Google Trends is an incredibly powerful yet often overlooked tool that can provide valuable insights to improve your SEO and grow your business.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover how to leverage Google Trends for:
- Keyword research
- Identifying new content opportunities
- Competitor analysis
- Ads and campaigns optimization
- Finding seasonal trends
- Getting search volume data
- And more…
Contents
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a free tool by Google that allows you to analyze the popularity of search terms and gain insights into what people are searching for online.
It pulls search data from Google and shows you:
- How often a term is searched
- Where it‘s most popular
- Related topics and queries
- Overall search trends
This information can be invaluable for SEO and content marketing to ensure you‘re targeting keywords and topics that people are actively searching for.
Some key things Google Trends can help you with:
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Keyword research – Find new keyword opportunities and analyze search volume patterns. See seasonality and trends over time.
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Content ideation – Discover rising topic ideas and related searches to your content.
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Competitor research – Compare search interest and traffic estimates between domains.
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Campaign planning – Identify when to run ads and align campaigns with trends.
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Product analysis – Assess demand and interest in products over time.
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Market research – Compare search interest across geographical locations.
How to Use Google Trends for Keyword Research
One of the most powerful applications of Google Trends is for discovering new keyword opportunities.
It gives you search volume data and related keywords you may not have considered before.
Here‘s how to leverage Google Trends for keyword research:
1. Find Keyword Search Volume
Start by entering a seed keyword that‘s relevant to your niche or content focus. For example, "content marketing".
Google Trends will show you the relative search volume and how it has changed over time:
This helps you gauge interest and search popularity. You generally want to target keywords with significant volume.
From the graph, you can see when a term may be seasonal. For example, searches for "snow boots" peak in winter.
You can also filter by country and other advanced options to get more specific search volumes.
2. Discover Related Keywords
Scroll down on the Google Trends page to find "Related Queries" and "Topics".
These suggest other relevant keywords and searches related to your initial term:
Review these to find new keyword ideas you can create content around. The data comes directly from Google so it‘s extremely useful.
For example, related topics around "content marketing" include "content strategy", "copywriting", and "blogging".
3. Compare Keyword Searches
Enter up to 5 terms in Google Trends to compare search volumes side-by-side.
For example, you may compare "affiliate marketing" vs "dropshipping".
This gives you an indication of what keyword may be more popular and worth targeting:
In this case, "affiliate marketing" has significantly higher search volume.
You can also see how search interest has changed over time for each keyword.
4. Analyze by Location
Expand a keyword to analyze search volumes by country, state, or city using the location filter.
For example, you may find a term is more popular in a certain region relevant to your business:
This allows you to optimize and tailor content for local SEO as needed.
5. Filter by Category
Filter keyword searches by category for more precise volume data.
For example, look at "yoga" searches only under Health > Fitness.
Or "cameras" in Electronics > Photography.
This eliminates irrelevant results and niche‘s down the keyword.
6. Export Keyword Data
Click "Export" on any Google Trends page to download the data as a CSV file.
You can then load this into other tools like Excel to manipulate the data further.
This allows you to analyze and compare keywords outside Google Trends.
Using these features and filters, Google Trends should give you a wealth of new, relevant keyword ideas with volume data to optimize your content.
It‘s one of the best free keyword research tools available. The data comes directly from Google so it‘s highly accurate.
How to Find Content Ideas with Google Trends
In addition to keywords, Google Trends is great for discovering new content ideas and topics to write about.
Here are some tips for content research:
1. Check Rising Content Topics
Go to the "Trending" section of Google Trends. This shows you topics and searches that are rapidly gaining popularity.
These can become article and content ideas to capitalize on what‘s currently trending.
For example, you may create content around rising topics like "chatgpt" or "avatar 2".
This ensures your content stays relevant.
2. Look at Related Searches
As mentioned above, scroll down on any keyword to find "Related Queries".
These are other popular searches related to that term and can spark content ideas.
For example, for "wordpress":
You could create content around these searches like "wordpress tutorial", "wordpress theme development", etc.
3. Analyze by Location
Think about location trends relevant to your business.
For example, what topics are trending in your city or country that you could create local content around?
Tailoring content to your target geography can help drive more traffic.
4. Consider Seasonal Trends
Look at how keyword searches fluctuate throughout the year.
Some may spike during holidays like Christmas or summer vacation seasons.
You can come up with content timed around these seasonal rises in interest.
For example, create content around "summer activities" to publish in spring and target that surge in searches.
5. Stay On Top of News
Type in recent news events or personalities to see trending searches.
