In my previous post, I introduced you to the new Google Trends tool. In this post, I'd like to discuss an example of how you can use this tool to focus your keyword strategy for local search. This example discusses how you can use Google Trends to select the best keywords or phrases for your specific target market geography.
I'll use my own company as an example. Terrakon Marketing, provides sales and internet marketing consulting services. I'd like to optimize one of the Terrakon web pages for professionals and firms looking to enhance their sales knowledge. For purposes of this example, let's say I'm only concerned about professionals or firms based in St. Louis, MO.
Based on research, it appears the phrases "sales tips" and "selling tips" are good candidates to optimize my web page around. But which phrase would work better for my target market in St. Louis, MO?
In the past, I would have had to rely on one of the keyword tools that provide search results estimates for the entire U.S. For example, if I use the Yahoo Keyword Selector, it tells me that "sales tips" was searched on 1,647 times in the month of April across the U.S. "Selling tips," on the other hand, was only searched on 686 times. So, based solely on information from the Yahoo Keyword Selector, I would most likely optimize my web page using "sales tips."
And as it turns out, using "sales tips" would not be the best decision. Google Trends, which shows search results made specifically from St. Louis, MO, provides a different answer.
The Google Trends chart for sales tips vs. selling tips shows that I should optimize my web page using "selling tips" rather than "sales tips" because "selling tips" is searched on more frequently by searchers in St. Louis, MO. If I optimize my web page for "selling tips," then, I should see more visitors to the optimized page than if I relied on the Yahoo Keyword Selector tool which suggested "sales tips."
In St. Louis, MO, the difference between "sales tips" and "selling tips" is fairly slight. If I lived in Dallas or Denver, though, the phrase "selling tips" is significantly more popular than "sales tips". In Philadelphia and Salt Lake City, however, "sales tips" outperforms "selling tips," so someone looking to optimize a web page for those target markets would come to a different conclusion.
As I mentioned in my initial post, there are many shortcomings to the current version of the Google Trends tool. For example, your target city will not always show up in the top ten for search volume on the phrases you enter. In that case, you'll have to look to a "similar" city or region for guidance.
Overall, the Google Trends tool provides insight not available through other keyword tools. If you're small business owner with operations focused locally or regionally, I highly recommend that someone in your organization learn to use Google Trends to supplement whatever tools or methods you currently use to identify the best keywords for your web pages.
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