Google Trends & SEO
Google Trends is one of the best free SEO tools. It provides data and graphs that show the relative popularity of search terms on Google and YouTube at a specific time and place. You can easily see whether a trend is rising or falling. This tool provides many useful insights that you can use to create a successful SEO strategy. Let’s check out different ways you can use Google Trends for SEO.
14 Powerful Ways to Use Google Trends for SEO
1. Find Trending Keywords
Google Trends helps you find trending and popular keywords. You can use those keywords in your content that are growing in popularity. It also helps you avoid those keywords that are fading or losing interest.
Google Trends shows the search term’s popularity over the past year. It’s advisable to see the trends for 2-3 years to avoid seasonal keywords. When you look at 12 months of data, seasonal keywords can be trending. However, when looking at 2-3 years’ data, you can find keywords with yearly seasonal spikes.
2. Get Keywords By Geography
Google Trends gives you keyword information by location. This data can be used to find out areas you can target. You can customize the content according to specific regions. This information is useful for link building, pay-per-click, and content promotion.
If a keyword is popular in a specific region, you can do content promotion in that area. You can identify regional groups, local sites, and magazines related to your niche.
Geography data can improve your content and make it more relevant to most people. This may enhance ranking as Google ranks those pages relevant to the people.
3. Find New Keyword Ideas
You can check “Trending Searches” without searching for a specific term. It shows real-time data of searches that have been trending over the last 24 hours. However, most of these trending keywords are short-term fads. It’s not recommended to create content around them.
You can sometimes come across a topic or keyword that is not just a 24-hour spike. These types of keywords will be new. You will not find these terms in traditional keyword tools.
Select the “category” drop-down menu and choose your specific industry. This will help you filter trending searches for your industry.
4. Get Related Keywords
Another interesting feature of Google Trends is that it shows related trending keywords. It allows you to find better and more relevant keywords based on your search term. When you type a keyword in Google Trends search, you get the “Related Queries” table. This table shows the list of trending keywords related to the search term you type in. It also shows the search volume increase percentage for these related keywords.
It’s recommended to start with a big-time keyword for the topic. Then drill down and filter to get the relevant information for your topic.
5. Find Related Topics
You can use Google Trends for getting related topics. Next to the “Related queries” table, you will get the “Related Topics” table. This shows broad topics related to the search term you type in. This feature helps you find new and trending topics or ideas that are difficult to get.
Drill down on these broad topics to get specific keywords. You can also toggle from “Rising” to “Top .”It will give you topics that are not rising or growing in popularity but getting more monthly searches. You can create blog posts, social media posts, and videos on related topics.
Related: How to Monetize Your Blog
6. Discover Breakout Keywords
You will sometimes see “breakout” instead of percentage growth of the search term. In this case, Google does not have sufficient data to show the percentage. If a search term grows by more than 5000%, Google shows it as a breakout.
Breakout keywords do not have much competition. So, you can use these keywords in your content to rank higher on Google. And by the time these keywords become competitive, you will start appearing in the search results.
However, some of these keywords fade out after some time. You can create 1-2 pieces of content around the breakout keyword to get traffic until it fades out. And, if that keyword continues to grow, you will continue to get traffic.
7. Check Rising Queries
A useful feature of Google Trends is giving you insights into the rising keyword phrases. You type in a keyword phrase, giving you trending search queries related to the phrase. This helps you see how the consumers’ behavior changes and react to new opportunities.
“Covering these trending queries will keep your target audience informed. They will start relying on you for current stories and events”, says Mark from Red Houston SEO.
Remember not to cover the same angle as others are taking. This will not help you stand out from your competitors. Something unique and refreshing will help you get more attention and clicks.
8. Perform Keyword Research For YouTube
You can use Google Trends to do keyword research for YouTube. Type in the search term you want to create your video for. Click on the dropdown menu and select “YouTube Search” instead of “Web Search .”You can now check whether that search term is popular on YouTube or not.
Check the “Related Topics” and “Related queries” sections to optimize your video content. This will help in getting more YouTube traffic. You can even create a series of videos based on the related sections.
Compare the search term under the web search tab and YouTube tab. If the term is popular in both web search and on YouTube, create a blog and a video for that term.
9. Analyze Various Keywords Simultaneously
Another feature of Google Trends is that it allows you to analyze various keywords simultaneously. If you have several keywords and can’t decide which one to use, you can compare them simultaneously. Choose the one that shows a positive trend and has more potential.
This feature also helps you see the traffic volume you can get from a new search query or keyword. Compare it with the keyword from which you are already getting the traffic. This will help you filter out keywords that do not have the potential to bring more website traffic.
10. Find Out Local Search Trends
If you have a business that provides services in a specific area, check “Interest by subregion .”This shows the trend and interest of the search term in different areas, subregions, and cities.
This feature will give you keywords that you can use for local SEO. You can see which regions and cities need your product or service. This will help you create a targeted local SEO strategy.
If you are want to optimize your site for any particular term, find the search interest of that term in your city. If people are searching for that term in your city, you can use that keyword to optimize your website and GMB profile.
11. Check Patterns In Interest Over Time
Many people notice the spikes in popularity and start optimizing for that keyword. However, it’s best to check consistent interest instead of intense surges over time.
