Google trends launched for websites

Google Trends is a great tool for tracking the ebb and flow of ideas, products and personalities in the public eye.

I've used it, for example, to track customer awareness of an agency name change - which gave my agency a good handle on the speed at which our communications was shifting perceptions.

This is important for comms people in government bodies changing names due last year's Federal election (such as FAHCSIA vs FACSIA)

Google has now launched Google Website Trends.

In the words of Google, A new layer to Google Trends

Today, we add a new layer to Trends with Google Trends for Websites, a fun tool that gives you a view of how popular your favorite websites are, including your own! It also compares and ranks site visitation across geographies, and related websites and searches.

What does that mean for you?
In other words, communicators can now track the level of community awareness of their brand over time aggregated by all the search terms used in Google to reach their website. The reports also provide insights into the search terms used, and the other sites visited by these people.

For example a trend on Centrelink demonstrates how popular searches on the baby bonus have been in driving traffic to the site.

This can also look at the impact of campaigns on driving traffic (via Google) to a new site over time - such as this trend on the Do Not Call website (looks like ACMA needs to rebuild awareness of this site).

Here's a comparison of searches for the ATO and Centrelink sites as an example of the tool in action.

How do you use Google Trends?