Then create timely content around it to capitalize on the hype and search demand.
For example, searches around “Elon Musk” spiked when he took over Twitter:
Tapping into these news jacks is a great way to attract search traffic. Just make sure your content offers unique value.
How to Research Competitors on Google Trends
Monitoring competitors on Google Trends can provide helpful benchmarking intel to inform your SEO and content strategy.
1. Compare Domain Searches
Enter your website domain and a competitor‘s domain to compare search volumes:
This gives you an estimate of their relative traffic and who may be ranking higher for shared keywords.
You can use this to evaluate SEO performance and set goals for growth.
2. Analyze Competitor Keywords
Type your competitor‘s brand name or URL into Google Trends.
Scroll down to see the top "Related Queries" and "Topics" associated with that domain:
These are the keywords and topics they rank well for.
You can build content around these opportunities to siphon some of their traffic.
3. See Regional Interests
Using the location filter, you can see where different competitors generate more searches and interest.
For example, Brand A may dominate in the US while Brand B leads in Europe.
You can then localize SEO efforts towards areas of weakness to capture more share.
Analyzing competitors gives you valuable intel to inform your strategy. Use Google Trends for ongoing benchmarking.
How to Optimize Campaigns with Google Trends
Google Trends data can help make your campaigns like paid ads, email marketing, and social media more effective.
Here are some optimization tips:
1. Identify Campaign Timing
Look at keyword and product search trends to determine optimal timing for campaigns.
For example, target holiday gift guides for the Christmas shopping surge:
Or plan summer sales around rising search interest for seasonal products.
Timing campaigns for peak demand gives you the best chance of driving traffic.
2. Create Trending Content
Use Google Trends to create content around hot topics that align with your campaigns.
For example, email subscribers about "chatgpt" applications or publish social posts about trending celebrities.
This topical content will help boost engagement and sharing for your campaigns.
3. Analyze Ad Keywords
Plug prospective ad keywords into Google Trends to analyze search volumes.
Prioritize keywords with solid, consistent demand for paid search.
Avoid volatile or sporadic trends unless running limited campaigns.
4. Compare Regions
Use location data to allocate ad budgets more effectively.
Spend more on regions that indicate higher search interest for your products or keywords.
Optimizing for local search demand can improve campaign ROI.
Tying your initiatives to real-time Google Trends data gives you an edge for better performance.
How to Assess Product Demand with Google Trends
For ecommerce businesses, Google Trends is invaluable for researching product demand and opportunities.
You can analyze:
- General interest over time
- Seasonal patterns
- Regional differences
- Related products
And more.
Here are some tips for using Google Trends for product research:
1. Check Product Keyword Volume
Enter your product keywords like "ergonomic office chair" to view search volumes:
This helps gauge broad demand and potential buyers searching for that item.
High, consistent volume is a positive sign of product-market fit.
2. Analyze Related Product Searches
Scroll down to see "Related Queries" for other products people search alongside yours:
These suggest new products or variations to branch into based on buyer interests.
For example, sticky notes for a planner business. Or phone cases for an online phone retailer.
3. Search Google Shopping Insights
Filter any product keyword by "Shopping" to see search volume specifically around buying intent:
This confirms people are actively looking to purchase this product. Great indicator of commercial intent.
4. Compare Product Searches
Put multiple product keywords like "backpack" vs "suitcase" to compare demand:
See which has more volume and commercial interest based on the graphs.
Allows you to evaluate products against each other.
Product research with Google Trends should inform your inventory, manufacturing, and marketing decisions by validating demand.
How to Export Google Trends Data
To further analyze and manipulate Google Trends data, you can download any report as a CSV file.
Simply click the "Export" button:
This gives you the raw data in spreadsheet format.
You can then import this into Excel, Google Sheets, Data Studio, etc for additional analysis.
Some ways to use exported data:
- Compare keyword lists side-by-side
- Combine data from multiple reports
- Make custom visualizations
- Feed into other software platforms
Exporting your findings makes them much more versatile.
Google Trends provides incredibly insightful data into keyword and search trends that can directly inform your SEO and content strategy.
It‘s one of the most powerful free tools available and relatively underutilized by businesses.
However, Google Trends should be just one part of thorough keyword and topic research.
Combine it with surveys, interviews, search analytics, and tracking competitor content to get a complete picture.
But the search volume and interest data from Google Trends cannot be beat in terms of planning content and SEO initiatives.
What unique ways have you used Google Trends for your business? Let me know in the comments!
