As the controversies surrounding the solar industry heat up, the wind industry is keeping its cool as it bounces back from a rocky 2010. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Q3 report, the wind industry had more than 1,200 MW installed in the third quarter, and more than 8,400 MW under construction – the most in any quarter since 2008.
The EU climate and energy package — known as the 20-20-20 target — places Europe as a world leader in the field of sustainable and renewable energy. By 2020, the continent could add around 600 TWh in new renewable electricity generation.
You’ve started a blog for your green business and include examples of your company’s sustainability initiatives. You’ve highlighted your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint and green your supply chain in your company’s marketing collateral. You’ve created guides for your customers of how to be environmentally conscious with your product.
You’ve laid the ground work for your green business marketing. But much like any industry (and especially with green) things are changing and news is happening fast and furious. There are always new things to be trying and new green ideas you can be writing about to show that your business is on the front lines of the green movement.
The tag line for the popular movie The Watchmen was “Who watches the Watchmen?” With Google if you’ve ever wondered, “Who searches the searchers?” the answer is Google Insights.
Google Insights gives people access to see what people are searching for on Google. And before you start to cry privacy foul, this data is on a very high level and no personal data is being shared here.
Google Insights is best used for three things:
But first, you need to go to the site and start searching for something you are focusing your business on in regards to green issues. Let’s say you run a furniture store.
Perhaps you’d want to search for “eco friendly furniture” or “eco furniture” (“green furniture” would obviously pull up some unwanted data). We want to start broad as Insights works with very high level data.
General Interest
The first thing you are going to notice on Google Insights is the search interest graph. This graph gives you an idea of how many people were searching for that term over the last few years.
As you are trying different keywords for things your company is focusing on in the green sphere this graph will give you some insight into what is gaining popularity and what is not.
Popular News Articles
If you are looking for article topics to write on your companies blog concerning the latest innovations and news in green issues, Insights can be a real help. On many keywords that you enter the interest graph will be smaller and on the right you will have a list of trending articles related to your topic.
These are usually from very respected news websites and can get your brain spinning thinking of things to write about. Not to mention keeping up with the latest news on eco-issues will keep you well informed and knowledgeable on the subject.
Ideas for Future Initiatives
The last piece of Insights that could possibly be the most helpful is the Rising Searches section at the bottom right.
Rising Searches can give you an idea of topics similar to the one you searched for that are becoming popular on Google. If your marketing efforts have the goal of bringing people to your site you may want to incorporate these new ideas into your plan.
In the furniture example you may have focused your business on providing furniture that is eco-friendly but were you aware of the desire for recycled furniture? Could you possibly have a page on your website that explains what the materials are in eco-friendly furniture to help people searching for that information? What exactly is organic furniture and how does it compare to other types of furniture?
People often look all over for ideas of how to perform better in their online marketing, especially in terms of getting more visitors form Google to their site. But not a lot of people realize that Google itself has a ton of tools to help you do just that. After you’ve had your fill of Google Insights you might want to check out some of their other similar tools like Google Trends and Google’s Ad Words Tool.
Guest Author Bio
Frank Anderson is a marketing and technology blogger. He currently works with exchange hosting and other web technologies.
I am an eco entrepreneur, author, and admin here on People Planet Profit Blog. Let me know if you have any questions I am here to help. I’ll show you how to make a rewarding and profitable career in the Energy Industry... just contact me.
