Exploring the Evolution of Web Search Trends in the Coworking Space Industry: A Comprehensive Google Trends Analysis

  • Google searches related to ‘coworking’ experienced a significant and consistent increase starting from 2007, peaking in mid-2021.
  • The number of ‘coworking’ searches stabilized in 2022, showing a sustained level of interest with low seasonal fluctuation.
  • The interest for ‘virtual office’ topics remained high and dominant among niche keywords throughout the past year.
  • New York State, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Colorado emerged as notable states with strong interest in various coworking services, as evidenced by their high rankings across generic and niche keywords.

Over the past few years, coworking spaces have become increasingly popular among startups, small businesses, enterprise clients, and freelancers as flexible office space solutions. As the demand for coworking spaces continues to rise, it’s essential for operators and investors to stay on top of market trends. Web search trends are a reliable indicator of market stability and potential future demand.

In a recent study, CoworkingCafe analyzed Google search trends for coworking-related keywords. The report provides an overview of almost two decades of data, along with a closer look at the past 12 months. By examining these trends, CoworkingCafe has identified patterns of evolution, geographical distribution, and key events in the coworking industry. This analysis offers operators and investors valuable insights for making informed decisions based on market trends and future demand.


Metrics Used to Analyze Coworking Search Trends

Interest over time
Interest over time scores are calculated as a percentage of search volume, where 100 represents the point of highest interest within the given timeframe, regardless of the actual search volume.

This metric is useful for identifying trends over time and understanding the popularity of specific coworking-related keywords.
Interest by subregion
Similarly, interest by subregion compares the most popular region for coworking searches to other regions. The most popular region is assigned a value of 100, while all other regions are compared to it.

This metric is useful for identifying geographic trends and variations in search volume.
Both metrics provide valuable insights into coworking search trends, but it’s important to note that a score of 0 indicates that there is not enough data for the term. By analyzing these metrics in combination, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of coworking search trends over time and across regions.


20-Year Overview: How Coworking Interest Went from Zero to Hero

Web search trends provide valuable insights into the evolution of coworking over time. The concept of coworking has been gaining attention for over two decades, with ups and downs in web search trends. When the dot-com bubble burst, coworking was still a relatively new concept, but it began to gather interest during the economic downturn from late 2007 into 2009. From 2011 to 2017, there were multiple record-high months in coworking-related searches.


In October 2017, there was a significant increase in coworking-related searches, with commercial results from coworking space marketplaces breaking the dominance of informational content on the first result page. Meanwhile, stories about WeWork’s expansion and other innovative coworking spaces made headlines, although the concept was still not widely understood.

The second significant spike in coworking searches occurred in January 2020, just before the worldwide lockdowns began to transform work at the office as we knew it. The drop that followed was even more significant, bottoming out in April as headlines questioned the future of the coworking business model in the face of COVID-19.

As of June 2021, coworking interest and search trends were on the rise again, with demand from remote workers and downsizing enterprises. This trend was reflected in new coworking locations being announced almost daily, and a growing public interest in the benefits of coworking.
Economic downturns and the pandemic have impacted coworking interest and search trends, but the industry has shown resilience and adaptability in response. Coworking spaces continue to offer flexible solutions for a changing work landscape, and web search trends can help operators and investors make informed decisions.

Analyzing the Latest Coworking Search Trends: 12-Month Overview

In this section, we delve into 12-month search trends for four popular coworking-related keywords: ‘coworking’, ‘shared office space’, ‘virtual office’, and ‘private office space’. Analyzing search volume fluctuations for each term helps gain insight into current market demand and preferences.

Examining Last 12 Months Search Trends and Popular Locations for the ‘Coworking Keyword
The search interest for ‘coworking’ remained stable at the beginning of 2022 and began to increase in mid-June, peaking in mid-July. Interest levels stayed largely above pre-peak levels until late November, when slipped to the lowest interest score measured in this 12-month period, 64, indicating a decrease of only 36% from the highest level. This consistency suggests that the coworking industry is stabilizing, and seasonality does not have a significant impact on people’s intent to book a flexible workspace or learn about coworking.

In terms of locations, Washington, D.C. had the highest ratio of coworking-related searches in the last 12 months, followed by Hawaii and Colorado. New York state took 4th place, while Oregon came in fifth with the popularity of coworking-related searches staying at half the level recorded in D.C.
Exploring the Popularity and Fluctuations of ‘Shared Office Space’ as a Search Term
The search interest for ‘shared office space’ demonstrated similarities to ‘coworking,’ with a comparable interest pattern, but with higher volatility. The shared office space search term had an average interest score of 59 throughout one year, representing a less popular synonym with fewer users searching for it, amplifying the movements on the interest-over-time scale.


Although ‘shared office space’ had significant overlap in terms of search intent with coworking, it had a different leaderboard for the top search locations, with New York in the first position. Moreover, the distribution map revealed that areas with larger business communities showed more interest in ‘shared office space.’ Unlike ‘coworking,’ the search term ‘shared office space’ had no significant interest in most of the west north-central and mountain states, as well as parts of the South and Northeast. The specificity of the search term indicated a more targeted intent, and since it can be interpreted as a less popular synonym to coworking, its geographical distribution naturally corresponded with areas with more significant business presence — and therefore larger overall search volumes.

Virtual Office: High and Consistent Interest Over the Last 12 Months

The interest in virtual office services remained consistently high over the last 12 months. In February 2022, the search term had an interest score of 89, which soon peaked in early March. This level of interest was maintained at more than 80% until mid-May, followed by a gradual decline until the lowest point in November, with an interest over time score of 61. However, two brief upswings in June and August temporarily interrupted the decline. Interest for virtual offices bounced back and maintained similar levels during the winter months, though with more modest high points.


Geographically, the widespread need for virtual office services was reflected uniformly across regions, with the East Coast having the highest interest in virtual office queries. Washington, D.C. took top position, followed by Georgia, New York, Virginia, and Maryland.
Exploring Search Interest in the Niche Market of ‘Private Office Space’

The search interest for private office space remained steady throughout the year, with peaks in late January 2023, and comparable peaks in February 2022 and later in April and October. The deepest troughs were registered in in September and mid-December. It’s worth noting, however, that with low-volume keywords like ‘private office space,’ relative fluctuations are expected to be higher.

Due to the niche market segment aimed at individuals and teams with high budgets and specific needs, it’s not surprising to see a scarcity of interest across most regions. However, areas with buzzing startup scenes such as the Tri-state area, leading California markets, Chicago, and the large Texas hubs had a higher level of interest.

Methodology
To conduct this study, CoworkingCafe used Google Trends data from January 2004 to February 2023, as well as Ahrefs archives for historical ranking page analysis. Check out the full report for more
detailed information on the methodology.


Pano Savvidis
Pano Savvidis

Digital marketing expert since 2010. My passions include travelling, swimming and listening to good music.