6 Ways to Use Google Trends for Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing.
Google Trends is a surprisingly useful tool for keyword research, especially when using the advanced search options that are virtually hidden in plain sight.
Explore the different Google Trends menus and options and discover the seemingly endless ways to gain more keyword search volume insights.
Learn new ways to unlock the power of one of Google's most important SEO tools.
Google Trends have great value.
While Google Trends is accurate, it does not show traffic volume in actual numbers.
Displays the number of queries performed in relative percentages on a scale from zero to 100.
Unlike Google Trends, paid SEO tools provide traffic volume numbers for keywords.
But these numbers are just estimates extrapolated from a combination of internet traffic data providers, Google Keyword Planner, search bombardment results, and other sources.
Clickstream data usually comes from anonymous traffic data obtained from users of certain pop-up blockers, browser plug-ins, and some free antivirus software.
The SEO tools then apply a calculation that matches their best guess about how this data relates to Google keyword search and traffic volume.
Therefore, although paid SEO tools provide estimates of keyword traffic, the data provided by Google Trends is based on actual search queries and not guesses.
This is not to say that Google Trends is better than paid keyword tools. When used with paid keyword tools, one can get a near-accurate idea of the keyword's true search volume.
There are other functions in Google Trends that can help order granular segmentation of keyword data that helps understand which geographic locations are best for promotional efforts, and discovers new and popular keywords.
How to use Google Trends For SEO.
First, Get more accurate data by comparing keywords.
Google Trends shows a relative perception of traffic on a scale of zero to 100.
You can't tell if the trend is hundreds of keyword searches or thousands because the graph is on a relative scale from zero to one hundred.
However, relative numbers can make more sense when compared to keywords for which there are known traffic levels from another using keyword phrase.
One way to do this is to compare the keyword search volume against a keyword whose exact traffic numbers are already known, for example, from a PPC campaign.
If your keyword volume is particularly large and you don't have a keyword to compare against, there is another way to find a keyword to use in the comparison.
The comparison keywords do not have to be related. It could be in a completely different sector and it could be the name of a famous celebrity.
The important thing is the general keyword volume data.
Google publishes a Google Daily Trends web page that shows popular search queries.
What is useful about this page is that Google provides a large number of keywords, such as more than 100,000 searches per day, and so on.
Second, Discover insights from time-based trends.
There are two general ways of looking at keyword data: spanned over longer periods of time and shorter periods of time.
long term trends You can set Google Trends to show you traffic trends going back to 2004. This is useful for showing audience trends.
Long-term bullish trends: If a trend is constantly going up, that means you need to focus energy on creating content for that trend.
Long-term downward trends: If the trend line is moving steadily downward, it may be a sign that audience content consumption is changing.
Third, Related topics and inquiries.
Google Trends has two great features, one is called Related Topics and the other is Related Queries.
Threads
Topics are search queries that share a concept.
Identifying relevant topics that are trending up is useful for learning how audience or consumer demand is changing.
This information can, in turn, provide ideas for content generation or new product selections.
According to Google:
"Related topics"
Users searching for your term have also searched for these topics.
You can watch at the following scales
Top - the most popular topics. Points are placed on a relative scale where a value of 100 is the most searched topic, a value of 50 is a topic that is half as searched for as the most popular term, and so on.
Rise - Relevant topics that have seen the largest increase in search rate since the last time period.
Results marked “hack” have seen an exponential increase, possibly because these topics are new and have few (if any) previous searches.”
The description of related queries is similar to the description of related topics.
The top queries are usually the most popular searches. Incremental queries are queries that have become popular.
Fourth, Short-term trends can bring in huge traffic.
Viewing keyword trends in a short view, such as a 90-day or even 30-day view, can reveal valuable insights to take advantage of rapidly changing search trends.
There is a lot of traffic in Google Discover as well as in Google News.
Google Discover is linked to popular topics related to your searches.
Google News is the current moment in terms of current events.
Sites targeting any of these traffic channels benefit from knowing the short-term trends.
One of the advantages of showing short-term trends (30-day and 90-day trends) is that certain days of the week highlight when these searches are popular.
Knowing what days of the week interest in a particular topic is high can help plan when to post certain types of topics, so the content is there when the audience is looking for it.
Fifth, Keywords by category.
Google Trends has a function to narrow the stock of keyword search queries according to the topics of the categories.
This provides more accurate keyword data.
The Categories tab is important because it refines your keyword research into the right context.
If your keyword context is [cars], it makes sense to appropriately optimize Google Trends to display data for the automobile context only.
By narrowing down your Google Trends data by category, you will be able to find more accurate information related to the topics you are looking for content within the right context.
Sixth, Define keyword data by geographic region.
Google Trends keyword information by geographic location can be used to determine which regions are best to contact for site promotion or to tailor content to specific regions.
For example, if certain types of products are popular in Washington, D.C. and Texas, it makes sense to direct promotional activity and localized content to those areas.
In fact, it may be worthwhile to focus your link-building promotional activities in those areas first because interest is greatest in those parts of the country.
Keyword popularity information by region is valuable for link building, content creation, content promotion, and pay-per-click.
Translating (and promoting) content can make it more relevant to people who are interested in that content (or product).
Google ranks pages according to who is most relevant, so incorporating geographical nuances into your content can help rank it for the most people.