Key Takeaway: Nothing about this year was predicted, understanding user behavior through trends have been one key component for SEOs weathering this market shut down. In his presentation, "Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis", Dr. Pete discusses utilizing keyword data to measure user behavior shifts: Lego has done it with Baby Yoda.
SEO Tools to Spot Trends
In May of this year, ecommerce sales were up 78% (above holiday spending average in May), but this was at the expense of brick and mortar. How are we able to leverage the SEO tools we have now to tap into this new wave of online shoppers? Spotting trends.
Google Trends
Dr. Pete kicks off with the tool we are most familiar with Google Trends, he recommends that we leverage this tool to understand how the intent of searches are shifting. What he saw was more often than not people were searching for information vs. commercial use.
For example, I need a haircut, but in this given time (depending where you are), I’m unable to go to my local stylist (or any stylist), pre-march I would be searching for “hair stylist near me” but post-march my search has become “how to cut your own hair”.
Another trend Dr. Pete spotted was following informational intent to a shift in product based searches, keeping up with the above examples, after watching a few DIY hair cuts, or reading a quick how-to, I am now set out on cutting my own hair (yikes), back to Google I go with a product based intent, “hair clippers”, “scissors”, etc.
Social Tools
The next two tools Dr. Pete introduced, some marketers never thought to leverage: Pinterest Trends and Advanced Search on Twitter.
Social media platforms have the power to be their own search engine, especially Pinterest. Dive into this beta test to understand the shift in user intent.
For example, the search for “up-dos” has gone down over time. Why? We are home more.
💡 Pro Tip: Leverage this tool to identify long tail searches.
Advanced Search on Twitter
Diving deeper into Advanced search on Twitter to understand what trends are growing in the community.
💡 Pro Tip: Get granular by searching for volume between dates, languages, minimum likes, retweets, etc.
Operators on Twitter “exact match” (term1 OR term2) -negative #hashtag min_faves:nn, min_retweets:nn
Leverage Reddit and Google Search Console to identify trends without MSV.
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