Trends are highly influential in everything from the most popular fashions to what is number 1 on the radio. In the digital marketing world, trends are also a very valuable way of finding out what customers are best likely to respond to. Every second 40,000 Google searches are made. Understanding these can give a very telling picture about trends across many different industries and subject matters.
A highly useful tool in breaking this Google search data down is a platform called Google Trends. Here’s everything you need to know about Google Trends, including how to use Google Trends to improve lead generation.
What Is Google Trends?
When creating any piece of content (especially when it’s SEO optimised) the aim is to match up what people are searching for with what you can offer them. For us here at Imaginaire, that would be ‘digital marketing agency Nottingham’, or words to that effect. But as Google receives around 1.2 trillion searches a year, how can you truly understand the most searched for keyphrases? One such tool that is incredibly helpful at decoding this is Google Trends.
Google Trends is a free to use page within the wider Google website. It collects data from Google searches to tell you the most popular search terms. As a result, you can then interpret the terms within your marketing strategy. Users can view a general list of trending terms, or enter specific key phrases to see if they are popular search terms or not. The search terms can include ‘worldwide’ results or be filtered down to specific countries and even timeframes. In addition, Google also publishes the most searched for terms of the year too.
Using Google Trends To Increase Conversions
Think of Google Trends as the Sat Nav to your SEO. It not only points you in the right direction but will also tell you when a term isn’t popular too. But, why does knowing what is popular matter? Whether you are a blogger, a business or anyone who creates content online – the aim is that whatever you create will be found to ultimately increase conversions. If your content isn’t a popular search term (and you don’t use hotly searched for keywords anywhere on your website) the chances of conversions become a lot slimmer.
Instead what you want to do is find out exactly what people are looking for. Google Trends removes the guesswork for you. You can then use these search terms in many other avenues, especially within PPC campaigns which can be difficult to get right. After all, you are banking on someone typing in an exact search term that relates to your business. How do you know if you haven’t done any market research beforehand? Within just a couple of clicks, Google Trends will tell you what you need to know so you have a lot more tools at your disposal to boost those conversions.
The Place Of Google Trends In Marketing And SEO
The fundamental purpose of marketing is to connect customers with your company. Google Trends gives you a clear insight into your customers’ minds to allow you to do just that. Let’s take the search for ‘plumbers’ in the UK as an example. Over the last 12 months on the scale of 0 to 100, we can see that people are searching for this term between 63 and 100 (making it very popular). Google Trends also gives a list of the most related searches such as ‘general plumbers near me’. Anyone doing the marketing for a plumbers website could then use that exact phrase as a H2 tag on the website to link the two together. Relevant H tags (also known as headings) need to be scattered through landing pages, articles and any other content you post out.
For new businesses, it also allows you to see whether there is an audience for your product or not. It can even help you when choosing a domain name, especially if you want it to be highly searchable. While it’s not necessarily ‘game over’ if your term comes in at 0, it does let you know what direction your marketing plan needs to go in. For example, spreading awareness about the product to those who aren’t familiar with it (especially if it’s a new concept). Related Google Trends terms may also highlight similar searches which could still be applicable. If you are thinking of purchasing a business or website, you can see what the status is before you do so.
To Sum Up
Google Trends is a free tool that anyone who creates content online should be using. From blogs to business landing pages – it offers a unique and valuable insight into what your customers are searching for so you can better align with them. Whatsmore, it will also let you break down the timing and location of popular searches so you can make better marketing decisions as a result.
Imaginaire is an independent design and marketing agency based in Nottingham. If you’d like help with your marketing strategy, then be sure to get in touch. As well as advising with Google Trends, we can help with your website design, PPC, SEO across Nottingham, and any other aspect of your marketing.
Give us a call on 0115 971 8908 for help or advice.
