Wondering how to use Google Trends for your dropshipping business? This ultimate guide will teach you everything you need to know to make use of this tool.
The e-commerce world is dynamic and ever-changing. And as a dropshipping store owner, the last thing you need is a bad product positioning or a product that does not sell well.
Luckily, it does not have to be like this. Not if you know how to use Google Trends for dropshipping. An excellent way to gain a competitive edge and keep up with the latest industry trends is to keep an eye on what people are searching on Google. This is where Google Trends comes into play.
So, before explaining how to use Google Trends for dropshipping, we would like to briefly describe what it is and how it works.
Table of Contents
The Definition – What Is Google Trends?
Offered by Google, Google Trends is an awesome tool that provides short- and long-term insight into what people from all over the world are searching on Google. In other words, it helps you find out what people are curious about.
As what people are searching for opens a telling window into what they are interested in and want to buy, Google Trends can be used within various fields, including e-commerce and dropshipping.
Fortunately, this tool is potent, highly versatile, and FREE. Thus, it is a must-have for any dropshipper like yourself trying to understand the market, identify a dropshipping niche, and find the best dropshipping products to sell.
In a nutshell, it may help your dropshipping business achieve its big dreams, without breaking the bank. But if you do not know how to use Google Trends for dropshipping, scroll down for more information on the topic.
How Do Google Trends Work?
As we have already said, before teaching you how to use Google Trends for dropshipping, we want to help you understand how the tool works.
So, here are the main elements/features of Google Trends:
Interest over time
Google Trends records how interest in a topic has changed and shows it to you in graph form. This is the most important element of this tool: Tracking search interest over a given period of time.
You should enter a search term into the search box at the top of the tool to find out how search volume has varied for that term over time. Let’s take a look at the graph produced by the search term “Coffee”.
As you can see, Google Trends tells you how interest in the search term “Coffee” has changed over time. You can change the time frame, including the “past hour”, “past 7 days”, “past 12 months”, “past 5 years”, etc.
Interest by region
If you want to learn how to use Google Trends for dropshipping, you must also understand that this tool shows you how search interest varies by location. You can see search data for different countries or even some larger cities.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the map showing areas where the search term “Coffee” is the most popular.
But what does this mean to you as a dropshipper? Well, the graph above helps you understand the specific areas/countries where the search interest for “Coffee” is the highest.
This can be beneficial if you want to market your products to customers in a certain area. But we will explore this topic more deeply later in this article.
Related topics and related queries
Related topics and related queries can give you related ideas for dropshipping niches, products, and brands.
The first option, i.e., the Related Topics, can help you find out what related topics people, who searched for your search term, may also be interested in.
However, the second option, i.e., the Related Queries, can give you some insight into what specific search terms or phrases people used when they searched for your term.
How To Use Google Trends For Dropshipping?
In essence, this tool enables you to better understand what people are interested in and curious about, in real time. But you can utilize this information to do the following things for your dropshipping business:
1. Identify a dropshipping niche
One of the first and most important steps in starting a dropshipping business is picking a niche.
Although you can run a general dropshipping store and sell products across many different categories, focusing on a single dropshipping niche lets you focus on a specific audience and offer the best products that will entice your potential customers.
Selecting a dropshipping niche can be a tricky process. But with Google Trends, you can check the popularity of a specific dropshipping niche. Simply put, with it, you can see whether people are searching for products in that specific niche or category.
Let us give an example to illustrate our point.
The data shows that there has been a healthy amount of search interest globally for the niche “women’s clothing” over the last 5 years. This may be a good indicator that this is a profitable dropshipping niche.
Now, let’s make a comparison between the niche “women’s clothing” and the niche “kids’ clothing” just to see which one is more popular.
As is evident from the graph above, the “women’s clothing” niche is a bit more popular than the “kids’ clothing” one.
Practical tips on how to use Google Trends for dropshipping:
- Start quite broad and use the filter “All Categories” to extract a topic for further exploration.
- Do a general search with an umbrella keyword that pertains to the industry you, as a dropshipper, are interested in.
- Once you have analyzed your keyword, use the comparison filter to make a comparison between two or more keywords.
2. Find the best products to sell
Finding the best products for dropshipping with Google Trends is also possible.
Product research is incredibly important for your dropshipping business. Finding the right products to sell can take too much time, not to mention the fact that most of the dropshipping product research tools have to be paid for.
