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Written by: Benjamin Paine
Managing Director at Digital Nomads HQ
Why trust Digital Nomads HQ?
Digital Nomads HQ is continually recognised as a leading agency & industry "thought-leader" in the digital marketing segment. Known for our expert insight, industry data, and new innovative finding within the Digital Marketing industry. Our agency is frequently cited as a trusted source of credible marketing information, demonstrating the value and impact of our work in shaping industry standards and practices.
Google Trends: Introduction
Let’s meet Google Trends…
While it sounds like a tool and platform to use for discovering trends and insights into popular search terms and phrases being searched…
It’s also an incredibly practical tool for SEO experts and marketers alike to use on the day to day…
When working through your keyword plan for your content or looking to seek an understanding of search terms surrounding particular services or products, overlooking trending terms can be a mistake.
Whether it allows you to uncover increasing or decreasing search terms, this can have a vital impact on traffic opportunities for your website.
So the question is, how do you discover these keywords, trends and searches that you may be missing out on?
Let’s get into it…
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a free online tool that provides you with popular search terms in Google search.
It provides insight into a specific term or phrase and how frequently it’s searched over time, across different regions, and in various languages.
This data is then displayed in the form of graphs & charts, allowing you to visualise the popularity of different topics and keywords.
Key features and uses of Google Trends:
Keyword research: Identify popular topics and phrases that people are searching for.
Content strategy: This allows you to plan your content around trending topics to attract more audience.
Market analysis: Understand search trends and consumer interest in different products or services.
Seasonal trends: Analyse how search volume changes over time, especially during a period of time such as holidays or specific events.
Competitive analysis: Compare the popularity of your brand or product with competitors.
How is Google Trends data calculated?
How does this work?
Google Trends makes it simple to compare different search terms by normalizing the data. It takes into account the time and location of each query, so every data point is divided by the total number of searches for that area and time frame.
This ensures that we can accurately assess relative popularity, rather than just ranking places by their total search volume.
The final numbers are scaled on a scale from 0 to 100, showing a topic’s share of all searches across the board.
How up-to-date is Google Trends?
How to use Google Trends?
Let’s go through a step by step process on using Google trends for content and marketing;
- Search “Google Trends” into your search bar or alternatively go to this link here – https://trends.google.com/trends/
- You’ll be presented with the explore search bar.
3. From here, search for your keyword or phrase in the search bar and click “explore”.
4. You’ll be presented with your search data & insights – By using the top navigation bar, you can filter by region, timeframe, categories & search type.
5. You’ll also notice the ability to “Compare”; this is great if you are looking to compare the search volumes and interest between to key terms – alternatively, compare your branded search against competitors.
6. Trends will also provide Related Topics & Related Queries, this can be great insight into potentially missed keywords and terms you can include within your blog content or articles.
7. If you filter by region, you’ll be able to get insight into interest by sub-region.
Example: Filtering by Australia will allow you to see interests by state (Queensland, New South Wales, etc.).
Alternatively, if you search Globally, your sub-region will provide you with searches by country.
Using Google Trends for Keyword Research
Keyword research is a cornerstone of effective online marketing, and Google Trends offers valuable insights that can enhance your SEO and content strategy.
By understanding search behaviour, this enables you to tailor your content to meet the needs of your target audience.
Here’s how you can utilise Google Trends specifically for keyword research:
1. Identify Trending Topics
One of the simplest ways to use Google Trends is by exploring the “Trending Searches” section.
This feature showcases real-time data on what users are currently searching for and provides you with keyword ideas & target keywords to focus on.
By analysing these trends, you can identify hot topics in your niche, giving you ideas for blog posts, articles, or social media content that resonates with your current interests.
2. Evaluate Seasonal Trends
Search behaviour often varies depending on the time of year (Christmas, Easter, Summer, Winter, etc.).
With Google Trends, you can visualise how interest in specific keywords changes from season to season or across months or even days.
By better understanding seasonal trends, you can plan your content calendar and marketing campaigns to align with peak interest periods, maximizing engagement and visibility.
3. Compare Keyword Performance
Google Trends allows you to compare the popularity of multiple keywords or phrases side by side. This feature is especially useful when you’re unsure which term to prioritise in your content. By assessing which keywords have greater search potential or are displaying an increase in search interest.
4. Identify evergreen & upcoming trending topics
Use Google Trends for Content Marketing
In addition to identifying evergreen content, Google Trends is a powerful tool for content marketing strategies.
Here’s how you can leverage it to create compelling, relevant content that captures your audience’s attention:
1. Create Timely Content
Being timely can be crucial if you are looking to leverage trending topics. Google Trends allows you to track breaking news, social search interest through SERPs and emerging trends.
By creating content that aligns with these current events or trending topics, you can position your brand as an “up-to-date” or “in the know” business or company.
This not only increases the likelihood of engagement but also enhances sharability across social media platforms.
2. Optimize Existing Content
Once you identify trends or commonly searched keywords, you can go back to your existing content and optimise it with relevant keywords and phrases that are currently gaining traction. This can be a great way to obtain some quick wins within your SEO campaigns and contents performance.
Expert tip: Updating content with “up-to-date” insights, trending keywords and fresh data is something that Google Search loves!
This can significantly improve your content’s performance.
3. Tailor Content for Local Audiences
Google Trends provides insights on search preferences not just globally but also locally.
This gives you the ability to create content that is tailored to specific regions or demographics.
Localised content is great for users and great for search, allowing you to dive into audience segments and develop hyper-targeted content around your target audience and their search terms.
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