Google reveals top searches for 2010 – SMEs urged to cash in

Businesses operating online are being urged to watch the trends revealed by Google’s list of top searches for 2010, with one expert saying they can be incorporated into your own business to gain new traffic.

Once again, social network Facebook took out the most popular search term for the year, followed closely by YouTube and Google.

Google describes the results as showing “a glimpse into the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends which captivated us throughout 2010”.

This year has definitely been one in which online retail has taken off in Australia, with the Zeitgeist showing “Woolworths online shopping” took out the fastest-rising retail search of the year, with Zara and Nordstom also in the top 10.

DFO South Wharf was also listed as one of the fastest rising retailers of 2010.

One of the biggest trends appears to be the rise of social networking, with sites such as Chatroulette, Tumblr and Formspring on the fastest rising searches list.

Stewart Media chief executive Jim Stewart says the searches provide great information for businesses on how they can address current events and grab some search traffic.

“Traditionally what the Google Zeitgeist has done is provide insights into not only what people are searching for, but insights into other markets as well,” he says.

“For instance, these days you will see a lot of social media campaigns on Facebook. But you also see a lot of searching for those campaigns on Google, so you can see what’s happening outside of your own spheres of influence.”

The search results show video-chatting site Chatroullete took out the fastest rising search term of the year, followed by Q&A website Formspring and ABC3.

“This has been a massive year for Facebook. And you can see that people are still putting Facebook into Google, so that tells me you’re dealing with a fairly unsophisticated audience. So Google is telling you who’s really using the internet and for what purpose.”

Stewart points out that if you can use these trends and then incorporate them into your own site, then you should do so in order to build traffic. But he also says you shouldn’t be using these trends as keywords if your site’s content is irrelevant.

Retailers are also being urged to incorporate search trends in order to increase sales. Kitchenware site Everten Online is well known for this, with chief executive Hal Pritchard plugging Masterchef keywords into the site to attract buyers – Stewart says he does the same.

“I wrote a blog post on WikiLeaks recently, and then I wrote one on NASA’s announcement last week. This week I’ve had over 1,000 hits on those two topics. So if you look at what people are searching for it can give you some good ideas.”

“These searches can also give you an indication as to what people are searching for outside of those one or two word searches sometimes, so it’s good to keep track on those as well.”