Fortunately, Google Trends is a 100% free tool for finding trending products to sell online and spotting seasonal trends.
Let’s say that you are looking to enter the women’s fashion market in the US and want to explore the popularity of sleeveless dresses by using Google Trends.
As you can see, if you choose to sell sleeveless dresses through your dropshipping store, you are likely to deal with seasonal demands. Why? Because the demand for this product is higher during the summer months, like May, June, and July.
Learn more: Top 15 Hot Summer Products To Sell This Season
Practical tips on how to use Google Trends for dropshipping:
- Examine search volumes for a specific product within a defined time frame and in a specific country. These filters can help you clearly see whether the search volume is increasing or declining in a particular region within a defined time frame.
- Do not forget to pay attention to seasonal spikes and take advantage of them. You may need alternative products in the “drought” months.
- Use the “Related Topics” feature mentioned above. That way, you can find amazing product suggestions and expand your product offerings.
Interested in using other free methods to find what to sell online? Here are 5 free ways to find winning dropshipping products.
3. Target a certain country when promoting your dropshipping business
It is as clear as day that dropshipping stores are operated online. This means that your customers can be based anywhere in the world (if your dropshipping suppliers are willing to ship there, of course.)
But just because you can have global customers doesn’t mean that you do not have to assess the regional trends for your niche or product.
By using Google Trends, you can do so and understand where (in which countries) there is a huge spike in searches for your product.
That way, you can find a new market for your product and focus on that market when promoting your business.
Let’s go back to our “sleeveless dress” example and see what the world thinks about sleeveless dresses.
According to our search results, Ghana, the UK, Jamaica, and the US, to name a few, are the counties with the highest volume of searches for sleeveless dresses.
Practical tips on how to use Google Trends for dropshipping:
- Just click on a region to get more details on the search volume in that region. This allows you to see a list of subregions or even cities ranked based on the popularity of your search term.
4. Improve your SEO and content marketing strategies
You should also learn how to use Google Trends for your dropshipping business to improve your SEO and content marketing strategies. This will ultimately drive traffic to your site.
Namely, keyword search volume refers to how many times people typed a term into the search box of Google within a set time frame.
But why does this matter? Well, with Google Trends, you can enter a keyword phrase and check its popularity. And if the relevant keyword has high search volume, you may consider adding it to your product description or a blog post.
As a dropshipper, you want the keywords on your site to be relevant to what people are searching for so they are more likely to find your product and content among Google search results.
Take the term “lipsticks”, for example. According to Google Trends, the search volume for the term “lipstick” is trending upward, which means that it may be a good product to sell.
But you need to find the keywords that go with this query. Using Google Trends, scroll down to see the “Related Topics” and “Related Queries” to optimize the use of related keywords.
Practical tips on how to use Google Trends for dropshipping:
- Compare the search volume for the best keywords for your business and blog using the comparison filter. That way, you can find the most searched keyword.
- Spot trending topics. All you need to do is to select “Trending Searches” on the Home Page of Google Trends and browse daily and real-time search trends. Also, you can search by country. Here is what all this looks like:
Though Google’s top-trending searches often include celebrity news, you will also find some trending topics related to your specific industry.
And you may want to use that information as a source of inspiration for coming up with topics to write about and generating keywords to use.
Google Trends Compared To other Dropshipping Research Tools
Google Trends is a great tool for finding trending products and popular keywords. It allows you to take a look at the big picture of your industry and market and identify general consumer behavior.
Still, if you want to find more specific and accurate information, it is recommended to use it in combination with other tools.
For instance, SEMrush is an excellent tool for doing keyword research. It is a bit expensive. But it is definitely good value for money. Another great tool for this purpose is Ahrefs. It is a pricey option, as well. However, it is also a very powerful tool.
When it comes to finding what to sell, you can use one of the best dropshipping product research tools like Sell the Trend, Niche Scraper, Ecomhunt, etc.
Check our full Niche Scraper Review.
Check our full Ecomhunt Review.
Check our full Sell The Trend Review.
Again, use one of these tools together with Google Trends for the best results.
Conclusion
To summarize, Google Trends is a potent tool that helps you obtain data regarding the popularity of search terms across different regions over a given period of time.
And you have probably heard that this tool is useful for dropshipping store owners and e-commerce entrepreneurs.
But if you do not know how to use Google Trends for dropshipping properly, you will not be able to take full advantage of its powerful features. This is the reason why we decided to write this article.
