subject: Keyword Analysis Tool - Using Google Trends [print this page] Google Trends has been around for about six years; but it is a resource which is not used by many. With this article, my intention is to share some possibilities that you can have with it. Join me for a few minutes to look at what this tool can do. Maintain an open mind, what I have for you today might just end up as a "gold mine" of information for you. Remember, "knowledge is potential power."
Let's begin. In your web browser, enter "Google trends." Shortly you will have "Google trends" emblazoned on the top middle of your display. My "hallucination" is that this initial display is what disappoints or intimidates people: there seems to be nothing of value that can be seen here. But take heart and experiment with me.
Trial query
In the text area right below the "Google trends" text, enter: "guitar, piano, saxophone." Then click on "Search Trends"--on the immediate right of the text you just entered.
What the program returns is a rich volume of information; and can be very useful--as we work on the following interpretations. Values are reported as: 1.00, 0.29, 0.02 for guitar, piano, saxophone respectively. This means that in terms of search volume, there are more people online who are interested with "guitar" information rather than "piano" topics and further less people interested in "saxophone" matters.
What the data further means
In terms of search volume, the following could be a useful way of interpreting what the numbers mean. For every 100 searches on "guitar," there have been only 29 searches on "piano" and a meager 2 on "saxophone." What this finally redounds to is the following. If you are in the musical instruments niche and are considering between the said three musical instruments, picking a guitar niche--is the no-brainer answer. Which you should now appreciate--something you would not easily know were it not for your use of Google Trends.
Using the lower information
Regions, Cities and Language will tell you how our keywords fare with certain locations and "tongues." Click on "United Sates." The display changes a bit, with the values now at: 1.00, 0.24, 0.02. In the context of the previous report (for the worldwide market), the data now means that the disparity between the two keywords of "guitar" and "piano" is now at 76 (100 - 24). The difference was just 71 (100 - 29).
What the data further means
In the United States, for every 100 "guitar" searches, there are 24 "piano" searches. Therefore, a guitar niche will be a far better niche in the U.S. market than in the worldwide market.
What now appears on the lower left-most portion of your display is Subregions; which took over the area that was formerly "Regions." If your business targets a state-wide market, then your query process can continue by simply clicking on the U.S. state of your choice. Right beside it are your Cities options; which can be useful if your operation is for one city only.
What is interesting in our simple example is how "guitar" searches continue to dominate over our other two seed keywords.
From this very simple query sample, an appreciation of Google Trends should easily come to fore.
