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Thursday, January 05, 2006 3:47 PM

End of Year Google Trends - Analyzing Statistics

Let's take a moment to anylize what went in 2005. Google has created an excellent guide of popular trends and how they interact. Here's some information that will help out the web community who want to create content on the internet:

World Affairs - In the statistical world, events are usually a one-time thing. Although events happen at different times, they all are common is stats: there's a gigantic peak & then it usually goes pretty flat.
Good for content creation? Usually not. Unless you can follow trends and make it a full-time job (i.e. by working for CNN), you should steer clear of events such as this. Because of your stats falling flat, you won't receive much residual traffic effects.

Nature - Statistical trends for nature usually range from events to specific diseases and other "mother nature" effects. According to Google, "Ocean tsunami that devastated a huge area, and killed more than 283,000 people, and the October 7.6 earthquake in the Kashmir region, which killed more than 87,000." - the big news this year. However, I see the bird flu becoming more prevalent in rankings as 2006 progresses. If an epidemic hits, the statistics will turn into a world event & could trail off if a cure isn't found or the meds are in shortage.
Good for content creation? This one is a mix of both. It has potentials for residual traffic trends, but spike at specific times during the year. Areas such as the Bird Flu might be good trends for 2006, but might trail off later when a vaccine is introduced & used. However, events such as hurricanes have been happening over the past couple of years & will continue. If you can keep up with some of the writing for this (i.e. follow each new storm), you can create content-rich sites that will continue to deliver great traffic.

As for the other categories, take a look at them for their traffic trends. You might be surprised at how these trends deliver results at peak times and if they continue to create residual traffic. Overall, if you want to create content-rich sites that you don't have to maintain on a daily basis, your best bet is to find:

- Traffic trends that have residual traffic patterns. Spikes are ok, but having a giant spike does lead to dwindling residual traffic patterns.

- Create content that lasts the test of time - Sites that have photography of special, recurring events are great for this. 1st, people like to remember "the good times" while they tell others of how great that event was. Due to this "viral" referral traffic, you can expect to continue with new traffic interested in those same pictures.

- Create content that you like - nobody wants to write about articles they hate talking about...even if it makes them some money. It's amazing the response that I get for writing web pages/articles on subjects I'm passionate about. Do the same & the traffic will come to you.