In 2012, search engine giant Google tracked over 1.2 trillion searches in nearly 150 languages to come up with Zeitgeist 2012, their list of the year’s most popular search terms and trends.
Not surprisingly, topping the lists were a lot of pop culture references and world news items, from Whitney Houston to Hurricane Sandy.
While business searches didn’t make the list, you can still use information like Google search trends to power your website through strategic SEO.
Tracking trends through social monitoring
To take advantage of current search trends, you first need to know what they are, so you can keep an eye out for topics that tie into your business. An easy way to do this is through social monitoring tools. Here are a few examples:
- Social Mention lets you type in a keyword and get real-time analysis for social media results that include mentions, sentiment, and reach. You can search one term at a time, or set up automated alerts.
- Social media dashboard HootSuite helps you track brand mentions and analyze social media traffic. This platform also provides tools for managing your social media, with features like scheduled posts and tweets.
- You can track trending keywords and stories with Google News, using the Top Stories drilldown menu on the left side of the page to find more specific topics and terms.
How to use trending terms
Fresh content keeps search engines indexing your website more frequently—and fresh content that contains the latest keyword trends brings more visitors to your site. The key to taking advantage of search term trends is to be quick on the draw. When you notice an up-and-coming term that’s related to your business, create a new blog post or resource that uses the term and add it to your site.
Search Term Trends
If you don’t have the time to come up with frequent, relevant content, hiring a copywriter to create trending pieces is a good way to boost your website traffic. Contact Informatix for more information on our professional copywriting services.