Google Trends is a surprisingly useful keyword research tool, especially when you use advanced search options that are virtually hidden in plain sight.
Explore the various menus and options of Google Trends and discover seemingly endless ways to better understand keyword search volume.
Discover new ways to harness the power of one of Google’s premier SEO tools.
The Value Of Google Trends
While Google Trends is accurate, it doesn’t show the amount of traffic in actual numbers.
It shows the number of searches made in relative percentages on a scale from zero to 100.
Unlike Google Trends, paid SEO tools provide traffic volume figures for keywords.
But those numbers are just estimates extrapolated from a mix of Internet traffic data providers, Google Keyword Planner, scraped search results, and other sources.
The clickstream data usually comes from anonymized 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 of how that data correlates to Google keywords and traffic volume.
So while paid SEO tools provide keyword traffic estimates, the data presented by Google Trends is based on actual searches, not guesses.
That’s not to say that Google Trends is better than paid keyword tools. When used in conjunction with paid keyword tools, one can get an almost accurate picture of the actual search volume on keywords.
There are other features in Google Trends that can help with accurate segmentation of the keyword data that helps to understand which geographic locations are best for promotional efforts and also discover new and trending keywords.
How To Use Google Trends For SEO
1. Get More Accurate Data By Comparing Keywords
Google Trends shows a relative visualization of traffic on a scale of zero to 100.
You can’t really tell if the trend is reporting hundreds or thousands of keyword searches because the chart is on a relative scale of zero to one hundred.
However, the relative numbers may be more meaningful when compared to keywords that have known traffic levels from another keyword phrase.
One way to do this is to compare the search volume of a keyword with a keyword for which the correct traffic figures are already known, for example from a PPC campaign.
If the keyword volume is particularly high that you don’t have a keyword to compare to, there is another way to find a keyword to compare.
A comparison keyword doesn’t have to be related. It could be in an entirely different industry and could even be the name of a trending celebrity.
Most important is the overall keyword volume data.
Google publishes a Google Trends Daily Trends webpage with trending search queries.
What’s helpful about this page is that Google lists keyword volumes in numbers, such as over 100,000 searches per day, etc.
Example Of How To Pinpoint Search Volume
I’m going to use the search term [how to lose weight] as an example of how Google Trends can be used to get a good idea of the actual search volume.
The way I do it is by using known search volumes and comparing them to the target keyword phrase.
Google provides search volumes on the trending search page, which can be adjusted according to what’s trending in each country.
On this particular day (September 22, 2022), the actress Ana De Armas was trending with over 50,000 searches, and the American ex-football player (keyword phrase [Bret Favre News]) was trending with over 20,000 searches.
Step 1. Find keyword phrase search trends
The target keyword phrase we are researching is [how to lose weight].
Below is a screenshot of the one-year trend for the target keyword phrase:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
As you can see, it is a fairly stable trendline from September 2021 to September 2022.
I then added the two keyword phrases for which we have narrow search volume to compare all three, but for a 24-hour period.
I’m using a 24-hour window because the search volume for our comparison keywords is trending for this one day.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
Our target keyword phrase, with a red trendline, is right in the middle, between the keyword phrases [Ana De Armas] (blue) and [Bret Favre News] (yellow).
What the above comparison tells us is that the phrase [how to lose weight] has a keyword volume of more than 20,000+ searches but less than 50,000+ searches.
The relative search volume of [how to lose weight] is 50% of the keyword [Ana De Armas].
Since we know that [Ana De Armas] has a search volume of more than 50,000 searches on this particular day, and [Bret Favre News] has a search volume of more than 20,000 searches on the same day, we can say with reasonable accuracy that the keyword phrase, [how to lose weight] has about a daily search volume of about 30,000 on an average day, give or take a few thousand.
The actual numbers may be higher because Google Trends shows the highs and lows at certain times of the day. The total for the day is very likely higher.
The above hack is not 100% accurate. But it’s enough to give a strong idea and can be used to compare against and validate extrapolated data from a paid keyword research tool.
Related: How To Do Keyword Research For SEO
2. Discover Insights From Time-based Trends
There are two general ways to look at keyword data: stretched over longer time periods and shorter time periods.
You can set up Google Trends to show you the traffic trends going back to 2004. This is valuable for showing you the audience trends.
