If you're looking to increase your visibility online, you need to be aware of and understand the latest search volume trends. But where do you start?
In this google trends guide, we'll cover how to use Google Trends to improve your content strategy, including; what is a Google Trend, how to use Google Trends graphs to track and discover search interest, and how to identify seasonal trends and understand relative search volume.
By the end of this post, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of creating content for rising topics based on trending searches. Plus, how to uncover keyword ideas, tips for finding trending keywords on google search and related searches.
Let's start with "What is Google Trends"?
Google Trends is an incredibly powerful free tool that you can use in your marketing efforts to discover past and current trends in web search results on Google.
The Google Trends search volume data is organized according to geographic location, allowing you to quickly and easily uncover insights into consumer behavior patterns and gain valuable insights into the changing interests of your target markets to help you shape your marketing strategy.
Google Trends measures the popularity of search terms over time. This is different to Keyword Research, which shows how often people are searching for certain words or phrases on Google.
When you use Google Trends, you can learn which topics are popular at a certain time. This is referred to as Search Interest.
Think of it like a popularity contest for search terms.
How To Discover And Track Popular Topics With Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that can help bloggers discover and track popular topics - known as trending topics - to write about on their blogs.
Here's how you can use it:
1. Go to the Google Trends website.
2. Set your location in the top menu bar.
3. Type in a word or phrase that is related to your blog's topic. For example, if your blog is about cooking, you might type in search queries such as "recipes" or "kitchen tips."
4. The Search Volume Index (SVI) is a google trends chart showing the numerical value used to measure the relative search popularity of a given term. It is relative to Google Trends results, which display the percentage of searches for each term in comparison to other terms. The SVI ranges from 0-100, with 100 being the most popular and 0 being the least popular.
5. You can use the drop-down menus to see the data for different regions, time frames, and categories.
6. The default setting for the type of search is web search, but you can select the type of search, such as image search, news search, google shopping search, or YouTube search.
7. You can also use the "related topics" and "related queries" sections to find other related keywords or phrases that are currently popular. These are a gold mine of ideas for your blog posts.
8. Compare search terms to see a comparison graph of the relative popularity of each search term over time.
9. Check the breakdown by subregion to identify variations in local vernacular and highlight regions where your search term has the highest and lowest search volume.
This is vital for local SEO for content strategy. The grey regions in a Google Trends subregion breakdown indicate areas where data is insufficient to provide an accurate analysis. This can occur in regions where either the population size is very small or there is not enough search activity in the given time period. As such, any results should be interpreted with this limitation in mind.
10. You can track it by setting up a search alert that will notify you when the interest changes. This way, you will know when to write a new post about that topic or update your old ones.
By using Google Trends, bloggers can discover popular topics to write about, target specific locations and languages, and track when topics are becoming more popular or losing popularity. This way, they can create content that will be interesting and relevant to their readers and answer rising queries and even combine multiple terms through related phrases.
How Can I Use Google Trends Data To Improve My Blog Content Strategy?
Using Google Trends data can help you come up with ideas for new content for your website, blog or even the social media posts you use to promote your blog post. By researching popular keywords and phrases, you can create content that will be more likely to be found by people searching for information on those topics in the trending searches.
Top 6 Key Ways That Google Trends Can Help With Your Content Strategy:
1 - Discover Trending Topics In The Google Trends Search Results
Using a Google Trends search to research popular topics and figure out what people are interested in reading right now. This can help you plan and write your content more strategically by understanding what people want and how best to cater to their needs around these trending searches.
Discovering trending topics and search volume in the search results can be extremely advantageous.
Understand Your Customer's Interests
By tracking changes in search trends, users can gain valuable insights into their customers' interests and better understand what kinds of content they should provide.
Tap Into Timely Opportunities
With the data provided by Google Trends, you can identify timely opportunities to capitalize on emerging trends before they become mainstream.
Stay Ahead Of The Curve
You can also use Google Trends to stay ahead of the curve and get an early start on new topics or products that are gaining traction in the market.
Analyze Shifts In Interests
With its related searches feature, you can analyze shifts in interests and see which web pages were recently visited by a particular market segment. This allows them to adjust their strategies accordingly.
2 - Sniff Out Seasonal Trends For Your Search Term
Seasonal trends are like a treasure map of search patterns, and Google Trends shows you where to uncover that buried treasure and be ready to post relevant content and capitalize on the increased interest in your topic during those seasonal trends.
But how does seasonal Google Trends research help you plan your content strategy?
Understand Shopping Habits
By tracking search trends over time, users can better understand when people are more likely to buy certain products or services and plan their campaigns accordingly.
Identify Opportunity Windows
Using the data from Google Trends, businesses can identify potential opportunity windows for launching new campaigns and capitalizing on emerging trends before they become mainstream.
Analyze Shifts in Interests
With its related searches feature, users can also analyze shifts in interests and see which web pages were recently visited by a particular market segment.
Discover New Niches
Google Trends helps users discover new niches and areas of interest that they might know nothing about before. This provides valuable insights into how their target market is thinking or behaving.
3 - Advantageous Ad Planning For Google Ads
Leveraging Google Trends to plan Google Shopping Ads can help you increase your ROI and reach your target audience more effectively. By tracking changes in search trends, you can identify their target market's interests and adjust your strategies accordingly. This helps with launching campaigns at the right time and discovering new keywords that could further enhance your campaigns' reach.
Why is using Google Trends to plan Google Shopping Ads beneficial?
Reach Your Target Audience Effectively
By tracking changes in search trends, you can identify your target market's current interests and plan your Google Shopping Ads accordingly.
