It's that time of year – search engines are announcing their top search terms, just as marketers are looking to develop SEO strategies for 2011. Closely following Yahoo and Bing's […]

It's that time of year – search engines are announcing their top search terms, just as marketers are looking to develop SEO strategies for 2011. Closely following Yahoo and Bing's top searches of 2010, Google has released its annual zeitgeist revealing how the world searched its sites in the past year.

Google says that about 20 percent of the searches conducted each day are new. Still, there are clear search trends captured in its annual zeitgeist report.

A site devoted to Google's trending searches also offers an interactive map for marketers to see when and where in the world hot searches were conducted. The search giant breaks down searches according to different categories, which might offer value to businesses in various industries.

For instance, the company has made a list of the fastest-rising health queries that brands in health services might appreciate, while its list of the fastest-rising searches in consumer electronics might benefit tech businesses. (Notably, "hcg diet" and "iPad" were the top queries in these two categories, respectively.)

Google also calculated the fastest-rising people in terms of search (with "Justin Bieber" unsurprisingly ranking No. 1), as well as the fastest-rising search terms overall. All marketers might be interested to know that searches for "chatroulette," "iPad," "Twitter" and "Facebook" made the top 10 queries list this year.

Understanding the top trending search phrases on search giant Google can offer valuable insight to marketers planning SEO strategies for next year. Additionally, content marketers might be interested in the Global Language Monitor's predictions for the top words of 2011, which Brafton reported may have important SEO implications. 

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.