Google Trends: A Guide to Using It for SEO and Content Marketing
Google Trends is a Google tool that stands out for the rich insights it offers marketers who want to develop and optimize their SEO and content creation strategies. This guide explains in detail what Google Trends is, how it differs from other keyword tools and how you can use it effectively.
What Is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a tool that shows search trends over a given time period in charts. It lets you compare up to five search terms and adjust the results by geographic location, topic, time range and search surface.
There are four selectable ways to customize keyword data:
- Geographic location (individual country or worldwide).
- Topic categories (25 categories plus all categories at once).
- Four different search surfaces (image, news, shopping, YouTube).
- Time.
You can also examine keyword search trends with eight different time options, which gives you great flexibility.
How Is Google Trends Data Different From Keyword Search Volumes?
Google Trends differs from other keyword research tools because it doesn’t provide actual search volume data. Instead, it shows search interest as a relative value — in other words, how popular a specific keyword is over a given period, expressed on a scale of 0 to 100.
Third-party paid SEO tools usually provide estimated search volumes. Google Trends, however, derives its data directly from a sample of Google’s real search data, which makes it quite reliable.
How Can I Find Trending Topics on Google Trends?
There are two ways to find trending keywords on Google Trends:
- With the “Trending” page: You can use this page to see trending keywords and follow real-time search trends.
After the real-time trends, you can narrow things down by country and category if you wish.
- With the Google Trends Explore tool: This tool helps you discover trending keywords by setting a time frame. You can narrow searches down by the topics you’re interested in.
How to Use Google Trends for SEO and Marketing
Google Trends is a powerful tool for SEO and content marketing. Here are some ways to get the most out of it:
1. Use Google Trends Search Operators:
Google Trends responds to search operators that change the search data. You can customize keyword data using quotation marks, the plus sign, the minus sign or no operator at all.
There are four main search options.
- Quotation marks: ” “
Usage: “keyword1 keyword2”
This shows data for the exact match of the keywords in the same order inside the quotation marks. The example above only shows data for “keyword1 keyword2.”
- Plus sign: +
Usage: keyword1 + keyword2
This shows data for search phrases containing one keyword or the other. The example above shows data for keyword1 or keyword2.
- Minus sign: –
Usage: keyword1 -keyword2
This shows searches for phrases containing the given keyword but excludes phrases containing the keyword marked with the minus sign. The example above shows results for all phrases containing keyword1 but not keyword2.
- No search operator
Usage: keyword1 keyword2
Using no operator shows search interest for phrases containing the given keywords in any order.
2. Discover Insights From Time-Based Trends:
By examining Google Trends across different time ranges, you can discover long-term rising and falling trends. This gives you important information when shaping your content strategy. For short-term insights, it’s best to use data from the last seven days at most.
Long-term views can be especially useful for content marketing strategy.
3. Review Related Topics and Queries:
Google Trends’ “related topics” and “related queries” features help you understand how audiences search and which topics interest them. This can guide you when creating content.
Related queries work similarly to related topics. “Top” queries are generally the most popular searches, while “rising” queries are those that are becoming popular.
4. Focus on Short-Term Trends:
By focusing on short-term trends, especially 30- and 90-day periods, you can take advantage of fast-changing search trends. Focusing on these trends can help you attract more traffic from platforms such as Google Discover and Google News.
5. Review Keywords by Category:
Google Trends lets you narrow keyword queries down by category. This helps you capture the right context when creating content.
6. Identify Keywords by Geography:
By analyzing keyword popularity by geographic location, you can build local SEO strategies.
7. Target Search Intent With Search Types:
Google Trends lets you examine keyword data by search type. This helps you understand users’ search intent and optimize your content accordingly.
8. Optimize Content Planning:
Google Trends can also help you optimize your content production process. You can plan content around seasonal trends and specific holiday periods. For example, as a holiday approaches, publishing content about it can attract your target audience’s interest.
9. Use It for Competitor Analysis:
Google Trends is also useful for competitor analysis. You can compare keywords to learn about the popularity and search trends of competing brands or websites.
10. Create Content Titles:
Google Trends can inspire you when writing content titles. Using trending keywords and topics in your titles can bring you more organic traffic.
11. Refine Your Searches:
Refining your Google Trends research by search type helps eliminate the “noise” that can blur your keyword research, making it more accurate and meaningful. Google Trends data can be filtered by Google Shopping, Image search, News search, Web search and YouTube search. For example:
Here, YouTube search can be observed in Google Trends. This way, anyone working on YouTube SEO can easily benefit from Google Trends too.
Google Trends is a powerful tool for improving your SEO and content marketing strategies. By using it effectively to learn more about how audiences search and to stay ahead of your competitors, you can increase your traffic. With good research and analysis, Google Trends can strengthen your digital marketing strategy and help you achieve more success.
Remember, when used regularly for keyword analysis, content planning and competitor analysis, Google Trends can help strengthen your online presence.
I hope this guide helps you get started with Google Trends. By using it correctly, you’ll meet your target audience’s expectations and achieve more online success. Wishing everyone days full of visitors!