For example, check out this five-year trend for [WordPress] the search term, WordPress the software, and WordPress the website:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
There is a clear downward trend for WordPress in all three variations.
The downward trend extends to related phrases such as:
There are many reasons why search trends are declining. It could be that people have lost interest, that interest has gone elsewhere, or that the trend is outdated.
The digital camera product category is a good example of a downward spiral caused by one product being replaced by something else.
Knowing which way the wind is blowing can help a content marketer or publisher understand when it’s time to dig into a topic or product category and turn around for upward trends.
Related: Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
3. Related Topics And Queries
Google Trends has two great features, one is called Related Topics and the other is Related Queries.
Topics are queries that share a concept.
Identifying related topics that show an upward trend is useful for learning how an audience or consumer’s demand is shifting.
This information, in turn, can provide ideas for content generation or new product selections.
Users who searched for your term also searched for these topics.
You can view based on the following statistics
Top – The most popular topics. Scoring is done on a relative scale where a value of 100 is the most searched topic and a value of 50 is a topic searched half as often as the most popular term, and so on.
Rising – Related topics with the largest increase in search frequency since the last period.
Results marked “Breakout” had a huge increase, probably because these topics are new and there were few (if any) previous searches.”
The description of Related Searches is similar to that of Related Topics.
Top searches are generally the most popular searches. Rising searches are searches that are becoming popular.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
Rising Queries data is great for staying ahead of the competition.
4. Short-Term Trends Can Bring Massive Traffic
Viewing keyword trends in the short view, such as the 90-day or even 30-day view, can provide valuable insights to respond to rapidly changing search trends.
There is a lot of traffic in Google Discover and in Google News.
Google Discover is linked to popular topics related to searches.
Google News is up-to-date when it comes to current affairs.
Sites targeting one of these traffic channels will benefit from knowing the short-term trends.
One benefit of looking at short-term trends (30 days and 90 trends) is that certain days of the week stand out when those searches are popular.
Knowing which days of the week interest in a particular topic is highest can help plan when to publish certain types of topics so that the content is right there when the audience is looking for it.
5. Keywords By Category
Google Trends has the functionality for narrowing the inventory of keyword searches based on category topics.
This provides more accurate keyword data.
The Categories tab is important because it narrows your keyword research down to the right context.
If your keyword context is [cars], it makes sense to properly refine Google Trends to show only the data for the context of cars.
By refining the Google Trends data by category, you can find more accurate information related to the topics you’re researching for content in context.
6. Identify Keyword Data By Geography
Google Trends keyword information by geography can be used to determine which areas are best to reach for site promotion or tailor content to specific regions.
For example, if certain types of products are popular in Washington D.C. and Texas, it makes sense to target promotional activities and localized content to those areas.
It may even be helpful to focus link building promotional activities on those areas first, as interest is greater in those parts of the country.
Information about keyword popularity by region is valuable for link building, content creation, content promotion, and pay-per-click.
Localizing content (and promoting that content) can make it more relevant to the people interested in that content (or product).
Google ranks pages based on who is most relevant, so incorporating geographic nuance into your content helps it rank for the most people.
7. Target Search Intents With Search Types
Google Trends gives you the ability to further refine the keyword data by segmenting it based on the type of query the data comes from, the match type.
Refining your Google Trends research based on search query type can remove the “noise” that makes your keyword research blurry and help make it more accurate and meaningful.
Google Trends data can be refined by:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
Searching YouTube is a great way to identify search trends for content with the word “how” because many people search YouTube using phrases with the words “how” in them.
While these are YouTube searches, the trend data is useful because it shows what users are looking for.
A Google Trends search for how, what, where, when, why and who shows that searches that start with the word “how” are by far the most popular on YouTube.
Google Trends limits comparisons to five keywords, so the following screenshot omits that word.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
If your keyword phrases contain instructional content that uses words like “how,” refining your research with the YouTube match type can provide useful insights.
For example, I found that YouTube Search shows more relevant “related topics” and “related searches” data than research with “web search” selected.
Here’s another example of how using different types of match types helps refine Google Trends data.
I did the same how, what, where, when, why and who searches, but this time using the News Search refinement.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
Google News search trends are remarkably different from YouTube search patterns. That’s because people want to know the “what” and “how” types of information in Google News.
