Google Trends Search is a fantastic resource for valuable data about trending searches on the web. In case you have been living under a rock and haven’t used it in your SEO strategy yet, you may want to do so.
With Google Trends, it’s possible to add another dimension to your search data, by identifying which searches are more likely to improve or decrease over time.
And, by narrowing your results, you can pinpoint when that’s likely to happen.
Although it’s not a complete problem solver, this can help you immensely when it comes to creating evergreen content for your website.
The Value Of Google Trends
Google Trends is one of the most popular online tools used by marketers today. It allows you to see what people are searching for around the world. You can use it to find out what terms are trending worldwide, and even within specific countries.
But while Google Trends provides accurate information about the popularity of different topics, it does not actually tell you how many searches are being conducted for each term. So, how do we know whether the number of searches is really increasing or decreasing?
We don’t. We just look at trends over time and make educated guesses based on our experience. For example, if we see a sharp increase in the number of searches for a particular topic, we assume that there must be a lot of interest in that topic. On the other hand, if we see a decrease in the number of searches, we assume that the interest in that topic is waning.
Of course, this isn’t always true. Sometimes, the opposite happens—interest in a given topic increases without a corresponding rise in the number of searches. This is why it’s important to keep track of both the number of searches and the percentage change in the number of searches over time.
So, all the search numbers that you see on Google Trends are not the search volume. Instead, it is a scale that measures how interesting a particular topic actually is over time.
How To Use Google Trends For SEO
Google Trends is a great tool for discovering what people are searching for online. But it doesn’t always tell you exactly how many people are looking for something.
For instance, a search for “best pizza delivery near me” might show high volumes of searches for “pizza,” “delivery,” and “near me.” This could mean that lots of people are searching for pizza delivery nearby. Or it could just mean that lots of people use those three words together in every single search.
To find out whether a particular term is actually being searched for frequently, you’ll want to look up that term on Google Trends and see how much search interest there is for it. Then, compare that number against the same word used in a different context. If the latter is showing a lot more search activity, you’re probably dealing with a popular topic.
You can also compare the popularity of a term across multiple countries. For example, if you wanted to know how well a certain term performed in Australia versus the United States, you’d check both countries’ trends for that term.
If you’re interested in seeing how a specific term performs over time, you can set up Google Trends to track a term for a period of time. Simply enter the date range you want to analyze, choose a location, and select the terms you want to monitor.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to view the historical data for each term. From there, you can drill down into the exact dates and times that people searched for the term.
About Google Trends Data and How It Works
Google Trends uses the same algorithm as Google Search, which means that it measures the number of searches performed per month. However, Google Trends doesn’t use the exact same data sources as Google Search does. For example, Google Trends doesn’t include the number of searches performed on mobile devices, while Google Search does.
In addition, Google Trends doesn’t provide absolute numbers of searches, but rather a percentage change compared to previous months. This makes sense because the number of searches performed each day varies greatly depending on factors such as seasonality, holidays, etc.
So, what are we left with? We’re left with a graph showing the relative popularity of a particular term over time.
The reason why Google Trends doesn’t display absolute search volumes is because it wants to avoid giving the impression that certain terms are trending just because they’ve been searched more frequently recently. In fact, Google Trends tries to make sure that the curves aren’t skewed by seasonal fluctuations in search activity.
For example, let’s say that every February, millions of people around the world start searching for “Valentine’s Day flowers.” If Google Trends displays the search volume for this phrase during February, it could give the false impression that Valentine’s Day flowers are a popular topic now. But the real truth is that the spike in interest happened earlier in January, and the search volume dropped off again in February.
To prevent this, Google Trends adjusts the curve based on historical data. So, even though the search volume for the phrase “Valentine’s Flowers” increased dramatically in January, the search volume actually peaked in December.
This is why the search volume for “Valentine’s Flowers” looks different in Google Trends versus Google Search. And this is also why the search volume for the keyword “flowers” in Google Trends looks very similar to the search volume for the same keyword in Google Keyword Planner.
Notice when searching for “Valentine’s Flowers” in Google Trends shows an indicator number, rather than the actual search volume number.