You can use this tool to hone in on the cause for abrupt changes in your site traffic. If you notice a decline of interest for your keywords, check industry trends to find the root cause.
You can use inconsistent spikes in interest to gain visibility. Create the content on the trending topic to address current problems. This will help you become a reliable source for current and relevant information.
12. Learn About LSI And Long-Tail Keywords
Google Trends also shows LSI keywords that help in on-page SEO. LSI keywords help Google deeply understand the topic/content on a webpage. You can add the terms to your content in the “Related queries” and “Related Topics” sections.
Google Trends shows the top 20 trendings and 25 most popular related search queries. You can then feed this data into SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Get the search volume keyword difficulty, and find more related long-tail keywords. This will help you cover topics and keywords that will bring more organic traffic.
13. Check Competitors’ Performance
With Google Trends, you can monitor the performance of your competitors. See how they are performing against your business.
Enter your business name in Google Trends and then check the “Related queries” section. It will show the competitors that your potential customers might be searching for. You can compare up to five competitors and check their performance over the years.
This data will help you stay ahead of your competitors. If certain competitors perform better than your brand, analyze their marketing strategy. Try to understand what you can do to improve your strategy. Create posts that compare your brand to the competitors.
14. Find Out The Root Cause For The Drop-In Organic Traffic
If the organic traffic of your content drops, it’s not always because of the content quality. The keyword it might be ranking for could have become less popular among your audience. Google Trends will help you find out the root cause, because of which organic traffic has dropped.
With Google Trends, check the popularity of the post’s top keywords over time. See whether your post needs to be updated. Check whether your target audience lost interest in those keywords.
If the keywords’ popularity increases, update content with fresh and comprehensive information. If it decreases, there’s nothing you can do to improve organic traffic.
How to Use Google Trends to Create SEO-Friendly Content
Google Trends is a powerful tool that you can use to increase your content SEO performance. It will help you create content that will rank high on search engines. Let’s see how you can use Google Trends to create SEO-friendly content.
1. Brainstorm Ideas And Create Content Around Trending Topics
Google Trends will help you discover new content ideas that you can use in your upcoming posts. You just have to enter the search terms, and the tool will show the trends related to the terms.
Google Trends helps you check what people in your niche industry are searching for. What they are concerned about and what their interests are. You can use these search terms and create content around trending searches. Check the Trending Searches tab for additional content ideas.
Check the “Realtime search trends” section to see what people are searching for at the moment and over the past 24 hours. These features will help you get blog ideas that you didn’t even know about.
2. Identify Seasonal Trends And Create Content At The Right Time
Some keywords show annual or seasonal peaks. Forecasting seasonal trends will help you create timely content before the trend ends. If your business is affected by seasonality, you can determine its peaks and bottoms. Just look at the search terms in Google Trends.
With Google Trends, you can see when a search term’s popularity grows. You can create new content before the seasonal peak starts growing. You can even optimize the existing content before the seasonal peak occurs. Optimizing content when it is more likely to be effective will give it a chance to perform at its best.
Related: The Long Game: How SEO and Content Marketing Build Lasting Success
3. Find Your Niche Topics By Region And Optimize Content For Local Search
When advertising, we often target people based on the country. However, it’s best to check the interest by region. Google Trends will help you check interest and find topics by region. You can cross-check several states to determine which states are showing rising trends. This will help increase traffic by targeting those places where interest is on the rise.
Google Trends helps you optimize content based on the local search term’s popularity. It gives you insights for developing content according to the sub region search terms. This will help you
rank higher on Google in local searches.
4. Plan Content Calendar
Creating a content calendar is essential to get the maximum benefits. You need to publish the right content at the right time to get the most out of your content creation efforts.
Google Trends will help you find out when it’s best to post a particular piece of content. Just put the keywords in Google Trends and create your content calendar. You invest a lot of time and effort in creating content. Don’t waste the hard work and effort by posting it when no one is around to read it.
5. Update And Optimize Your Content
It might not be possible to publish new posts every time for several reasons. In that case, you can update your posts with fresh content to drive traffic to your site. Edit the old posts. Remove outdated information that is no longer needed. Include keywords according to the new strategy.
Google Trends will help you find new search terms. You can use them to create a new content strategy for optimizing your old post. You can use long-tail keywords to update your existing content. All these will help boost rankings and traffic for your old content.
Google Trends & SEO FAQs
1. What Is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a powerful tool for SEO and content research. It shows the popularity of search terms in Google. This free tool helps you see how certain terms or keywords tend over a given time frame. With Google Trends, you can:
- See what’s trending.
- Find out trending topics or ideas within your industry or niche.
- Check search trends local to your geographic area.
2. How Does Google Trends Work?
You can visit the tool to see what currently trending searches and click on a topic to get more information. You can enter your search term in the search box. Now check how search volume for that term varies over time and location.
Change the category, time frame, location, and search type (web, YouTube, shopping, news). This will provide more detailed information.
3. How Can You Read Google Trends?
When looking at search interest for a topic over time, you see that interest as a proportion of all Google searches on all topics at that time and location.
When looking at regional search interest, you see the search interest in a given region as a proportion of all Google searches on all topics in that same place and time.
From keywords to creating a content strategy, Google Trends provides valuable insights. Utilizing these insights will help your business grow.
Are you looking for SEO experts to help your business rank higher and drive more traffic? Contact us now.
