By Bill Wynne
The Google Trends Web site was made public in 1996 but many marketers on the Internet don’t know about it. Some know but don’t understand it and so don’t get the benefits out of it that are possible.
The Google Trends Web site is a service offered by Google to users that want to get some fantastic data about keyword searches in the Google search engine. For example if you wanted to know how popular Levi jeans were over the past six years you could type in “Levi Jeans” and get data that would show you the search trend for Levi Jeans. It will not only give you the search trend but you can begin to focus the searches on country, city or even by language.
For anyone looking for a niche to market and make money Google Trends is something they should not do without.
How to Use the Google Trends Web site Practically?
PPC Marketing—If you are primarily a PPC marketer Google Trends is going to help you in your geo-targeting. I was involved in a niche that was hot in the United States but it gradually tapered off in the USA but got real hot in the Japanese market and so you set up your AdWords campaigns to target Japan. Thank you Google for saving me money on advertising and making me money by knowing where the buyers were.
Spying on Competition—To the right of the trends graph there are a list of links that show you articles that are ranked high for the keyword that you chose. Look over those articles, get some ideas, spin it and submit it. Have you seen our page about Online Article Marketing?
Hot Trends for Bloggers—Google Hot Trends is a separate service and URL. When you are blogging you are in need of content and if you want to have something relevant to your crowd that is timely with world events or something else you can use Google Hot Trends to see what is real relevant. Not long ago Tiger Woods went through his hardship with his family and the reporters. If you type Tiger Woods into the Google Trends Web site you will see the spike that was created over the bad press. I would not use Hot Trends to determine a niche because it is only reporting the hot things that are very current and as we know, news is changing all the time.
Keyword Analysis—The Google Trends Web site should be a part of your keyword research in conjunction with a program like Traffic Travis (download Traffic Travis for FREE) and the Google external keyword tool. Google trends will save you money from choosing keywords or a niche that is no longer active in a particular country that you may be targeting.
Another cool part of the keyword analysis that I should mention is something I saw in a Webinar. The Google Trends Web site was used to compare “table tennis” and “ping pong”. Which do you think is more popular? Which country would you think either is more popular? Curious? Well I am not going to tell you. Go to the Google Trends Web site and check it out for yourself. While you are there play with it and see if you should alter some of the marketing that you are doing.
Note – Remember that this is only Google traffic and does not account for the traffic on other search engines like Ask, Yahoo! and Bing. Clearly Google dominates as a search engine and gives a good picture of what is most likely taking place in the other search engines.
About the Author
Bill Wynne has been an Internet Marketer since 1999. He has been successful in a number of niche markets. Recently he decided to create his own blog where he has decided to share his knowledge of Internet Marketing. He offers many free tools and articles like Google Trends Web site on his blog as well as special offers.