Leveraging Google Trends for SEO and Content Marketing: Unveiling Strategies and Best Practices

‍Google Trends is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights for SEO and content creation. From real-time search trends to related queries and category insights, Google Trends offers marketers numerous opportunities to refine their strategies and optimize for better performance. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything you need to know about Google Trends and how to use it effectively to grow your traffic and stay ahead of the competition.

What is Google Trends?

Google Trends is a tool that analyzes search queries and displays search trends over a specific period of time in the form of a graph. It allows users to compare up to five keyword search terms and customize the results based on geographic location, topic, time period, and search surface (image, news, shopping, and video). The tool provides four ways to customize keyword data:

• Geographic location: Users can select individual countries or view worldwide trends.
• Topic categories: Google Trends offers 25 categories, as well as an option to view all categories simultaneously.
• Search surfaces: Users can explore keyword trends specific to image, news, shopping, or YouTube searches.
• Time: Google Trends allows users to analyze keyword search trends over different time settings, ranging from the past hour to the past five years.

How is Google Trends Data Different from Keyword Search Volumes?

One key distinction between Google Trends and other third-party keyword research tools is that Google Trends does not provide keyword search volume data. Instead of showing the exact number of searches, Google Trends displays search query data as a percentage on a scale of 0 to 100. On the other hand, third-party paid SEO tools estimate keyword volumes by purchasing data from other providers and creating statistical estimates based on that data. These data providers are typically software companies that collect anonymous search data from their users.

Google Trends, however, derives its data from a sampling of Google’s actual search data, making it the most accurate keyword search data available. Google Trends uses sampling because the volume of data is too large to process, as billions of searches are performed on Google every day. Despite being a sample, Google assures users that it is representative of the actual search volume. As Google explains, “By sampling data, we can look at a dataset representative of all Google searches, while finding insights that can be processed within minutes of an event happening in the real world.”

Although Google Trends does not provide exact keyword volume data, it does offer keyword volume data expressed as a percentage, with 100% representing the highest amount of traffic for a given period. This percentage data can be compared with other keywords with known search volumes. Known search volumes can be obtained by selecting keyword phrases from Google’s trending searches report, which can be filtered by specific geographic areas. By comparing keywords from the trending searches report against those with unknown search volumes, you can gain an accurate representation of actual keyword volume.

Finding Trending Items on Google Trends

There are two primary ways to identify trending searches on Google Trends: through Google’s “trending now” webpage and the Google Trends Explore tool.

Trending Now

The “trending now” webpage showcases the top twenty daily search trends for the current day. By clicking on the navigation button, users can access real-time search trends. They can then select the appropriate country and category to view trending keywords in their desired context. The available categories to choose from are Business, Entertainment, Health, Sci/Tech, Sports, Top Stories, and more.

Explore Google Trends by Time

The second method to discover trending keywords is by using the Explore Google Trends tool and setting the time period to something relatively recent, such as the past hour, past four hours, past day, or past seven days. This approach allows you to explore trending searches within specific time frames and observe the popularity of certain keywords during those periods.

How to Use Google Trends for SEO and Marketing

Google Trends offers a variety of ways to manipulate filters and extract actionable search query data. Here are some effective methods to leverage Google Trends for SEO and content marketing:

1. Use Google Trends Search Operators

Google Trends responds to search operators, which can modify the displayed data. There are four search operators you can utilize:

• Quotation marks: “keyword1 keyword2” – This shows keyword data for an exact match of the keywords in the same order as included within the quotation marks.
• Plus sign: keyword1 + keyword2 – This shows keyword data for search phrases containing either keyword1 or keyword2.
• Minus sign: keyword1 -keyword2 – This shows searches for keyword phrases that include keyword1 but exclude phrases containing keyword2.
• No search operators: keyword1 keyword2 – This shows search interest in keyword phrases containing the given keywords in any order.

Using these search operators can help you refine your keyword research and obtain more specific and relevant insights.

