12 Tips to Use Google Trends for SEO

1. Keyword Research

By entering a specific term you can conduct free keyword research on Google Trends.

You can do this by entering the keyword in the search box on the home page.

This runs a search on Google’s most popular keywords by default, however, you can change it to scour YouTube Search data instead.

After a few moments, you will see it returning with graphs of the search term’s popularity over the past year.

Moreover, you can increase the time frame by expanding the date range.
This helps to distinguish between the recent year’s data and the past year’s data.

Thus helping you to differentiate between fads and true trends.

The keyword research feature helps to identify keywords that are growing in popularity and to avoid keywords that are becoming less popular over time.

Learn more about Keyword Research using SEMRush.

2. Finding Related Keywords

What unique about Google Trends is that it has the ability to recommend related keywords that are growing in popularity currently.

This is a powerful feature in the sense that it allows you to identify between and more relevant keywords on your core search term.

When you enter a term into the homepage, the site returns a list of keywords it considers to be closely related to your search.

Moreover, Google Trends shows you these keywords in order of popularity and will even provide the exact % of search volume increase for each one.

In some cases, it can replace % with the word ‘breakout‘.
Thus, these words have the potential of becoming popular and competitive.

However, the only downside to build your strategy around such words is that it also has a chance of turning into fads then trends.

Thus, they can go stale if you build your content around ‘breakout’ words or searches.

3. Discovering Related Topics

You can use Google Trends to discover related search terms to uncover related topics for future content.

In the table that is left of “Related Queries”, there is another table “Related Topics”.

This table shows the broader topics that people are searching for. However, you will still have to stick to the specific term.

These recommendations can help you find new and ideas to write on in the future, so write them down.

There are a lot of ways you can use Google Trends to your advantage, however, as a content marketer, you should be aware, as these are the most important ones as well.

Learn more about the Best SEO tools here.

Now, let’s learn some specific tips for using Google trends in order to improve your SEO strategy.

4. Narrow Down your Long-Tail Keyword

This tip involves narrowing down your long-tail keyword to find the specific keyword.

You can enter a long-tail keyword and press enter.
Moving forward, Google Trend invites you to drill in the following:
Worldwide Using this, helps you to target a specific geographic market.

For instance, you will see the word ‘umbrella’ peak at different times across the 4 hemispheres.

Time Selection This range is from the 2004 – present date to the last 4 hours of today.

Moreover, you can use different time selections to get an idea of long-term vs. short-term trends.

Filtering by Category This is an essential feature if you are running a search on ‘Celtic Thunder’ and do want to search for Irish weather patterns.

Web Search Type This lets you search for the web, images, news, Google Shopping, and YouTube.

According to an estimate, there are 6.3 billion searches a day and approx, 2.3 trillion global research per year, the key takeaway is to start with the long-tail search and then filter to get the most relevant information.

5. Context of Research

Google trend works in a very realistic fashion.

It compares the results to the overall popularity of trends, rather than the previous highlights of the keywords you used.

Consider the phrase “Weedings” before the COVID-19 pandemic.

You will notice the from last 5 years –  today following trends:

And the trends of the last day:

You can notice how the popularity of weddings has gone down, however, when you change the date to the last 5 years, you will notice a heartbeat-like pattern.

Conclusion: Never ignore the context.

It is important to get rid of your own blind spots before discovering insight no one else has.

Other ways you can add context are:

• Using +compare tool
• Use filter by country or category
• Web searches

6. Specific Search Options

Using options like “related queries” and other specific search options, you can find new keyword ideas and even steal business from your competitors.

You will notice the five options that are web search, image search, news search, Google Shopping, and YouTube search and users often do not use them.

Each click on the different ones shows results on different segments of your potential market.

Moreover, you can notice more options for sorting popular topics and queries.

By clicking on “rising” you will have the option to view the top overall keywords.

Thus, these options are of great use for SEO as they can help to inspire new content that embraces new trends.

However, do not be afraid to go further into the queries as there is a good chance you can find a new trend before it becomes a ‘breakout’.

Learn more about How to Find Topics with SEO Potential

7. Target the Keyword by Location

The most ideal use of Google trends is to focus exclusively on keywords.

For the best results, incorporate the location into the mix while you are searching.

With this filter, you can see which regions and sub-regions need your products or services, thus allowing you to get more targeted with SEO strategy.

For instance, when you search for ‘Umbrella’ and using the filter for the country, you will notice that the people of Florida are more interested in it.

By taking another step in the filter options, you can narrow down your search to more specific areas and regions to target your product or service.

Learn more about local SEO here.

8. Prediction of Trends

By logging on to Google Trends you can easily identify trends that already leave a trail behind.

However, the pitfall is that every marketer is using the same data.
To use the latest trends no one else is using, you need to keep a finger on the pulse of seasonal and local trends at all times.

With the help of Google Trends, you can thus find relevant topics that are trending “at the moment” and create content about them.

Moreover, it can show you which news trends are the hottest topics today. There are a few ways to do it:

• Identify trends with filtering by specific country or categories
• By comparing 2 different key phrases in a single trend

9. Using Long-Tail Key Phrases

Ranking on the top of SERPs is quite an undertaking, however, there is no reason you cannot top the Google search results for long-term variations.

For instance, if you’re writing a music blog and you want to write on an upcoming topic, like The Grammy Awards, you can click on the trends.

This will find your top questions, find new artists, and even questions on how is hosting the Grammy’s this year.

However, if you want to dig deeper, then using tip 3. can help you find associated queries.

10. Using Data for Video Optimization

By viewing both related topics and related queries you can better optimize your video content.

Let us sat you posted a video, then use Google Trends as

• Enter in your search term
• Switch from web search to YouTube search
• Check different related queries and related topics
• Sort by top or raising if you prefer

From here you can find what you are searching for and therefore, you are in a better position to write relevant titles and descriptions for your videos.

This, thereby, improves your opportunity to have better YouTube traffic.

11. Using Cyclical Trends

Let’s consider the word ‘wedding trends’

You want to know how COVID-19 affected the wedding trends in your region.

Thus, a simple search on the term ‘wedding’ can show that interest in weddings has come down in mid-2020 however, it is not trending and moving up the graph.

For this, you can observe, that the wedding trends are again moving up the graph however, to move more further, you will need extra research.

12. Identifying Blind Spots

You can always use advanced Google Trends if you think you’re current insight is to see whether you have a blind spot or not.

As you get more aware of your blind spots, you can dig deeper into the search results which helps you to find more sophisticated data to inform your SEO strategy.

Conclusion

Google trends are more valuable and crucial than ever in this ever-changing digital world and show trend searches. There are different and unique insights for those who are willing to go beyond a basic search.

Google Trends data shows search queries, search interest, spikes in search, news lab, real-time-search, and interest over time.

The key point is to stick with the queries until you find the insights, even if they are not always obvious.