Understanding what, when, and how your customers or target customers are searching for your store and products in stock is a key part in winning search results with local intent. Many of these search terms may be straightforward, but there are many that are unexpected and still drive customers to your business. We will explore these terms in the case of a gas stations, their growth over time, and any trends we can see in this data. 

Search Trend: Gas Station Near Me

For gas stations, this trend data will shed light on the habits of potentially valuable customers on the road. If we assume that a person searching for a nearby gas station is doing so to buy gas in that moment, their search is relatively urgent. This means an individual using this search term is very likely to complete a purchase where ever they go.

With this in mind, we can dig into our data...

Above, we can see the Google Trends data for the usage of the search term Gas Station Near Me over one week. 

Immediately, we can see over this 7-day period there is a spike in this search term between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM each day. This data does not tell us why but it does show us that there is a recurring window where there seems to be more frequent local searches for gas stations.

This serves as a strong starting point for us to start predicting customer behavior using this data. To get a better grasp of the trend we see in this term, we can expand our analysis to other search terms that customers may also use to find local gas stations.

How else do we search for gas stations?

By creating a 'cluster' of related search terms, we can start to validate the trends we see in our initial search term.

For our gas station example, we selected four additional terms that could reasonably be used instead of Gas Station Near Me to yield the same search results:

• Gas Near Me
• Diesel Near Me
• Fuel Near Me
• Gasoline Near Me

Below we compare the usage of each term to our initial term and see if the spike in use is common in each term.

Gas Near Me

The trend data for Gas Near Me shows nearly identical spikes in usage throughout the week that we saw initially in Gas Station Near Me. It is also worth noting that this data shows us that Gas Near Me is used more frequently than Gas Station Near Me. 

Fuel Near Me

For Fuel Near Me, we see much lower usage of this term in general. There are still noticeable peaks that match align with those spikes in Gas Station Near Me trend data.

Gasoline Near Me

Gasoline Near Me yielded an even lower level of usage, being used minimally compared to our initial search term. We can observe small spikes in usage that do align with our initial term, but we no longer see the clear daily spike in the morning.

Diesel Near Me

For Diesel Near Me we can see the trend data is similarly low compared to Gas Station Near Me. In this case we do still see related spikes and some of the recurring spikes that we have seen in different terms of this cluster.

What trends do we see?

From our search cluster, we can reasonably say there is a recurring spike in customers searching for gas/gas stations each morning between 2 am and 6 am. This provides business owners with the opportunity to invest in promotions that target prospective customers during this time period.

Another trend that can be found in these terms requires taking a step back. By looking at a longer time scale, 30 days, we also begin to see spikes in these search terms each weekend.

Above we can see the 30 day search trends for Gas Station Near Me, Gas Near Me, and Fuel Near Me. In each case, there is a very clear peak that takes place each weekend of the month. This provides another useful piece of information for businesses to use when trying leverage the habits of customers.

Search Growth: Gas Station Near Me

In addition to understanding the search trends we see in our search terms, we can also gain a lot from seeing how these terms have grown over time. 

Above is the growth in the use of the term Gas Station Near Me over the past seven years. We can see there has been 97% growth in the usage of this term, including some level of disruption likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Comparing this growth to the related non-local search term, we can see that the usage of Gas Station Near Me, in black, has grown nearly double that of Gas Station, in blue. Gas Station has only seen a 49% growth over the same time period.

This highlights a larger trend we have seen in search that local search is becoming more and more used every day. With prospective customers often looking for their needs to be met with local solutions. 

What else drives customers to gas stations?

In addition to all of the search terms we have explored so far, there are also terms to consider that cover the other things a gas station offers. For example, people often go to gas stations for snacks, drinks and to use the restroom. Searching for each of these terms does not strictly bring users to gas stations, but the trends associated with each can inform your business around the buying habits of your potential customers.

What's next?

We have observed several search trends that clearly indicate different habits of the average gas station customer. The next step for your business is to understand and use these trends to drive those prospective customers into your storefront. This can be done many ways from ensuring your online hours highlight that you are open during peak times to promotions that target those active during these windows. 

No matter what you choose, dbaPlatform can help your business make the most out of it. With a variety of tools and dedicated team to optimize your online presence, you can leverage every customer trend in no time. Book an appointment with our sales team today.