Identifying new search term trends before they get really competitive is an easy way to get traffic. Here are a few ways to spot them:
First, you might come across something noteworthy in your day-to-day life. For example, let’s imagine Kanye West was wearing orange fluorescent high-top sneakers when he stormed the stage at the VMAs. People would probably be talking about his outburst and his crazy shoes.
Kanye West's Fluorescent High-Tops
The first place you’d check to see if your hunch was right is Trendistic. Trendistic lets you see Twitter trends. If there’s a lot of people talking about “fluorescent high tops”, you can assume that people will be typing that search phrase on Google too.
Another way to spot trends is to use third-party tools like Google Trends and the Google Keyword Tool. Google Trends is awesome because it’s free, provides accurate data, and lets you go back in time to see what was popular in the past. With the Google Keyword Tool, you’ll need to create an Adwords account, but you don’t necessarily have to pay for a campaign. You can type in a general keyword query, select the proper category (in this case Apparel > Footwear > Athletic Shoes), and look for unusual patterns in the “Local Search Trends” column.
Google Keyword Tool
The final way to spot trends is to look at your internal search data. Wait, you are tracking internal searches, right? If not, it’s really easy to set up in Google Analytics. Just go into Content > Site Search and follow the on-screen instructions.
Anyway, when you dig down into the internal search data, the upcoming trends are probably not going to be in your top 10 or even in your top 100. You’ll really need to get down into the weeds to pull out those insights. One way to go about it is to compare keyword phrases that are driving traffic now with how they’ve performed in the past. Luckily, that information is pretty easy to gather with Google Analytics. Just go to Traffic Sources > Keywords and check the “Compare to Past” checkbox next to the calendar.
Comparing Traffic to Keyword for Different Date Ranges
You can compare the amount of traffic keywords were driving with other analytics packages (like Omniture) too.
Internal Search Analytics
So, what do you do once you’ve identified a hot new trend? Build content! This includes:
- Dedicated page(s) about Kanye West’s Orange Fluorescent High Tops
- On-site promos
- Landing page(s)
If your company sold shoes, here’s an example of a landing page that you could come up with:
Fluorescent High Tops Landing Page
Once you’ve built your pages, you still have to get noticed. After all, building content is pointless unless the engines know about it. That means you’ll need:
- Social outreach
- Link building
- Optimized Internal Links
- Updated XML Sitemaps
The best part of being a first mover is that you’ll get good rankings early on; therefore, when people start to write more about Kanye’s orange high-tops, your page will likely be used (and linked to) as a resource. This will help cement your rankings, even when more competition starts to emerge.
Conclusion
So you’ll probably be patting yourself on the back once you’ve found a new trend, created relevant pages on your site, got indexed and generated a ton of traffic. But you’re not done yet! You need to rinse and repeat! Keep looking for new trends and develop an efficient content creation strategy. The faster you can spot trends and churn out content, the better chance you’ll have of securing the first-mover advantage.
For more advice, check out 8 Ways You’re Not Saving Money (and How to Start). It’s an exclusive, in-depth white paper about how keyword analytics can maximize ROI in 8 different marketing channels.
Mike Gugel is an SEO Coordinator at Acronym Media. Special thanks to Director of User Experience Optimization Tami Dalley.
Trend analysis is also good for spotting and predicting seasonal search variability. It is equally good for finding related terms that are not as greatly impacted by seasonality. With a mix of both, you can put yourself in a good position to capitalize on seasonal upswings without dropping off the radar in the “off season”.
This is weird. That’s how I have it bookmarked, yet the link isn’t working for me. Not sure what’s up with that. The bookmark works whether I’m logged in or not.
Why in the world don’t we have a “What’s HOT” page on our site? Thanks for pointing that out. It’s one of those tips that make you go DUH for not having already implemented. I also like the fast movers in Omniture.
Thanks for the article Mike Gugel, traffic is the most important part of website promotion. This is the great article which helps most of the online business. Spot Trends ideas are good, i am very new to blog-spot this is useful advice for me too, nice post, once again thanks for the information.
Hmmm… seems we need the crystal ball powers of trend forecasting to really stay on it. Thanks for the great guidelines on how to streamline a process that could definitely bring more attention to our site. As a computer repair geek, there is a certain irony to me trying to promote trends.
I have been researching this for a very long time now and I have not been able to find such top quality information untill I came to your blog today.
Mark McCulloch
[...] to Identify New Trends & Generate Easy Traffic: http://www.acronym.com/keyworddriven/how-to-identify-new-trends-and-generate-easy-traffic.htmlFrom TSR Archives:Comparing the Usability of Google Chrome Vs. iPad: [...]
Trend analysis depends on historical records to determine what to write. By the time you finished writing, you’ll be a little bit too late. Isn’t it better to be a trendsetter? Is there any trendstetting tool out there? LOL
Hmmm, I did not know that you can more with the Google Keyword Tool and Google Analytics.
Thanks for sharing.
Good post.Thanks for sharing your idea. Keep it up.
[...] to learn more about how to spot the latest trends and opportunities? Be sure to check out our post “How to Identify New Trends and Generate Easy Traffic” for more practical tips, techniques and [...]
Thanks for sharing your idea with us….. Thanks.
Great post Mike…I’m in the building stage of creating a trend and the information you shared was very HELPFUL. Keep it coming!
Tyrone Malone
Identifying upcoming trends and how long they will be around can be difficult.
If you are NOT up to par with what’s cool and what’s not, you stand the risk of ruining it all by going out on a ‘flimsy’ limb. Be sure to offer products that will stand the test of time alongside your Trendsetting items/offerings – just in case what you thought to be the latest Trend turns out to be the latest Flop. For us, it’s Video. Simply because we can change it to match current/upcoming trends as they occur.
- Lamont Everett Dennis