Unless you’ve been living under a rock (don’t worry, this is a safe space), you have probably heard of Google Trends if you exist in the business world. But what exactly is it? Google Trends is a tool created by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries across various regions and languages. It depicts this information by using graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time. So, for all of you visual data analytic fiends out there, your time has come! BUT don’t go anywhere just yet though. As they say, you’ve gotta milk the cow before you can make the butter…or something like that.

So, what’s the skinny on Google Trends? Now you know what Trends is but why should you use it? Well, we are all living in a technical world and we are all just a bunch of techie guys and girls. In a time where irrelevancy means death, maybe not physically, but financially, you have to stay on the up-and-up in order to avoid falling by the digital wayside (R.I.P Myspace), and Trends can help you with just that. Start by navigating to the “Trending Searches” tab, where you can find a list of trending topics for that time. Utilizing this function can help with creating relevant content in a big way. By creating relevant content, your work has a better chance to attract more eyes. It even has related queries, giving you multiple options as you brainstorm. Instead of just scraping the barrel again, allow Trends to bridge the gap to your next smash hit.

Google Trends can also show you seasonal shopping patterns by consumers, so you know when the best time is to market your products (make sure to not mix up Pi and Pie Day). You can also use keywords to find the best locations to advertise as well, giving yourself the best chance to increase your reach and revenue. For example, let’s say you sell hammocks. If you search the word “hammocks” in Google Trends, you’ll find that interest peaked for that topic during May 22-28th of this year. Furthermore, the residents of Delaware have searched the keyword “hammock” more than any other state. Now, having that knowledge, you can really ramp up your advertising around that time, in that geographical location, to capitalize on the consumer desires. In conjunction with a sales promotion at that time you are putting yourself in a better position to increase your revenues.

When you’re done figuring out your next successful marketing plan, you can then focus on how your brand specifically measures up to your competitors. By using the comparison tool, you can monitor the difference in traffic and see where you can improve. The data will depict the contrast in searches by time, allowing you to devise a plan to attract those consumers at those times instead. It’s time to show the competition who the real deal is.

For those of you that already have some skin in the YouTube game, Google Trends can help you to improve your strategy by finding out what channels are currently popular and what people are searching for. You can further boost your videos popularity if you have an email list and utilize that during the high traffic periods. Google will even see that you’re promoting your older video content and potentially reward you with a higher position so that your video can get even more views. Oh, and maybe throw in some cute animal content. That always sells. Or at least I think so.

Now that you have a better understanding of Google Trends, it’s time to let you go back out into the great wide web to really hit those analytics. I hate that we have say goodbye so soon, but I hope that you took something beneficial from this blog and can use it. Thank you, all! Happy crunching, friends!