Polls, analyst predictions, and research data can be helpful in understanding the latest trends. But as the Wall Street Journal pointed out this week, you can get an immediate read on what's happening in housing, hiring, retailing, or whatever by using search engines and social media.
In the next few posts, I'll share some of the tools I use to get a sense of what interests people at any given moment in time, based on their search queries and social media posts. This information can help you develop Web content that's more likely to attract targeted traffic. And it can help entrepreneurs and others uncover potential business opportunities.
Today's topic: Google Insights for Search.
Google Insights for Search gives you a snapshot of a search term's popularity over time and by region. For each search phrase you enter, it shows you where interest is greatest by region, as well as how interest has fluctuated over any given time period beginning with 2004. You can also see variations of your search term that are 'rising' in popularity.
So how is this useful? If you were in the business of selling urns, for instance, you might enter the term cremation into Google Insights for Search. Right away, you'd see that pet cremation is no. 1 on the list of top 10 searches (see the screen shot below). On the list of top 10 searches rising in popularity, you'd also find the terms pet cremation cost and pet cremation services. Hmmm. Do you think there's an opportunity to expand your urn business to pet owners?
You'd also discover that in the U.S., interest in the term cremation was greatest in Minnesota, followed by Iowa and North Carolina. California didn't even make the top 10 list, surprisingly. Maybe it's time to market your urn business to Minnesotans?
In the next post: Wordtracker Labs Keyword Questions