2. Discover Insights from Time-Based Trends

Google Trends allows you to analyze keyword data over different time periods, ranging from the past hour to the past five years. By examining keyword trends over longer periods of time, you can identify audience trends and patterns. Pay attention to the following:

• Upward long-term trends: If a trend consistently shows an upward trajectory, it indicates the need to focus on creating content related to that trend.
• Downward long-term trends: If a trend line steadily declines, it may suggest a shift in audience content consumption or indicate that the trend is becoming obsolete.
• Seasonal patterns: Regular spikes in searches at specific intervals may indicate seasonal patterns in search queries. For example, certain topics may experience increased interest during holidays or specific seasons.

Analyzing long-term trends enables content marketers and publishers to understand when it’s time to pivot to upward-trending topics or product categories and when to let go of declining trends.

3. Explore Related Topics and Queries

Google Trends provides two valuable features: “related topics” and “related queries”. When investigating a specific keyword phrase, related topics show up and reveal search queries that share a common concept. This information is useful for understanding how audience or consumer demand is shifting and can provide ideas for content generation or new product selections.

Related queries, on the other hand, showcase the most popular and rising search queries related to a particular topic. These insights help you stay ahead of the competition and identify emerging trends or topics of interest.

4. Capitalize on Short-Term Trends

Viewing keyword trends in the short term, such as over the past 90 days or 30 days, can provide valuable insights into rapidly changing search trends. Google Discover and Google News are two platforms where short-term trends can generate massive traffic.

Google Discover shows websites related to user interests and displays recently published as well as evergreen content. Google News, on the other hand, focuses on current events. If your website targets either of these traffic channels, staying informed about short-term trends can help you capitalize on timely and relevant topics.

Additionally, analyzing short-term trends can reveal specific days of the week when interest in a particular topic spikes. This information can help you plan when to publish content to align with the audience’s search behavior.

5. Categorize Keywords for Enhanced Analysis

Google Trends allows you to narrow down keyword search query inventory by category topics. By selecting the appropriate category, you can refine your keyword research and obtain more accurate information related to the topics you are researching for content within the correct context. For example, if you are researching topics related to automobiles, narrowing the Google Trends data by the “Autos & Vehicles” category can provide more precise insights.

6. Leverage Geographic Insights

Google Trends provides keyword information based on geographic location, which can be valuable for determining target regions for site promotion or tailoring content to specific areas. For example, if certain products are popular in Washington D.C. and Texas, you can focus promotional activities and localized content on those regions.

Localizing content and promotions can make your content more relevant to the interested audience and improve its chances of ranking higher in search results. Incorporating geographic nuance into your content helps Google identify its relevance to specific regions and target audiences.

7. Target Search Intents with Search Types

Google Trends allows you to refine keyword data by segmenting it based on the type of search it originates from. By selecting the appropriate search type, you can remove noise from your keyword research and obtain more accurate and meaningful insights. The available search types in Google Trends are Google Shopping, Image search, News search, Web search, and YouTube search.

For example, YouTube search is particularly useful for identifying search trends related to “how-to” topics, as many users search on YouTube using phrases with the words “how” in them. Although these searches are conducted on YouTube, the trends data can still provide valuable insights into what users are looking for. On the other hand, Google News search reveals different search patterns, with users seeking “what” and “who” information more frequently. Understanding the search type that aligns with your content can help you tailor your strategies accordingly.

Unlock the Full Potential of Google Trends for SEO

Google Trends offers a wealth of insights for SEO and content planning purposes. While there may be a learning curve to using the tool effectively, it’s worth investing the time to become proficient in leveraging its capabilities. By utilizing Google Trends, you can gain a deeper understanding of how audiences search, discover new keyword phrases, identify trending topics, and optimize your content strategy.

Take advantage of Google Trends’ various features, including search operators, time-based trends, related topics and queries, short-term trends, keyword categorization, geographic insights, and search types. By combining these strategies, you can unlock the full potential of Google Trends and drive targeted traffic to your website.

Remember, staying ahead of the competition requires continuous monitoring and adaptation to evolving search trends. Incorporate Google Trends into your SEO and content marketing toolkit and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing digital landscape.