Here is an example of actual search volume numbers for “valentine’s flowers” using Keywords Everywhere:
Search Trends: Identify Seasonal Trends
Seasonal trends affect many businesses. If you sell umbrellas, you know that sales fall during summer because it rains less often. But what about other types of products? How do you identify seasonal trends in your industry?
Google Trends allows you to analyze how often certain terms are searched over time. This tool can help you identify seasonal trends, such as the start of summer or winter holidays, and plan your content accordingly.
For instance, let’s say you sell pumpkins. If you know that sales increase during the Halloween season, you might consider creating a blog post about pumpkin carving safety tips for kids. Or maybe you could write a listicle about the best pumpkin carving templates.
You can use Google Trends to find out what types of searches are trending in different regions around the world. Then, you can use this information to determine when it makes sense to publish content related to those topics.
For example, here is a search being done for “pumpkins.” This particular search peaks in October, because pumpkins are – surprise – likely to peak around this month because of Halloween.
Remember how we mentioned earlier that you cannot really tell search volume from these numbers by default? That’s by design. But, with the Keywords Everywhere extension, it’s possible to combine search volume with your Google Trends research. Check out what’s possible using this combination below:
Avoid Keyword Unicorns
If you’re trying to pinpoint the best keyword to target for your next content piece…don’t just start writing. Instead, check out Google Trends to see what people are searching for in relation to your chosen keyword.
The reason behind this thought process is because you don’t want to rank for topics that are failing in Google Search. But, it’s important to note that seasonal topics and products are not necessarily failing products. Sometimes you have to do research beyond the current year to assess product seasonality.
For example, let’s say you wanted to rank well for “covers for umbrellas.” A quick look at Google Trends reveals that there aren’t many searches being done for “covers for umbrellas” when compared to umbrellas. However, the term “umbrella covers” is seeing a lot of activity. So, you could decide to go ahead and write about that. Or, you could do some research into why people are searching for “umbrella covers” and come up with a compelling article idea based on that information.
If you’re looking for a specific type of product, such as a certain brand name, you might find that the most popular terms associated with that brand are actually quite different from the ones you would use to optimize for generic products.
This is why looking for different types of specific keywords is important. You never know which ones will have the right search volumes you are looking for unless you incorporate this research into your keyword research.
The following shows what happens when you search for the other keyword variations: it doesn’t have nearly enough search volume, so a Keywords Everywhere search volume box does not show up in Google Search. Instead, you get related keyword suggestions that have lower volume searches:
This is where your keyword research using Google Trends can be so powerful. It helps you avoid keyword unicorns that may show something entirely different than the actual searches turn out to be.
Find Relevant Trending Topics
Using Trending Searches, it’s possible to find search queries that have experienced a sudden spike in interest over the past day. This data is compiled based on searches performed on Google Search, YouTube Search, and Instagram Search across different locations.
Trending Searches can help you identify popular topics that are likely to increase in popularity within the next few days. For example, if you notice that people are searching for “Oscars,” you might consider creating a post about the upcoming awards show. If you notice that people are looking for “best picture nominees,” you could write a piece about what movies are expected to make the cut.
But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s how one blogger used Trending Searches to generate traffic for his site:
First, they noticed that people were searching for “Best Picture Nominees.”
Then they wrote a post about the upcoming Oscar nominations.
A week later, they checked Trending Searches again and saw that people had been searching for “Best Picture Winners.”
So they updated their article to include information about the winners.
And guess what happened? Their traffic increased by 600%.
This is where relevant trending topics can be powerful traffic drivers for any blog.
Plan Your Content Calendar
Google Trends data can tell us a lot about what people are searching for online. We can use it to find out when topics spike in popularity. For example, we can use the term “Oscars” to determine when people are most interested in celebrities and awards ceremonies.
We can also use it to understand how popular certain keywords are. Take the word “Oscar” for instance. When did the term start trending? What does the trend look like over the past five years? How do the peaks compare to previous years? These questions can help inform our content calendars.
So how do you use Google Trends data to help you plan your content calendar? Here are 4 tips to keep in mind.