When creating content related to news, it is important to determine the right angle to report a news item.
Knowing that the words “what” or “who” are most relevant to a topic can be helpful in making the title what readers are most interested in.
The above is the display of searches for the last 90 days.
When the same keywords are searched using the 5-year perspective, it becomes clear that the “who” type keywords tend to increase according to current events.
As an example of how current events influence trends, the biggest spike in searches using the word “who” occurred in the days following the 2020 presidential election.
Each match type search refinement shows a different help to refine the results so that they show more accurate information.
So, give the search type selections a try, as the information provided may be more accurate and useful than the more generic and potentially noisy “web search” version.
Unlock The Hidden Power Of Google Trends
Free tools are generally considered less useful than paid tools. That’s not necessarily the case with Google Trends.
This article lists seven ways to discover useful search related trends and patterns that are absolutely accurate more than some search related data from paid tools.
What is especially noteworthy is that this article only starts with the surface of all available information.
Check out Google Trends and learn more ways to combine different search patterns to get even more actionable information.
Featured image: Studio Romantic/Shutterstock
Why is Google Trends a valuable resource for doing market research?
Google Trends helps to get an idea about the question or popularity of a keyword/trend. By choosing popular keywords and using them in their articles, content creators can increase traffic and gain popularity. Entrepreneurs and business people also use Google Trends for market research.
How do I use Google Trends for digital marketing? How to Use Google Trends for Digital Marketing?
- Identify the trending keywords – crucial for your SEO. …
- Identify the trending topics for your Content Marketing Strategy. …
- Schedule your content run/calendar. …
- Identify your brand’s search share. …
- Identify seasonal patterns in searches from year to year.
Do hashtags work on YouTube?
You can add hashtags to a video’s title and description when you upload a video or record a Short on YouTube. Add a hashtag to your video: Enter a # symbol in the title or description. start by entering the topic or keyword you want to associate with your video.
Do hashtags really help on YouTube? Use hashtags on YouTube as they improve searchability. Optimized hashtags give you more social media visibility for all your related video posts. Using a hashtag groups keywords and related topics together, making them easier for a viewer to find.
Do YouTube hashtags get views?
That said, hashtags won’t magically result in more views. YouTube has even warned that hashtags are no guarantee of success. In other words, hashtags have the potential to help you get more views. But they won’t overcome other key factors in the YouTube algorithm (such as viewer loyalty).
Do hashtags still work on YouTube?
Your hashtags will still appear in the video description and your videos may still appear in search results. Hashtags in the title and description link to a results page with other videos sharing the hashtag.
Is it worth putting hashtags on YouTube?
Hashtags allow creators to easily link their content to other videos that share the same hashtag on YouTube. They also allow viewers to find similar content sharing hashtags.
How do hashtags get more views on YouTube?
Can you grow on YouTube using hashtags?
While using hashtags is most commonly associated with Twitter and Instagram, those aren’t the only platforms you can use them on. Using hashtags on YouTube can even be your ticket to more viewers and more subscribers.
Do tags matter on YouTube 2022?
YouTube tags are especially important in cases where your target keyword is frequently misspelled, as you can tag the misspellings without including them in your title and description.
What Google Trends can tell us about stock picking?
Google Trends allows analysts to see how often certain terms are searched for. By analyzing the search volume of bullish and bearish terms, we can build an investor sentiment index. These "Google Trends" the investor sentiment index seems to predict consumer sector outperformance.
What does Google Trends show? Google Trends data reflects searches that people make on Google every day, but it can also reflect irregular search activity, such as automated searches or searches that may be related to attempts to spam our search results.
How do you evaluate and pick stocks?
The price/earnings (P/E) ratio is a general tool used to determine whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued. It is calculated by dividing the current share price by the company’s earnings per share. The higher the P/E ratio, the more willing some investors are to pay for that income.
What is the best way to evaluate a stock?
The most common way to value a stock is to calculate the company’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. The P/E ratio is equal to the company’s share price divided by the most recently reported earnings per share (EPS). A low P/E ratio means that an investor who buys the stock will receive an attractive amount of value.
What data does trend forecasting use?
Trend forecasting is quantitative, meaning it uses specific numbers from the past. It uses time series data, that is, data that can be plotted over a period of time, usually as a graph.
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