3. Trend research

Following on from the last point, your business can use Google Trends to see what is trending both generally and specifically to your industry.

Discover which trends are creating a lot of buzz in order to inform your marketing strategy. As you search for things over the year, you will be likely to discover seasonal trends. Having a greater understanding of when people are searching your business name, products, or services can facilitate in determining at what times to run marketing campaigns and the right time to offer particular products.

4. Content ideas

Perhaps one of the best ways to utilize Google Trends is to inform your content marketing strategy. With features such as the latest stories, recently trending, and related queries, information relating to what people are searching for is handed to you on a silver platter.

The best way to increase customer engagement around your posts is to create content which is both timely and relevant- and Google Trends is the best way to discover what this may be.

Forward-thinking companies will capitalize on trending topics immediately, creating blog posts, marketing emails, and social media content based on this consumer interest.

Google Trends essentially carries out all the hard work for you- it’s just your job to create compelling content based on the information they provide.