1. Don’t Rely Solely on Google Trends Data
If you’re planning to write about Oscar winners, you might want to start thinking about making some predictions now. But don’t stop there. There are plenty of other topics that could benefit from a little research into what people are searching for. For example, if you sell shoes, you might consider writing about shoe trends. Or maybe you’d like to focus on the latest fashion trends. By researching different keywords related to your industry, you’ll find many ideas for articles that you can publish throughout the year.
2. Look Beyond the Big Events
There are lots of things happening during the year, including holidays, sporting events, political elections, etc. These events tend to dominate the news cycle, but they aren’t the only stories worth covering. Take a look at the trending terms for the month of January, for instance. What did people search for in January? Did they search for “New Year’s resolutions”? Or “Happy New Year!”? Maybe they searched for “best places to eat in London.” Whatever the case, there are tons of interesting topics to cover outside of major events.
3. Make Sure You Know What People are Searching For
It’s important to remember that Google Trends isn’t an exact science. It doesn’t always provide accurate results. Sometimes, the same topic will appear multiple times in the list. This means that you need to check each result carefully before deciding whether or not to create a new post.
For example, let’s say you’re planning to write a post about the best places to visit in Paris. You see that the top three searches are all related to travel. However, one of those posts is actually about the best places to stay in Paris. That’s because the same topic appears twice in the list. If you were to add this second post to your content calendar, you would end up with two posts about the same thing.
4. Use the Right Tools
You can use Google Trends data to get a better idea of what people are searching for, but you still have to be careful about interpreting the information. For example, you should never assume that every time someone searches for a particular keyword, they’re looking for something specific. In fact, it’s quite possible that they just typed the phrase randomly. So make sure you take the time to read through the entire list before drawing any conclusions.
Google Keyword Trends: Use Related Queries for New Keyword Ideas
Google Trends allows you to see what people are searching for around the world. You can use this tool to uncover some interesting trends about how people search for your product/service.
For example, let’s say you sell sneakers. Using Google Trends, you can see that people are searching for terms like “best sneaker brands,” “cheap shoes,” and “where to buy cheap shoes.” These are all good keywords to include in your content marketing strategy.
But you can do much more than just identify popular keywords. In fact, Google Trends can help you discover related searches that people make when they search for your products/services.
Let’s take another example. Let’s say you want to start selling socks online. You know that people often search for “how to choose socks,” “what socks should I wear,” and “where to buy socks?”
Using Google Trends, you can learn that people also search for “buy socks online” and “online sock store.” This gives you several additional keywords to consider including in your content marketing strategy.
In addition to helping you find new keywords, Google Trends can also give you insight into how people search for your products/ services.
You can use this information to better understand your customers’ “search journeys.” A search journey is the path that someone takes when looking for something online.
The below shows related keywords. But, it’s not foolproof. There are a few keywords that are “unrelated” if you take a look at the screenshot below.
But, it is quite useful for identifying keywords that you might want to use in addition to the “standard” keywords being shown by Google Trends.
Identify Opportunities in Other Locations
Google Trends allows us to see exactly where people are searching for certain keywords. In fact, it even tells us how many searches there are per region. So we can use this information to pinpoint our target audience. For example, let’s say you’re selling outdoor heaters. You want to know which regions are hot spots for buying one.
So what do you do? Well, you could just look up every state and see where the highest number of people searched for “outdoor heater.” But that doesn’t tell you much. What if you wanted to find out where people specifically searched for “outdoor heaters,” rather than just “heaters”? Or maybe you’d like to know where people are looking for “outdoor heat” vs. “indoor heating?”
With Google Trends, you can easily compare different queries to see which ones are most popular. And you can even drill down into specific locations.
For instance, here’s a map showing the popularity of “outdoor heater” in the United States. As you can see, the Northeast is clearly the hottest spot for purchasing one.
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the individual states. Here’s a map comparing the popularity of “outdoor heater” in each state.
As you can see, Oregon is the clear winner. But why? Is it because it’s cold there? Maybe. But it might also be because there are fewer people living there. Or perhaps it’s because Oregonians care quite a bit about heating their homes.
