How Journalists Can Utilize Google Trends to Stay Ahead of News Cycles
The Google News Initiative aims to elevate, evolve, and empower journalists and news organizations through educational resources and technological innovation. Google News and Mary Nahorniak, in partnership with the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the U.S.A., presented this training program to teach those both new to and already familiar with Google Trends how to best utilize its unique software to connect with and understand digital audiences and keep up to date on online search trends.
Nahorniak is a U.S. Teaching Fellow with the Google News Lab and has worked as a journalist for 20 years. Prior to joining Google, she worked with multiple regional news outlets and served as the Director of Audience, Social Media Editor, and Deputy Managing Editor of Digital for USA Today.
Following Search Trends to Develop Stories and Optimize Engagement
Journalists and news organizations are able to use Google Trends to identify the most recent commonly searched questions on Google to generate articles with optimal search outcomes. For example, if the question “When is the housing market going to crash” spikes as a searched item, titling an article “When is the housing market going to crash is a red-hot search on Google — here’s why” is a good way to target audiences and increase the volume of clicks the piece receives. Directly answering a question and lifting the wording of a trend is just one of the ways journalists can use Google Trends to increase engagement and effectively inform the public.
Journalists can also use the Trending Searches function to pitch articles and ideas and generate interest with editors.
Tracking Correlations
Google Trends can be used to develop stories by tracking correlations between commonly searched topics and spikes in real-time events. For example, an increase in COVID-19 cases may correlate with a trending topic such as specific COVID-19 symptoms. Finding the correlation between events and commonly searched items can help a writer pin down the angle they want to pursue.
Writers can also view daily trends and real-time trends to find related queries on specific topics and determine what other information and answers should be included in an article. Viewing related queries on a rising trend can also be useful for finding a unique angle for a story because they trend on a smaller scale.
Comparing Trends to Shape Stories
Journalists can search multiple topics and terms and compare their popularity visually through the Explore page on Google Trends. This tool can be used to uncover which specific questions relating to topics and terms are trending in different languages and regions. Comparison analytics can also be adjusted to be sorted by top-trending topics or rising popularity. For journalists looking to stay ahead of the curve, sorting by rising trends may be more useful.
The Explore page can also be used to discover what questions are trending by region and time frame. By narrowing the search down to an area and entering query words such as “what” or “why,” users can view specific, timely questions being asked by audiences of certain regions. This can be useful for local reporters looking to answer their target audience’s questions.
In Case You Missed It
Visit g.co/newstraining for more information on the best ways to use Google tools for reporting and storytelling.
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