First, get a crystal ball. You can find it here: google.com/trends.
I’m probably late to this party, but I was introduced to Google Trends the other day during a training session. Is there anything Google can’t do?
Yes, it’s a cool website on its own. It presents what’s trending in popularity based on the number of searches done on that particular topic. You can specify broad areas such as Business, Entertainment, Sci/Tech, or type in a search term. For each topic, you’re given a graph of how popular it has been over the past few days, what region has shown the interest, and what those searches are.
Fascinating, right?
Get More Eyes on Your Blog
I heard that yawn. What’s very cool is its usefulness for writing blog posts. If you want to get more eyes on your blogs, try writing about a trending topic. Here’s an example.
Type in the term “adult coloring books.” Here’s what Google’s graph for that topic shows:
Zowee, that’s quite a spike! You’ll notice if you enlarge the image above (by clicking on it), there are letters along the line. Mousing over them will show you various articles written on the topic from various sources. Here’s an example:
You can also find maps showing where in the world the interest is in the topic, and what search terms were used. When you write your blog post, be sure to tag it with the same terms people used to search for the topic. It’s not guaranteed, but you might find your post appearing high in the rankings.
Nobody’s Searching for My Topic
But what if your topic isn’t popular? Try choosing one of the broad categories and look at the little graphs. For example, as I’m writing this, the top stories (main) page looks like this:
Note the graph on topic 21, OpenBiome. The line is still going up. That might be a topic to choose. But it might not. As I was doing some research and looking at other topics, OpenBiome had dropped to #33. If you click on the graph itself, though, it is still trending upwards. The idea is to write something you’re familiar with, but link it to the popular topic. You may have your own particular angle on it.
You aren’t limited to the United States, either. Choose another country, and see what searches are popular there.
Beware! Looking at Google Trends can become addictive. Before you know it, your original topic is no longer the hottest thing on the planet.
Have fun!