But let’s zoom in on the entire state. Now we can actually see the differences between different parts of that state by comparing different metros within the state:
Refine Your Video SEO Strategy Using YouTube Searches
Google owns YouTube, but that does not mean the popularity of a specific search query is equal across the two search engines. In fact, it isn’t. Here’s the Google Trends web search data for “computers,” since 2008. You can see quite clearly how the popularity of this term peaked in 2015, but has fallen consistently since. Here’s the trend graph for YouTube.
(Yes, Google Trends lets us filter for YouTube trends—hit “YouTube Search” on the drop down menu.)
You can see that, while the popularity of computers has fallen steadily over the years, the popularity of videos related to computers has risen dramatically. This is because YouTube is a destination where people go to learn about things like computers.
Here is an example of a graph that shows the keyword search interest for “Gaming computer”:
So, what do we learn from this? Well, there are some obvious takeaways. For example, you don’t want your video to be too long. These factors affect whether someone watches your video or not. Statistics show that people are gravitating more towards shorter videos, such as those that are shown in YouTube Shorts. In fact, according to Hubspot, 36 percent of marketers say that the optimal length of a video is around one to three minutes.
But there are other less obvious lessons to be learned. For instance, you might think that the most important thing to know about “Gaming computers” is that they’re popular. But actually, the most important thing to understand is why they’re popular—and that’s because people are looking for them. Finding out the “why” is the second part of finding out the “what”.
So, what else can we learn from this? Let’s start with the idea that you shouldn’t just focus on one channel. If you’re trying to rank well for a certain keyword phrase, you should look at multiple channels. Why? Because each channel tends to specialize in different types of topics. So, if you’re trying to rank for “Gaming computer,” you’ll probably find that the best place to start is with a channel that specializes in those kinds of videos.
Next, keep in mind that the popularity of a topic is often driven by the number of videos being uploaded to YouTube every day. So, if you notice that a lot of videos are getting uploaded about a certain topic, chances are that topic is becoming increasingly popular.
Finally, remember that even though the popularity of a topic might seem stable, it could still be growing or shrinking. So, if you see that the popularity of a certain topic seems to be rising, you should ask yourself whether it’s really increasing or decreasing after you review that particular Google Trends data.
Example Of How To Pinpoint Search Volume
Google Trending Searches is a great tool to find out what people are searching for around the world. You can even adjust the date range to see trends over longer periods of time.
Step 1: Find Search Trends For Target Keywords
Here is a simple process for finding specific trends for your targeted keyword phrases:
- Go to google.com/trends
- Enter a keyword phrase into the search box
- Click “Trends”
- Select the date range you want to view
The way we do it is to find out what people are searching for. If you’re looking for information about Arnold Schwarzenegger, you might want to know his stats, his career highlights, or even just some news about him. You could go directly to google.com/trends, type “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” and see what pops up. But there’s another way to look into trends.
Step 2: Find Known Search Volumes
You can find out what people are actually searching for by typing in a keyword phrase and seeing how many times it appears on Google’s trending page. This metric is called search volume.
For instance, let’s say we wanted to learn more about a certain actor or actress. We’d type their name into Google Trends, and it’ll show us how often the person has been searched over the past few months. But, as we mentioned before, this is just a scale, not an exact search volume.
We can also compare the interest of a specific term to a broader trend. Let’s take a look at the search volume of the word “anime.” We can see that anime has been searched for more frequently than most other terms.
This is because anime is one of the most popular topics among Japanese speakers. So it makes sense that searches for anime would rise and fall together with the popularity of Japan.
Step 3: Compare Searches With Actual Results
On Google Trends, you’ll notice that there are two sets of numbers. One set represents the number of searches for the target keyword phrase, while the second set represents the total number of searches for the entire world.
If you enter a keyword phrase, you’ll only see the first set of numbers. However, if you enter the same keyword phrase but change the location from the United States to China, you’ll see the second set of numbers.
These numbers represent the actual results for each country. So when you see that the U.S. search volume for a particular keyword phrase is higher than the global search volume, this means that Americans are searching for that keyword phrase more than anyone else.
