How Google Trends can help your business
Embarking on any new journey can be intimidating and challenging, however, it can also be very exciting. With the right steps presented in this search engine marketing (SEM) report, I anticipate that this new journey of opening new coffee shop drive-thru’s around the world will be very rewarding.
To put this report together, I studied all search engine data and trends to discover where people are looking for coffee shops, what kinds of people want coffee shops, and how all of that data can lead to the best places for us to open up shop. Search engine data analytics shows data from past Google searches to help gain insight into trends, monitor keywords, and provide valuable information to social marketers. By using Google Trends, we can better understand where the highest coffee demand is and use that to our advantage.
Before jumping into the data, it's important to understand the background behind it. Everyone uses Google. When you search something on Google there are two types of search engine result pages (SERPs) that can come up. The first option is a paid search engine result page (SERP), which includes advertisements that brands pay to have shown near the top or on the right side of a page. The second option is organic SERPs which are automatic and natural search results based on Google’s algorithm. Due to how many people use Google daily and the impact it has on business success, many companies will pay for advertising to bring more customers to them.
To determine the best U.S. area to grow our coffee company, a search engine marketing approach will allow us to see what is trending and how people are interacting with different search engine keywords like coffee, coffee shops, and coffee near me. According to WordStream, keywords make a huge difference when search engines like Google or Bing are ranking which websites to show at the top of a SERP. The more relevant keywords you have, the better your website will do in the ranking, according to WordStream. Let’s take a look at those keywords.
For our coffee company in Minnesota, the first step in deciphering where we should grow the company is to analyze Google Trend data and reveal where the most interest in coffee shops is. The United States is one of the leading countries in the world for coffee shop searches. According to Google Trends, the United States has the third-highest number of searches for the words “coffee shops” in the world.
Search interests across the world
Going even deeper, according to Google Trends, Minnesota ranks third in the United States for states with the highest number of “coffee shops” search interests. This data tells us that the number of people looking for coffee shops daily, is one of the highest in the United States. Additionally, the states neighboring Minnesota are Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Each of these states also has a high search volume of coffee shops. Compared to Minnesota’s 86 search interests, Wisconsin has 70, North Dakota has 74, South Dakota has 66 and Iowa has 59. All of these states are in the top 15 for the highest “coffee shop” search interest.
Search interests by state
Furthermore, “coffee shops” have been largely trending in most of these states over the last decade or so. According to Google Trends, the spike in Minnesota began around 2011 and has since been growing. The data shows a deep decline in April 2020, which we know was when the pandemic hit and people weren’t able to go outside to their local coffee shops. Since then, search interests have spiked again.
Search interests in Minnesota
Additionally, in the neighboring states of Wisconsin and Iowa, the search interests seemed to have spiked in 2012 and have been increasing ever since. This is a good sign for the state because it means more and more people are looking for local coffee shops to go to.
Search interests in Wisconsin
Search interests in Iowa
However, in states like North Dakota and South Dakota, the trend seems to be a little backward which may not help out the company as much as Wisconsin would. According to Google Trends, both states hit their peak back in 2004 and have since remained very low. In 2004, the search interest for both was 100, and now in 2024, the search interest is 16 in North Dakota and 13 in South Dakota.
Search interests in North Dakota
Search interests in South Dakota
An important aspect to also consider is the “breakout” terms on Google Trends. These are similar phrases or words that people also search in relation to “coffee shops”. One of those that may be helpful in further supporting this report is “coffee near me”. According to Google Trends, this phrase is also increasing in search interest in all of Minnesota’s neighboring states including Minnesota itself.
Search interests data in this order - South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin
Due to this promising data and the proximity to the company headquarters, I believe the best states to begin growing our drive-thru coffee shops would be in Wisconsin, Iowa and in Minnesota itself too. Each of these states showed promising upward trends in search engine results and search interests. To help further increase this Google Trend data, when modifying our website there are a few things we can look at to make sure our coffee shop is reaching the top of the SERP.
One of those is to adjust our URL. As mentioned early on in the report, keywords are very important, especially in relation to your URL. According to Hubspot, a URL with quality keywords is one of the best things for search engine optimization. Adjusting little things like URLs and paying attention to trending searches to implement those keywords will make a big difference in the overall success of our company, not only for the next 10 shops, but for the next 25+!