While we often talk about things being “green” or “sustainable,” is the average person searching for this information? Oftentimes, online visibility may be an afterthought in telling your sustainability story – but it doesn’t have to be.

In Shelton’s latest series of free reports, we’ve looked at specific terms that we tested in The Buzz on Buzzwords to see how much consumer interest exists on Google for each. We’ve analyzed these green keywords (and several more) to assess their power online – looking at how many people are actually using them in search queries, how interest varies by region, and how interest in these terms has varied over time.

Our free report Green Buzzwords: The Online Search Edition takes a look at trends and interest in what we’ve termed “The Big 3” – “green,” “sustainable,” and “eco-friendly” – as well as eight product-specific keywords, including “recyclable,” “biodegradable,” and “renewable.”

Its sister report, Green Buzzwords in the Built Environment (also free), goes one step further to analyze green keywords specific to the building and construction industries, including “LEED certification,” “net zero,” and “low-VOC.”

A few highlights:

• The term “green” is searched over 110,000 times a month in the U.S. alone.
• The term “sustainable” faces less competition than similar keywords, so it might be easier to rank organically for this term and related terms.
• Positioning yourself as “eco-friendly” on Google will be tough, as many organizations are competing online to rank for keywords related to eco-friendly products and services.

The trends we’ve uncovered should serve as an excellent high-level guide for reference when formulating your organization’s SEM or SEO strategy. And best of all, both reports are free – you can download them here:

Which report are you interested in?

>> Download Green Buzzwords: The Online Search Edition

>> Download Green Buzzwords in the Built Environment