Trends in business is what every business owner wants to know and should know about in order to stay in business and grow their business.
Do you know where your business is trending to?
Maybe you think you do, how would you like some information to help you find out? And best of all, it’s FREE, thanks to Google.
Google Trends is a free service that takes information collected by Google to show you the trends in business and really any keyword phrase. Here’s how it works…
1) Go to http://www.google.com/trends
2) Type in a phrase about what you do. Let’s say you’re a dentist. So, you type in the word dentist and click on the “Search Trends” button.
3) You’ll see a graph showing you some dips and hikes. If you’re a dentist in the US then on the top right hand side of your screen change the “All Regions” to “United States” and then in the “All subregions” section choose your state.
4) If you want to know the trend in a specific time period, change the “All years” to the time period you’re looking for.
5) Is the graph going up or down? Is it steady?
What this graph is telling you is the volume of searches for the keyword phrase. It gives you an idea of the trend that is happening for that particular aspect of your business.
Let’s say you’re an attorney in New York and you specialize in Divorce, Bankruptcy and Patents.
Let’s see how these three specialties are doing in the markeplace.
1) divorce attorney – new york – all years – no data (not enough data for this)
So, since there’s not enough data we then make the scope wider, we go to all subregions
instead of just New York.
2) divorce attorney – all subregions – all years – graph shows trend going up.
Interestingly enough, the state with the most request for divorce attorneys is Minnesota.
3) bankruptcy attorney – all subregions – all years – graph shows trend slightly up.
Nevada is the number one state with the most requests for bankruptcy attorney.
4) patent attorney – all subregions – all years – graph shows trend down.
DC is the area of the country with the most requests for patent attorneys.
Conclusion: This small sample gives the attorney an idea of which of his services will be bringing in more income for him. If he was planning an ad campaign he would avoid putting money into his patent services since the trend in the past few years has declined. Instead, he should be putting his marketing dollars into upward trends.
Let’s try another specialty, Web Design and Marketing. Since this is a service that can be provided anywhere we’ll stick to All Regions but keep it down to the last 12 months.
Here are some keyword phrases and their results:
1) Web Designer – graph shows a steady trend
India is the top market for web designers
2) Web Designs – graph shows a slight decrease
Pakistan is the top market for web designs
3) SEO Services – graph shows a slight increase
India being the top market for seo services
Note: change the graph on seo services from All Regions to United States and you’ll see a huge
spike in Jan 2008 and it continues to increase. Does that mean businesses in the US have
finally “found” seo?
Conclusion: Web design companies could take from this small sample the concept that the trends in business is more towards internet marketing and seo services than simply for web design. If this trend continues and they want to grow their business, they would integrate seo services into their list of services for their clients.
Okay, let’s try one more – I’m having too much fun to quit.
Let’s go for a limousine service company in the United States for the last 12 months.
1) limousine services – graph shows an absolute decline.
Connecticut is the state with the most requests for limousine services.
2) limo service – graph shows a slight declince.
Connecticut is the state with the most requests for limo service.
3) airport limousine – graph shows a slight decline.
Again, Connecticut is the state with the most requests for airport limousine.
Conclusion: If you’re looking to open a limousine business somewhere seems like Connecticut is the place to do it! Seriously, this small sample of data indicates that a limousine service website should be marketing the phrase “limo service” vs “limousine service” since the trends in business for limousine services is much lower than limo service. I also tested “wedding limousine” and “prom limousine” and both of these trends were much lower than airport limousine so this tells me that a limo service website should emphasize their marketing on the airport service.
Well, all these trends in business are quite interesting. So, check out Google Trends and find out where you are in the latest trends in business. How can this information help you to improve your business?