In contrast, if the U.S. volume is lower than the global volume, then Americans might not be as interested in that keyword phrase as others might be.
Step 4: Find Out Which Countries are Interested in a Specific Topic
When you click on the country dropdown menu, you’ll see all the countries where the search volume for a certain topic is high enough to make it appear on the list.
In the example below, you can see that the U.K. is searching for “how to draw anime characters” more than any other country.
So if you’re trying to promote your website to British audiences, you might want to focus on creating content related to anime.
The U.S., meanwhile, isn’t very interested in anime. So if you’re targeting American audiences, you might want to create content that appeals to them.
Discover Insights From Time-based Trends
Google Trends allows you to see how many people searched for something over a specific period of time. For example, you could check out what people were searching for around the release date of Star Wars Episode VII. Or, you could compare searches during different times of day. If you notice that there is a spike in searches for something around 4 p.m., you might want to consider posting a blog post about the topic.
Longer term trends help you understand where audiences are coming from. Are they coming from mobile devices? What countries are driving the most interest? How do audiences change throughout the week? These insights can help inform future decisions about content creation.
Short Term Trends: You can use short-term trends to determine whether a particular topic is trending now. For example, if you notice that searches for “Star Wars” spiked on April 5th, you know that fans are excited about the upcoming movie.
Upward Short-Term Trends: These trends indicate that the audience is growing. If you notice that searches for a certain topic are increasing, you know that the topic is becoming more popular.
Downward Short-Term Trends: “This downward trend indicates that the audience is losing interest.”
If you notice that searches for something have decreased, you know that the audience has lost interest.
Once you’ve identified which countries are interested in a given topic, you can drill down into the data and find out exactly who these audiences are.
Related Topics And Queries
Google Trends provides you with a list of keywords that share a common theme. These keywords are identified based on the number of searches performed over the last 90 days. You can see what people are searching for in terms of trends, seasonal patterns, and popular themes.
You can use the Related Topics feature to identify topics that are gaining popularity, such as “how to make money online,” “best ways to save money,” or “how to find cheap flights.” You can also use it to identify topics that are declining in popularity, such as “what is a good diet?” or “computers.”
- Related Topics are searches that share a common topic.
- For example, you might see that someone searched for “organic food.” If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a market for such products, now you know it exists.
- You can use Related Topics to learn about what people are searching for in relation to your brand.
- You can also use Related Topics to figure out closely related topics that show up.
Related Queries
The Related Queries feature allows you to explore similar topics. For example, if you’re looking for a topic about “how to make money,” you might want to check out the Related Queries section to learn more about “making money online” and “how to earn money.”
- Related Queries are searches that share a similar meaning.
- These types of queries give insight into the way consumers think about your brand.
- They can help you understand how people are thinking about your brand and what they’re looking for.
The following includes an example of related topics and related queries:
Short-Term Trends Can Bring Massive Traffic
Viewing keyword trends in the shorter views can help you capitalize on rapidly changing search trends, especially when it comes to targeting specific days of the week. For example, if you notice that there is a lot of traffic coming from searches for “pizza delivery,” you might want to consider creating a landing page for that topic. If it looks like there is a spike in interest during the weekend, you know that you should start thinking about creating a landing page for pizza delivery on Saturdays and Sundays.
The same goes for news stories. If you notice that there is lots of traffic coming from searches related to the latest breaking news story, you should think about creating a landing page around that topic. Using Google Trends, you could also use it to see if there has been a recent spike in searches for a certain term. If there is, you know that you need to make sure that your site is ready to handle the influx of visitors.
Using Google Trends Can Provide So Much Insight for Keyword Research Purposes
Although Google search provides significant insight into what searches are performing right now, using Google Trends can help you add another dimension to your search research.
This other dimension is time. By identifying which searches are likely to not be continuous revenue generators, it’s possible to tweak your overall ongoing search strategy to assess the searches that are likely to decline in the future, vs. searches that are likely to improve.
Even though no method is 100 percent perfect, this one can help mitigate risk and improve results in the longer term.
When do you plan on integrating Google Trends Search into your overall SEO strategy?