Identify Seasonal Shifts
Track seasonal shifts with Google Trends to better understand when people are more likely to purchase certain products or services. This helps identify the right time to launch campaigns and capture more sales.
Adjust Your Strategies Accordingly
With data provided by Google Trends, you can adjust your strategies according to the latest search trends and make sure your ads remain relevant throughout different seasons or fashion changes.
Discover New Keywords
The related searches feature of Google Trends provides you with new ideas for keywords that could further enhance your campaigns' reach and performance.
4 - Research Relative Popularity For Search Terms
Google Trends can provide useful insights into the relative popularity of topics over time. It is a great research tool for understanding the relative popularity of subjects in different countries, regions, or cities across the world.
Why should you compare relative popularity?
Tracking Popularity
Google Trends allows users to track changes in popularity over time by visualizing data points on a graph. This gives valuable insights into how certain topics have gained or lost attention throughout history.
Comparing Different Locations
Users can also compare locations and see which ones have higher interest levels for specific terms and topics. This helps businesses determine what types of content will best reach their target audience.
Identifying Trends
By tracking search trends over time, users can identify emerging trends early and capitalize on them before they become mainstream.
Analyzing Related Search Terms
Google Trends provides related searches that help you discover new ideas and get inspired for content creation or marketing campaigns.
5 - Location, Location, Location!
When it comes to exploring keyword popularity by geographical location, Google Trends offers businesses valuable data that can help them refine their marketing strategies. With its related search feature and ability to track search trends over time, users can gain insights into consumer behavior patterns and interests in any specific geographic location.
Using Google Trends to leverage location with data that includes geography and time range can help you stay ahead of local competitors.
Find Target Markets
By exploring search trends relative to a specific location, you can identify target markets that they may have previously overlooked.
Adjust Strategies Accordingly
With the data from Google Trends, you can create more targeted campaigns that appeal to the local market segment and optimize your strategies accordingly.
Understand Consumer Behavior Patterns
Google Trends also provides valuable insights into consumer behavior patterns in the region which helps you understand when people are more likely to buy certain products or services in that area.
Analyze Changing Interests
With its related searches feature, you can analyze shifts in interests and see which web pages were recently visited by a particular market segment over time.
6 - Create Content Clusters
Build topical authority with content clusters based on related queries. Identifying the right keywords to use for your blog post topics means you can create a huge spike in organic traffic by leveraging these search queries.
Identify Topics Of Interest
By exploring related searches, you can quickly identify new topics that are of interest to your customers and create content clusters based on them.
Analyze Keyword Performance
You can also analyze the performance of different keywords over time and adjust your content plans accordingly, accounting for breakout terms.
Create Cohesive Content Strategies
Plan and focus your efforts on topics that are routinely searched for in a certain region or demographic group.
Explore Different Perspectives
Examine how different segments of society have used prior searches on Google and craft creative approaches to engaging them with your content.
In the example below, you can see that "kitchen timer" is a breakout term in the related queries section.
This indicates that people searching for "kitchen tips" are also currently interested in "kitchen timers."
If you have an affiliate blog, this is an ideal opportunity to create a review blog post such as Top 10 Kitchen Timers for 2023 and link to this blog post from your "kitchen tips" post. Grab this free guide to writing review blog posts that convert! 👇🏻
Google Trends FAQ:
Is Google Trends for free?
You can use Google Trends completely free of charge. Simply log in with your Google account.
Is there an RSS feed for Google Trends?
Yes! You can locate the Google Trends RSS feed here
How do I use Google Trends for keywords?
Enter your desired phrase into the search field on the Google Trends homepage and hit 'enter'.
How do I find trending SEO keywords?
Use keyword research tools such as Google Trends, Surfer SEO and SEMRush to get an insight into the popularity of certain search terms over time.
Is there something better than Google Trends?
There are other tools that can be used to identify the most popular trends and keywords.
These include tools such as:
SEMRush - SEMRush is a powerful SEO tool that can help you find trending keywords by analyzing SERP features for different keywords and tracking keyword rankings over time. With this tool, you can get insights into the top-performing keywords so you can create content that is optimized for organic searches. Additionally, it provides an in-depth analysis of competitor websites to help you identify gaps in your own SEO strategy.
Surfer SEO - Surfer SEO is a content optimization tool that helps you find trending keywords to improve your website's ranking on search engines. It provides an analysis of competitor websites so you can identify gaps in your own SEO strategy. Surfer SEO also helps you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and keywords by tracking keyword performance and analyzing the SERPs for the relevant queries. This enables you to create content that is optimized for the current market dynamics. Get started for just $1.
How can I subscribe for updates on my search term?
Go to https://trends.google.com/trends/subscriptions and select your keyword, region and frequency to activate your google trends subscriptions and receive updates for your search term via email.
What is the #1 searched thing on Google?
You can use Google Trends to learn what the most searched thing on Google is today.
Go to Google Trends and select your country of choice to get a localized view and select trending searches from the menu https://trends.google.com/trends/trendingsearches/daily?geo=US
What was the #1 searched thing on Google in 2022?
You can view historic search data, such as the top trending search terms of 2022, here. https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2022/US/
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, leveraging Google Trends can provide valuable insights into consumer behavior patterns and interests. With its related search feature and ability to track search trends over time, you can gain an understanding of the types of content that will best reach their target audience in various geographic locations.
Additionally, identifying emerging trends early on so means you are able to capitalize on them before they become mainstream.
By exploring related searches, you can quickly identify new topics that customers may be interested in and create content clusters based on them for a huge spike in organic traffic.
Ultimately, using Google Trends is essential for any digital marketing strategy if you want to stay ahead of your competition!
